New Paraguay Leaders Pledge Early Open Vote

A day after Gen. Alfredo Stroessner’s fall in a violent coup, Paraguay’s new leaders agreed Saturday to hold elections within 90 days open to all parties--including those that were banned during Stroessner’s reign, the president of the ruling party said.

Juan Ramon Chaves, named leader of the Colorado Party on Friday, told The Times that the new Cabinet and the party leadership both had approved the plan to hold quick elections after the coup. He said that the decision would be announced formally on Monday or Tuesday.

A foreign diplomat said that an estimated 300 soldiers and police were killed in the coup led by Gen. Andres Rodriguez, Stroessner’s second in command. Rodriguez, 64, was sworn in as president hours later and promised to make democracy and human rights a reality.

Capital Calm

The capital, Asuncion, was strikingly normal a day after the coup. There were neither police nor soldiers in the streets, and people shopped and strolled casually around the city, sometimes pausing to inspect the bullet holes in the walls of buildings in areas where the fighting raged from late Thursday night until nearly dawn Friday.

While most people appeared to welcome Stroessner’s downfall after 34 1/2 years in power, there were no public demonstrations over the demise of the world’s second-longest-serving ruler, after North Korea’s Kim Il Sung. The lack of euphoria appeared to reflect not only lack of practice--any unauthorized rally was quickly quashed by Stroessner’s police--but also feelings of doubt that Rodriguez would prove different from his predecessors.

Since its independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay has never known effective democracy. Dictators and autocrats have succeeded one another with the might of the armed forces.

Yet Chaves, who was named a minister without portfolio in the Rodriguez Cabinet, said in an interview that the changes would be profound and that all parties would be permitted to organize and take part in the elections.

“For this goal we carried out this coup, to democratize this country and not have to depend on the will of our president,” he said.

Speculation on Vote

There had been much speculation about whether Rodriguez would choose speedy elections or perhaps wait for up to a year--or even serve out all of Stroessner’s eighth five-year term following his customary reelection last February in balloting widely dismissed as fraudulent.

An election in 90 days would leave the main opposition party, the long-banned Authentic Liberal Radical Party, hard pressed to build a national organization. In such circumstances, the Colorado Party would have a good chance of winning an open, clean vote, according to Paraguayan analysts.

Domingo Laino, probably Stroessner’s most ardent and visible foe as president of the Authentic Liberal Radicals, said he saw several signs that the new government is genuinely committed to moving toward democracy.

Laino, detained more than 100 times since 1956 and often beaten up in the process, was carried to the podium Friday evening during a meeting at the Colorado Party headquarters and delivered an impromptu address to a cheering crowd. Nearly overcome by emotion, he noted that such an address by an opposition leader to the Colorado Party would have been unthinkable in the past.

In an interview Saturday, Laino said that a period of five to 12 months would be preferable before elections are held, to allow his party, as well as three other banned opposition parties, time to organize.

Wants Conditions Met

He said that the government would need to ensure equal media time, permit public gatherings and guarantee other rights for the vote to be free and fair. If those conditions are met, he said, “we would accept the electoral challenge even if it is within three months.”

Humberto Rubin, who was busy preparing the reopening of his all-news station, Radio Nanduti, which Stroessner had forced to close, said that Paraguayans must be aware that they will have to work ceaselessly to force the new government to live up to its promise of restoring civil rights.

“Nobody gives anything for free, not bread nor democracy,” he said. “We are still going to have to win our freedom.”

Chaves, who was deposed as Colorado Party president by Stroessner supporters in August, 1987, said that the new government will not demand that public servants and soldiers be members of the party, as in the past. Such requirements have given the Colorados enormous control over Paraguayan society for decades.

“Any person who is capable is entitled to seek whatever work he wants,” said Chaves, an 87-year-old lawyer.

Chaves was among the leaders of the Traditionalists in the Colorado Party who had opposed attempts by Stroessner’s Militants to make the organization into a personal power machine for the 76-year-old general, who took power in a 1954 coup. The Militants won control of the party in August, 1987, and recently appeared to have begun maneuvering to prepare the way for Stroessner’s son, Gustavo, an air force officer, to succeed him.

Rodriguez apparently believed himself to be under threat as Stroessner promoted officers and sent others into retirement to strengthen his son’s position. The day before the coup, Rodriguez was informed that he would be promoted to a ceremonial post and would no longer command the 1st Army Corps, the stronghold from which he led the uprising.

Rodriguez also owns cattle ranches, currency exchange houses--recently closed by Stroessner--and an import business, which have made him a multimillionaire. Pro-Stroessner officers traditionally run profitable businesses. Stroessner determined who was given such privileges, allowing him to exert control over his officers.

The import business probably gave Rodriguez a healthy piece of Paraguay’s vast contraband trade, primarily goods imported legally into Paraguay and then smuggled to neighboring Argentina and Brazil, one foreign diplomat said.

Another diplomat, asked about news reports that Rodriguez had been involved in drug shipments through Paraguay, said, “We do not know if Gen. Rodriguez is a drug trafficker.” He noted that Rodriguez adamantly denies any such involvement and that he points to a photograph of his three children and many grandchildren on his desk and says he would never become involved in anything that could hurt them.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said reports are common here that Rodriguez allows cocaine traffickers to use an airstrip he owns in deserted Chaco province along the border with Bolivia. However, he added that the reports are unproven.

Drug Links Reported

The Cox newspaper group, citing a classified U.S. State Department report, said Friday that Rodriguez is considered by law enforcement authorities in Paraguay to be the country’s No. 1 drug trafficker, according to the Associated Press.

And in Indiana, John Hoyt Williams, a professor of Latin American history at Indiana State University, said that drug smuggling allegations against Rodriguez were common knowledge, the Associated Press said.

“It’s appeared in print in a number of places. There’s never been an official indictment of him however,” Williams was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

In Washington, State Department officials said Saturday they were aware of charges that Rodriguez has personally protected drug traffickers but said they had no specific information that would confirm those allegations.

“I have seen nothing to indicate that,” one official said.

He noted, however, that Rodriguez was second-in-command of the armed forces in Stroessner’s regime, during a period when drug trafficking through Paraguay increased markedly.

“Look, he’s (Rodriguez) a Paraguayan,” the official said. “He’s been a major power for two decades.”

‘Toward a Better Future’

“But for us, the goal is to allow the country to avoid wallowing in the past and to move toward a better future,” he added.

During the past four years, the United States has complained both publicly and privately about increasing narcotics smuggling through Paraguay. The State Department has been reluctant to say so publicly, but officials believe the Stroessner regime was deeply involved in the drug trade.

“Nothing happened in that country that Stroessner didn’t want to happen,” one official said.

More recently, Paraguay has become a somewhat unlikely haven for narcotics traffickers to launder and invest their profits, a role also played by Panama.

Last year’s State Department annual report on the narcotics trade noted: “Paraguay appears to have become a significant money-laundering location for narcotics traffickers due to lax government controls. Foreign narcotics money reportedly is being used to purchase land and property in Paraguay.”

Stroessner underwent prostate surgery last August, and since then his health declined markedly. He made few public appearences and his style of personal control over all decisions meant that the government machinery slowed nearly to a halt.

Stroessner remained in detention at the 1st Army Corps garrison near the Asuncion airport while rumors circulated on whether, when and where he would go into exile. After a day of reports that he was about to leave for Chile, other rumors surfaced that he would soon leave with his family for Miami but that his health had worsened, delaying his departure.

Times staff writer Doyle McManus, in Washington, contributed to this story.