58 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
movement. After trying various forms of 
government it became a republic in 1844, 
which form of government still exists, the ex 
ecutive power being vested in a President and 
Yice-President, with a legislative body com 
posed of a Senate and Chamber of Deputies. 
It is impossible in even briefly writing of 
this really wonderful country to refrain from 
some reference to the one man, Lopez, whose 
desire for power resulted in the almost total 
annihilation of a people. His arbitrary rule 
embroiled his nation in disputes with much 
of Europe and the United States, and resulted 
in a war with Uruguay, Brazil and Argentine. 
In addition to this internal strife developed in 
which assassins, murderers and executioners 
played their parts. When Lopez was finally 
killed and his power gone, Paraguay’s popula 
tion, according to Dawson, the well-known 
historian, had decreased from “1,300,000 to 
a little over 200,000, only about 29,000 being 
men and 90,000 children under fifteen years 
of age.” There were five women to one man. 
As a result of this devastation the country