Argentina & Paraguay 2003-04
Photos by Adam Jones
Photo Gallery 17
Faces of Paraguay (2)
I.
Asunción (8)
II.
Asunción (9)
III.
Bus to Piribebuy (1)
IV.
Bus to Piribebuy (2)
V.
Bus to Piribebuy (3)
VI.
Piribebuy (1)
This lovely town, about 70km from the capital Asunción, holds a special
interest for me because it was the scene of one of the last major battles of
the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70), in which Paraguay ended up
fighting against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and lost nearly its entire able-bodied
male population in the process. For a brief account, see the Gendercide Watch case-study
of military conscription. By good luck, I stumbled across a small museum commemorating
the siege of Piribebuy in August 1869, at a time when
the village had been declared the provisional capital
of Paraguay by the retreating forces of Marshal Francisco
Solano López. The museum
included this improvised mini-artillery piece, and an old collection of engravings
from the siege, which (as the next image shows) featured the largescale involvement of women
as defenders -- they are now known as the "Heroinas de Piribebuy." The defeat of the heavily-outnumbered
Paraguayan forces marked the conclusion of the only urban siege of the war, and was followed by
widespread atrocities, including rape, summary executions, and the torching of a building with
civilians and wounded soldiers inside.
VII.
Piribebuy (2)
VIII.
Piribebuy (3)
A sculpture in the town plaza commemorates Marshal Francisco Solano López,
still considered a national hero despite having brought his country to ruin in an
unwinnable war.
