Editing History of Paraguay (section)

====El Supremo Dictador====
Francia detested the political culture of the old regime and considered himself a revolutionary. He admired and emulated the most radical elements of the [[French Revolution]]. Although some commentators have compared him to the [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]] [[Maximilien de Robespierre]] (1758–1794),<ref>
{{cite journal
| title                 = Letters on Paraguay
| url                   = https://books.google.com/books?id=nP9SAAAAcAAJ
| journal               = The British and Foreign Review or European Quarterly Journal
| location              = London
| publisher             = Ridgway
| date      = July–October 1838
| volume                = 7
| page                  = 602
| access-date           = 2016-02-23
| quote                 = Among the most remarkable of these few, if not the most remarkable, was the Dictator Francia, whom we might without any great violation of historical propriety call the Robespierre of Paraguay.
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
| last1                 = Crespo
| first1                = Maria Victoria
| chapter               = The Concept and Politics of Tyranny and Dictatorship in the Spanish American Revolutions of 1810
| editor1-last          = Palonen
| editor1-first         = Kari
| title                 = Redescriptions: Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History
| url                   = https://books.google.com/books?id=oYmAOITEnZ4C
| volume                = 10
| location              = Berlin/Münster
| publisher             = LIT Verlag
| date      = 2007
| page                  = 100
| isbn                  = 9783825899264
| access-date            = 2016-02-23
| quote                 = Interpreted along the lines of an extreme Jacobinism, rather than as a tyrant, Francia emerges as a successful, tropical Robespierre.
}}
</ref> Francia's policies and ideas perhaps were closest to those of [[François-Noël Babeuf]], the French [[utopian]] who wanted to abolish private property and to communalize land as a prelude to founding a "republic of equals". The government of ''Caraí Guazú'' ("Great Señor", as the poor Guaranís called Francia) was a dictatorship that destroyed the power of the colonial élite and advanced the interests of common Paraguayans. In contrast to other states in the region, Paraguay was efficiently and honestly administered, stable, and secure (by 1827 army grew to 5000 men with 20 000 in reserve). The justice system treated criminals leniently. Murderers, for example, were put to work on public projects. Asylum to [[political refugees]] from other countries was granted, as in the notable case of Uruguayan patriot [[José Gervasio Artigas]].

At the same time, a system of internal espionage destroyed [[free speech]]. People were arrested without charge and disappeared without trial. Torture in the so-called "Chamber of Truth" was applied to those suspected of plotting to overthrow Francia. He sent [[political prisoner]]s, numbering approximately 400 in any given year, to a [[detention camp]] where they were shackled in [[dungeon]]s and denied medical care and even the use of [[sanitary facilities]].

In 1820, four years after the Congress had named Francia dictator for life with the title ''Supremo Dictator Perpetuo de la Republica del Paraguay'' (Supreme Dictator in Perpetuity), Francia's security system uncovered and quickly crushed a plot by the élite to assassinate El Supremo. Francia arrested almost 200 prominent Paraguayans among whom were all the leading figures of the 1811 independence movement, and executed most of them. In 1821 Francia struck against the Spanish-born elite, summoning all of Paraguay's 300 or so ''peninsulares'' to Asunción's main square, where he accused them of treason, had them arrested, and held them in jail for 18 months. They were released only after agreeing to pay an enormous collective indemnity of 150,000 pesos (about 75 percent of the annual state [[Government budget|budget]]), an amount so large that it broke their predominance in the Paraguayan economy.<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Reign of Doctor Joseph Gaspard Roderick de Francia in Paraguay: Being an Account of Six Years' Residence in that Republic, from July, 1819--to May, 1825|last=Rengger|first=Johann Rudolph|author-link=Johann Rudolph Rengger|date=1827|publisher=T. Hurst, E. Chance|url=https://archive.org/details/reigndoctorjose00longgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/reigndoctorjose00longgoog/page/n67 45]|access-date=2017-01-07}}</ref>

In order to destroy the colonial racial hierarchy which had discriminated against him because of his mixed blood, Francia forbade Europeans from marrying other Europeans, thus forcing the élite to choose spouses from the local population. He sealed Paraguay's borders to the outside world and executed anyone who attempted to leave. Foreigners who managed to enter Paraguay had to remain there in virtual arrest for years. Both of these decisions actually helped to solidify the Paraguayan identity. There no longer were separate racial identities; all inhabitants had to live within the borders of Paraguay and build a new society which has created the modern Paraguayan society in which Hispanic and Guaraní roots were equally strong.<ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power|last=Schweller |first= R.L.|date=2006|publisher=Princeton University|isbn=9780691124254|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-XVB9RJiYhAC&pg=PA94|page=94|access-date=2017-01-07}}</ref>

Paraguayan international trade stopped almost completely. The decline ruined exporters of [[yerba maté]] and tobacco. These measures fell most harshly on the members of the former ruling class of Spanish or Spanish-descended church officials, military officers, merchants, and ''[[hacendado]]s'' (large landowners). The state soon developed native industries in [[shipbuilding]] and textiles, a centrally planned and administered agricultural sector, which was more diversified and productive than the prior export [[monoculture]], and other manufacturing capabilities. These developments supported Francia's policy of economic self-sufficiency.