DENTIST MAY BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF PARAGUAY

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 April 1949, Page 2

DENTIST MAY BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF PARAGUAY

(By Jose Arrieta, a Reuter Corres. pondent in Buenos Aires)

A balding, middie-aged dentist may become the next -constitutional Presient- of Paraguay—if he can hold out until the general elections take place on April 17. He is Dr. Felipe Molas Lopez, who boldly seized the Presidency from under the generals' noses at the end of February. It is said in Paraguay, where foreign wars and domestic strife have reduced the male population to one in eight, that if you have the cavalry at Campo Grande (15 miles from Asuncion) and the artillery al Paraguari (a further 35 miles from the capital) you have the whole country. Dr. Molas Lopez, however, made his sudden and successful bid for power while the generals were banquelling at Paraguari. He gave Paraguay its first all-civilian Government for as far back as the people can remember. He did not even pick his Minister of Defence from the armed

Dr.' Molas Lopez had always mixed politics with dentistry. For years he had watched one army officer after another march across the stage. In 1940 General Higinio Morinigo took over. Dr. Molas Lopez was forced to flee during the Morinigo regime. He kept body and soul together in Buenos Aires, practising at the Institute of Plastic Surgery. The civil war of 1547 gave him his opportunity. Morinigo crushed the rebels only after five months of bitter fighting, after which he granted a partial amnesty. Dr. Molas Lopez returned to his dental surgery in Asuncion.

Morinigo called elections for February, IS4B, ai.d put torward his police chief, Natalicio Gonzalez, as sole candidate. In June. 1945, Morinigo was overthrown by Gonzalez. In October Gonzalez tasted some of his own medicine. He managed to suppress an attempt to overthrow him. In January of this year a second attempt againsts Gonzalez was successful. He joined Morinigo in exile in Buenos Aires, while General Raimundo Rolon stepped up from the Defence Ministry to the Presidency. With general elections fixed for April 17. Dr. Molas Lopez believed that his hour had struck. He announced that he would stand as a candidate for the Presidency in April. Tlie army countered with a manifesto proclaiming its support for General Rolon. The dentist decided to pull th'e army’s teeth without delay. On the night of February 20 General Rolon and a number of high officers were dining in the artillery barracks ai Paraguari. There they were caught with their holsters buckled. By the time they had recovered from their surprise Dr. Molas Lopez had pulled his chair up to the Presidential desk in Asuncion and appointed his civilian Cabinet. He immediately began preparations to have himself elected in April to a constitutional five-year term.