Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (; November 3, 1912 – August 16, 2006) was a
Paraguayan military officer who served as
President of
Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. He ascended to the position after leading an army coup in 1954. His 35-year-long rule is the second longest in modern Latin American history behind only
Fidel Castro, who ruled Cuba from 1959 to 2008. Stroessner's rule is ranked
17th-longest among other non-royal national leaders since 1870, and made him one of the world's longest-serving non-Communist heads of state.