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Spotlight on Paraguay
JOHN GREEN relishes the rediscovery of a Spanish anarchist and radical, and the light he throws on the little-known story of Paraguay
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Paraguayan Sorrow: Writings of Rafael Barrett, A Radical Voice in a Dispossessed Land
Edited and translated by William Costa, Monthly Review Press, £21.99
PARAGUAY, probably the least-known of South America’s republics, is a landlocked country squeezed between its two powerful neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. It has a population of around 6.1 million, nearly 2.3 million of whom live in the capital and largest city of Asuncion, and its surrounding metro area.
Paraguay threw off the yoke of Spanish colonial rule in 1811 and Jose Rodriguez de Francia was installed as the first Paraguayan-born leader. He ruled until his death in 1840 as an authoritarian but visionary leader. He reduced the power of the Catholic church and attempted to create a utopian society based on Rousseau’s ideas.
Only two decades after his death, the so-called war of the triple alliance (1864-70) broke out between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In the preceding years, Paraguay had been involved in boundary and tariff disputes with its more powerful neighbours.
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