Long live Spartans! Wishing to build and direct your own empire! 3 million vs 50 million people?
The country lost two-thirds of its population and much of its territory 150 years ago in the War of the Triple Alliance
Paraguay still haunted by cataclysmic war that nearly wiped it off the map
William Costa in Asunción
Thu 27 Feb 2020 04.00 EST
Latin America’s bloodiest war ended with a single gunshot fired on the lonely banks of the Aquidabán Niguí – a stream flowing through dense subtropical forest in what is now the Cerro Corá national park in north-eastern Paraguay.
After a cross-country chase lasting months, Brazilian troops had finally caught up with Paraguay’s president and military commander, Marshal Francisco Solano López, and shot him dead on 1 March 1870.
He final words were supposedly: “I die with my homeland!” – and it was no exaggeration.
The six-year War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), in which Paraguay confronted the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, had inflicted apocalyptic damage on the landlocked nation.
Roughly two-thirds of Paraguay’s population perished during the conflict, including around 90% of its men. Brazil and Argentina would go on to annex enormous swaths of Paraguayan territory.
As Paraguay prepares to mark the 150th anniversary of the conflict with book launches, conferences and concerts – and official commemoration ceremonies on Sunday in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, and at the Cerro Corá national park – the impact of the war is still strongly felt.......