Paraguay–United States relations: Difference between revisions

 

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{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2018}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2018}}

{{Infobox bilateral relations|Paraguayan–American|Paraguay|USA|filetype=svg}}

{{Infobox bilateral relations|Paraguayan–American|Paraguay|USA|filetype=svg}}

”’Paraguay-United States relations”’ encompass the diplomatic, economic and historical interactions between the [[Republic of Paraguay]] and the [[United States|United States of America]].

”’Paraguay-United States relations”’ encompass the diplomatic, economic and historical interactions between the [[Republic of Paraguay]] and the [[United States|United States of America]].

President [[Carlos Antonio López]], the first person in Paraguay to hold that title, signed several treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation with world powers in the 1850s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=John Hoyt |title=The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870 |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1979 |pages=54–61}}</ref> López mistrusted his Latin American neighbors and sought more distant foreign ties to strengthen Paraguay’s nascent economy and defenses.<ref>{{cite book |title=Paraguay: A Country Study |editor-last=Hanratty |editor-first=Dennis M. |publisher=Library of Congress Federal Research Division |year=1990 |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/frd/frdcstdy/pa/paraguaycountrys00hanr_0/paraguaycountrys00hanr_0.pdf |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> The United States, seeking to promote its commercial and navigational interests in the Río de la Plata basin, recognized Paraguay’s independence on April 27, 1852,<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Bilateral Relations |url=https://py.usembassy.gov/history-of-bilateral-relations/ |publisher=U.S. Embassy Asunción |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> though it did not send a diplomatic envoy until 1861.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chiefs of Mission for Paraguay |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/chiefsofmission/paraguay |publisher=U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> Despite a deadly [[USS Water Witch (1851)|naval incident]] in 1855, when Paraguayan forces fired on a U.S. vessel, normal relations resumed soon afterward.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paraguay – The War of the Triple Alliance and its aftermath |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Paraguay/The-War-of-the-Triple-Alliance-and-its-aftermath |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref>

President [[Carlos Antonio López]], the first person in Paraguay to hold that title, signed several treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation with world powers in the 1850s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=John Hoyt |title=The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870 |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1979 |pages=54–61}}</ref> López mistrusted his Latin American neighbors and sought more distant foreign ties to strengthen Paraguay’s nascent economy and defenses.<ref>{{cite book |title=Paraguay: A Country Study |editor-last=Hanratty |editor-first=Dennis M. |publisher=Library of Congress Federal Research Division |year=1990 |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/frd/frdcstdy/pa/paraguaycountrys00hanr_0/paraguaycountrys00hanr_0.pdf |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> The United States, seeking to promote its commercial and navigational interests in the Río de la Plata basin, recognized Paraguay’s independence on April 27, 1852,<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Bilateral Relations |url=https://py.usembassy.gov/history-of-bilateral-relations/ |publisher=U.S. Embassy Asunción |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> though it did not send a diplomatic envoy until 1861.<ref>{{cite web |title=Chiefs of Mission for Paraguay |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/chiefsofmission/paraguay |publisher=U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref> Despite a deadly [[USS Water Witch (1851)|naval incident]] in 1855, when Paraguayan forces fired on a U.S. vessel, normal relations resumed soon afterward.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paraguay – The War of the Triple Alliance and its aftermath |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Paraguay/The-War-of-the-Triple-Alliance-and-its-aftermath |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=11 October 2025}}</ref>

Bilateral relations

Paraguay-United States relations encompass the diplomatic, economic, and historical interactions between the Republic of Paraguay and the United States of America.

President Carlos Antonio López, the first person in Paraguay to hold that title, signed several treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation with world powers in the 1850s.^[1] López mistrusted his Latin American neighbors and sought more distant foreign ties to strengthen Paraguay’s nascent economy and defenses.^[2] The United States, seeking to promote its commercial and navigational interests in the Río de la Plata basin, recognized Paraguay’s independence on April 27, 1852,^[3] though it did not send a diplomatic envoy until 1861.^[4] Despite a deadly naval incident in 1855, when Paraguayan forces fired on a U.S. vessel, normal relations resumed soon afterward.^[5]

The War of the Triple Alliance with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay ensued under the leadership of López’s son, devastating Paraguay for generations;^[6] it received little international attention from 1876 until the three-year Chaco War with Bolivia (1932–1935). U.S. and European firms supplied arms to both sides.^[7] Populist politician Huey Long promoted Paraguay’s cause on the floor of the U.S. Senate, a stance that earned him admiration in Paraguay.^[8] U.S. diplomats joined other neutral nations in talks that produced a 1938 peace treaty in Buenos Aires, which awarded most of the disputed Chaco region to Paraguay.^[9]

U.S. influence in Paraguay expanded during World War II with economic and technical assistance.^[10] During the 35-year dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner, the United States supported his anti-communist rule and maintained close security and economic ties.^[11] After Paraguay’s return to democracy from 1989 onward, U.S. policy has emphasized combating corruption and promoting the country’s integration into regional trade networks.^[12]

In 2024, U.S. goods exports to Paraguay totaled about US $3.2 billion, while imports from Paraguay were approximately US $356 million, resulting in a U.S. trade surplus of roughly US $2.8 billion.^[13] Major U.S. multinationals such as Cargill, Millicom (operating as Tigo), and Citibank operate in Paraguay, primarily in the agro-industrial, telecommunications, and financial sectors.

The U.S. maintains an embassy in Asunción, Paraguay. On June 29, 2023, a new embassy was opened on the same 14-acre site as the previous building.^[14] The position of United States Ambassador to Paraguay is currently vacant. Amir P. Masliyah serves as the Chargé d’affaires following the conclusion of Marc Ostfield’s tenure in January 2025, after diplomatic tensions with the Paraguayan government in August 2024.^[15][16]

According to Gallup’s Rating World Leaders 2024 survey, 42 percent of Paraguayans approve of U.S. leadership, while 28 percent disapprove and 30 percent express no opinion.^[17]

In the first half of 2023, Paraguay received 8,032 visitors from the United States, according to the Paraguayan National Tourism Secretariat (Senatur).^[18] The U.S. Embassy in Asunción issued 10,325 nonimmigrant visas in fiscal year 2023.^[19] No direct commercial passenger flight routes exist today between any U.S. airport and landlocked Paraguay, despite efforts by one carrier to establish a Miami–Asunción once-weekly service in the early 2020s.

Seeking to counter Axis influence in South America, in 1942 the U.S. funded significant public health, agriculture and infrastructure projects in Paraguay for the first time.^[20] Though it severed diplomatic ties with Germany and its allies, Paraguay remained neutral throughout World War II.

Between 1962 and 1989, the United States provided more than US$150 million in direct economic and military assistance to Paraguay under the Stroessner regime.^[21] The United States also indirectly supported the Itaipu Dam, inaugurated in May 1984 by Stroessner and his Brazilian counterpart, the dictator João Figueiredo. More than US$2 billion in U.S. aid for Brazil as a whole arrived during this era under the Alliance for Progress, helping to strengthen Brazil’s financial and energy sectors and enabling loans that financed Paraguay’s share of Itaipu’s construction.^[22]

Aid has continued in the post-Stroessner era. In fiscal year 2023 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) allocated approximately US$9.64 million in foreign assistance for Paraguay. ^[23]

The U.S. Department of State, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury provide technical assistance, equipment, and training to strengthen counter narcotics enforcement, combat trafficking in persons, promote respect for intellectual property rights, and to assist in the development and implementation of money laundering legislation and counter terrorism legislation.

• On December 19, 2003, U.S. and Paraguayan officials signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the legal protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in Paraguay. The MOU was extended in 2006 through the end of 2007.
• Since 2003 the U.S. Government has had a Resident Justice Advisor in Paraguay to support efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and other financial crimes as well as organized crime and corruption.
• In 2006, the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) provided Paraguay with $494,000 in assistance to support its efforts to combat narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and violations of intellectual property rights.
• Starting in 2004, a Resident Public Debt Advisor, a Resident Budget Advisor, and a Resident Tax Advisor from the Department of Treasury have been working with Paraguayan counterparts to implement essential reforms.

The Peace Corps has about 160 volunteers working throughout Paraguay on projects ranging from agriculture and natural resources to education, rural health, and urban youth development. 2007 marked the 40th anniversary of the Peace Corps in Paraguay.

The Office of Public Diplomacy also is active in Paraguay, funding Fulbright and other scholarships to the U.S., U.S. scholars to Paraguay, other short- and long-term exchanges, English scholarship programs, donations of books and equipment, and a cultural preservation project to restore Paraguay’s National Library.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) provides technical assistance and training to help modernize and professionalize the military, including by promoting respect for human rights and obedience to democratically elected civilian authorities. DoD also provides assistance to impoverished communities through its Humanitarian Assistance Program.

A military training agreement with Asunción, giving immunity to US soldiers, caused concern after media reports initially reported that a base housing 20,000 US soldiers was being built at Mariscal Estigarribia within 200 km of Argentina and Bolivia, and 300 km of Brazil, near an airport which could receive large planes (B-52, C-130 Hercules, etc.) which the Paraguan Air Forces do not have.^[24][25]

In September 2009 Paraguay’s President Fernando Lugo revoked plans for US troops to hold joint military exercises and development projects after stating that he no longer thinks that hosting troops taking part in the US department of defence’s “New Horizons” programme was worthwhile. President Lugo referenced strong regional opposition from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador to the expansion of US military bases in Colombia in his decision.^[26]

In 1858, the Paraguay expedition was of gunboat diplomacy where the US sent a naval squadron to Paraguay to seek redress from Paraguay for the shelling of the USS Water Witch in 1855. It was quickly concluded after the force landed at Asunción on January 25, 1859, and followed by a Treaty of Amity and Commerce on February 4, 1859.^[27]

• 

  Embassy of Paraguay in Washington, D.C.

• 

  Embassy of the United States in Asunción

 This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

• Hanratty, Dennis M., and Sandra Meditz. Paraguay: A County Study (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990). online
• McQuilkin, Christopher. “‘An Excellent Laboratory’: US Foreign Aid in Paraguay, 1942-1954.” (U of Oregon thesis 2014) online.
• Miller, Olivia. “Paraguayan Americans.” Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 3, Gale, 2014), pp. 459–466. online
• Miranda, Anibal. United States-Paraguay Relations: The Eisenhower Years (Washington, DC.: Wilson Center, 1990).
• Miranda, Carlos R. The Stroessner Era: Authoritarian Rule in Paraguay (Westview Press, 1990).
• Mora, Frank O., and Jerry Wilson Cooney. Paraguay and the United States: distant allies (U of Georgia Press, 2010).
• Mora, Frank O. “The Forgotten Relationship: United States-Paraguay Relations, 1937-89.” Journal of Contemporary History 33.3 (1998): 451–473 online.