Coup in Paraguay

Both armored gunboats of the Paraguayan Fleet last week trained their guns on Asuncion, the capital. Police surrounded important Government buildings and communication centers. Whistles and sirens screamed. Army reinforcements arrived, mumbling about a threatened coup d'etat, and arrested leaders of the strongly pro-U.S. National Republican Party, including some Army officers. A few labor leaders and Communists were packed off to jail for good measure.

A coup there had been, but it was not the coup that was publicized. The anti-U.S. military clique had seized power in the country, using the nonexistent coup as an excuse to lock up pro-Allied leaders.

President Higinio Morinigo, brought over by promises to keep him in office after the expiration of his legal term, aided the military clique in its plan to dismiss pro-Allied Foreign Minister Luis Argana and reorient Paraguayan policy toward neutral Buenos Aires rather than toward belligerent Rio. The Morinigo Government stopped work on the new $1,000,000 airport under construction near Asuncion. The protests of bearded U.S. Ambassador Wesly Frost produced no results and U.S. airport engineers packed to go home.

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