Higinio Moríñigo

Who was Higinio Moríñigo?

Major General Higinio Morínigo Martínez was a Paraguayan dictator, general and political figure. He served as the President of Paraguay from 7 September 1940 to 3 June 1948.

Morínigo was born in Paraguarí, Paraguay in 1897, the son of a merchant. Little is known of his early life, though he served in the Army in the Chaco War and was appointed Army Chief of Staff in 1936. Of European and Guaraní descent, He was fluent in both the Spanish and Guaraní languages. Franco's successor, José Félix Estigarribia of the Liberal Party, appointed Morínigo as his Minister of War on May 2, 1940. Four months later, President Estigarribia was killed in an airplane crash on September 7, 1940, and the cabinet selected General Morínigo to serve as President for two months until elections could be held.

On September 30, the Liberal Party ministers in his cabinet resigned, and on October 16, Morínigo announced that the presidential elections would be postponed for two years. Soon afterward, he announced a policy of "disciplina, jerarquia, y orden" and stated that persons who spread subversive ideas would be "subject to confinement". On November 30, he announced in a noontime radio address that "The people and the Army, from this moment, will be under a single command." All political parties were banned. Morínigo organized the Guion Rojo as a state police force to control dissent from the Febreristas and the Liberals, and exiled opposition newspaper publishers. The elections took place as promised on February 15, 1943. However, Morínigo was the sole candidate on the ballot.