A History of Paraguay
By Baruja, Paiva & Pinto
Chapter 17

In august 1993 Wasmosy was elected President. After that Paraguay began going downhill. It didn’t take long until time proved his intentions. It was clear that he wanted to give privilege to his commercial interest rather than administrating the country. Together Wasmosy and the vice-president Seifart endangered the whole country politically, institutionally and economically.

Argaña was the true winner of the Colorado candidate, but Wasmosy together with the Colorado party manage to put Wasmosy in power. Wasmosy with only 40 percent of the votes became in minority in the Colorado Party. The Colorado party became a totalitarian party where the leader did everything without the consent of others. The Colorado party became a party that lacked unity.

The administration of wasmosy was centralized exclusively in financing his personal interest. These interests were mainly projects in other countries. That way he was given power to manage the project. Wasmosy[s governing period became the fire of history that brought the finantial system of Paraguay down. Due to his corruption several private bank went bankrupt. The national bank had several important issues that were affected by him. The IPS was a health institution that was also affected by his corruption. He messed up the whole Paraguayan community by somehow affecting with his financial corruption.

Wasmosy had several previous issue with the military general Lino Oviedo who was his mentor. Wasmosy’s presidential occupation was mainly by the aid of Lino Oviedo. Wasmosy did not repay him but instead went against him. Using his presidential power Wasmosy got rid of the military officials that did not support him one by one until he eventually got to Oviedo.

In april 1996 oviedo organize a rebellion against Wasmosy. He threaten Wasmosy and Seifart to resign the presidency. The real conflict behind all this was the clash of their commercial interest between Wasmosy and Oviedo. During the rebellion a group of people came out to the streets defending democracy but did very little effect to catch the attention of the president. The wrath of the rebellion was only felt in the capital, the rest of the country was peaceful.

Oviedo’s rebellion was a failure, but he achieved to become popular. He began to get involved more into politics and gain more fame. He related with the people by being culturally more similar in the way they thought and lived. He supported Strossner a dictator which a large population also did. Oviedo also got involved in many public works which made people see him as a good leader. The only failure he had was to shelter his military members. He used his power and helped the military officials gain profit illegally which ruined his reputation.

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