Editing History of Paraguay (section)

===Provisional government, 1869–70===
[[File:Cirilo Antonio Rivarola.jpg|thumbnail|left|Cirilo Antonio Rivarola]]
With Solano López on the run, the country lacked a government. Pedro II sent his foreign minister [[José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco|José Paranhos]] to Asunción where he arrived on 20 February 1869, and began consultations with the local politicians. On 31 March a petition was signed by 335 leading citizens asking the Allies for a provisional government. This was followed by negotiations between the Allied countries who put aside some of more controversial points of the [[Treaty of the Triple Alliance]] and on 11 June an agreement was reached with Paraguayan opposition figures that a three-man provisional government would be established. On 22 July a National Assembly met in the National Theatre and elected a ''Junta Nacional'' of 21 men, which then selected a five-man committee to select three men for the provisional government. They selected [[Carlos Loizaga]], [[Juan Francisco Decoud]], and [[José Díaz de Bedoya]]. Decoud was unacceptable to Paranhos, who had him replaced with [[Cirilo Antonio Rivarola]]. The government was finally installed on 15 August, but was just a front for the continued Allied occupation.<ref name="books.google.lv"/>

The provisional government consisted of:
*President of the Council, Colonel [[Carlos Loizaga]].
*Secretary of the Interior, [[Cirilo Antonio Rivarola]].
*Secretary of the Treasury, [[José Díaz de Bedoya]].<ref name="google5">{{cite book|title=The Statesman's Year Book|last=matin |first= frederick|date=1870|url=https://archive.org/details/staesmansyearbo00matigoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/staesmansyearbo00matigoog/page/n580 546]|access-date=2017-01-07}}</ref>

After the death of López, the provisional government issued a proclamation on 6 March 1870, in which it promised to support political liberties, to protect commerce and to promote immigration, but the Provisional government did not last. In May 1870 José Díaz de Bedoya resigned and on 31 August 1870, Carlos Loizaga also resigned. The remaining member Antonio Rivarola was then relieved of his duties by the National Assembly which established a provisional Presidency to which [[Facundo Machaín]] was elected. He assumed the post on 31 August 1870, but was overthrown the next day in a coup which restored Rivarola to power.