++MUTE++ Exact locations unknown, 1950-1960 1. Various of Paraguay President Alfredo Stroessner Tokyo, 1972 2. Stroessner meeting Japanese emperor Hirohito ++COMMENTARY++ Asuncion 1984 3. Stroessner in army parade in 1984 ++MUTE++ 4. Stroessner walking with military and political supporters in 1984 5. Various of riots in Assuncion against Stroessner in 1984 ++COMMENTARY++ Asuncion 1988 6. Stroessner voting in election on February 1988 Exact location unknown, 23 May 1988 7. Stroessner meeting Pope John Paul II ++NATURAL SOUND++ Asuncion, 3 February 1989 8. Various of damaged buildings from fighting between army and presidential guard 9. General Andres Rodriguez addressing assembly following coup against Stroessner 10. Crowd outside Presidential Palace. 11. General Andres Rodriguez waving from balcony Asuncion, 5 February 1989 12. Plane carrying Stroessner and 20 family members and aides leaves airport in Assuncion for Brazil STORYLINE: Alfredo Stroessner, the fierce anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay for 35 years before his ouster in 1989, died in exile on Wednesday, aged 93. Stroessner came down with pneumonia after a hernia operation in Brazil's capital, where he had lived in near total isolation during the 17 years since he was forced from power. He died of a stroke at 11 a.m. (15.00 GMT) as his family gathered around him in the Hospital Santa Luzia, said Alfredo Dominguez Stroessner, a grandson of the former dictator, in a radio interview. He said his grandfather left no instructions on his funeral but that the family was considering a burial in Encarnacion, the Paraguayan city where Stroessner was born on November 3, 1912. Stroessner seized power in a 1954 coup and governed Paraguay through fraud and repression until February 3, 1989. Stroessner arranged to be elected every five years after he seized power, but public dissatisfaction with his regime became increasingly evident in the mid-1980s. Protesters and police sometimes fought in the streets of Asuncion, which would have been inconceivable a few years earlier. He was finally driven from power by his own generals. In Paraguay today, many consider him a hated figure, and President Nicanor Duarte told reporters on Tuesday that there were no plans to honour the former leader after his death. Paraguay had for years sought to question Stroessner about "disappearances" during his rule. Human rights activists say Stroessner's government was a key part of "Operation Condor," a network of right-wing military governments, secretly supported by US intelligence agencies, that repressed leftist dissidents across South America in the 1970s and early 1980s. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/17d0e5c642db294b501c47d3e49eb8d2 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 23 Jul 2015
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