The son of the private secretary to Paraguay’s former dictator Alfredo Stroessner has narrowly snatched victory from a centre-left coalition after an election campaign that revived memories of Stroessner’s bloody 1954-89 rule.

Mario Abdo Benítez, 46 – from a conservative wing of the ruling Colorado party – thanked his opponent, Efraín Alegre, 55, of the Alianza grouping, for a “healthy competition”. Abdo Benítez promised to work for national unity.

“From today, useless division is finished. The debate is over,” he said in a victory speech on Sunday. “We’re builders, and all are welcome who want to build the future of this fatherland.”

Earlier in the day, the Colorado candidate, who was 17 and studying in the US when Stroessner was forced into exile, visited his father’s mausoleum – immediately next to the grave of South America’s longest-serving dictator.

Abdo Benítez was a pallbearer at Stroessner’s funeral in 2006, entering politics in the same year after founding the “Peace and Progress” Colorado movement – named after Stroessner’s favoured slogan – with the dictator’s grandson.

He defeated a technocratic candidate, Santiago Peña – the preferred successor of the current president, Horacio Cartes – in Colorado primaries in December, capturing the rural Colorado base through his opposition to Cartes’s debt-heavy economic model.

On the trail, Abdo Benítez emphasised family values and hinted at enforcing obligatory military service. He repeatedly refused to condemn the dictatorship outright, expressing regret for the 425 people killed and nearly 19,000 tortured under Stroessner but emphasising what he called the “achievements” of the military regime.



Yet for many Colorado voters, the dictatorship had little relevance for the election. “The issue of Stronismo, that’s from another era,” said Nelson Zamudio, a shopkeeper in the southeastern city of Coronel Oviedo.

Many young people – well over half of the population – also have a hazy understanding of the Stroessner period. Mauricio Galeano, 18, was unsure how to mark his ballot for the first time. “With regard to dictatorship, yes, I think the law should be enforced,” he said, citing widespread fears about crime and insecurity.

Yet Sunday’s vote didn’t entirely go as expected. Despite the polls routinely giving Abdo Benítez a lead of 10-25 points, results came down to the wire, with Alegre losing by just 3.7 points – the lowest margin since Paraguay’s return to democracy.

The close result suggests that the end of Colorado hegemony – interrupted for only five years in the past 70 – is nigh, said Eduardo Nakayama, a historian and leader of the Alianza’s Liberal party.

And Abdo Benítez will have to make “political compromises” to get anything through congress, said Claudia Pompa, a political analyst. Alianza and a crop of smaller parties have picked up more seats, denying the Colorados a majority.

Activists have vowed to keep working to loosen the grip of Paraguay’s conservative political parties.

“It’s very challenging, but we can’t do nothing,” said Gerónimo Ayala, a Mbyá Guaraní architect who narrowly missed out on being elected Paraguay’s first indigenous congressman. “The movement will continue. The struggle is worth it.”