Concepción massacre

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The Concepción massacre was an episode of the Paraguayan War where various Paraguayan families of Concepción's landowning classes were murdered between April and May 1869 under Paraguayan president Francisco Solano López's orders, ostensively to combat a conspiracy aimed at himself. Major José Gregório Benítez, known as Toro Pichai (hirsute bull in Guarani),[1] famed as a torturer, was sent to the region to execute the task.[2][3]

When Benítez arrived in a town, he would order all its population to assemble in a square, and, armed with a list containing the names of the families to be executed, separated them; given the extent of the country's mobilization[4] these were mostly women, who were tortured and then killed with lances.[5] Doratioto claims "dozens of people, accused of conspiracy, were murdered with lances", "under Solano López's orders".[6]

Alternatively, Luc Capdevila [fr] claims that the massacre was a punitive expedition ordered by López against the town's commandant, who was suspected of having ordered it to be an "open city" to the encroaching Brazilian forces after the fall of Asunción. Capdevila agrees that "many dozens of women and young ones [...] were massacred".[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Capdevila 2010, p. 57.
  2. ^ Lima 2016, pp. 231–232.
  3. ^ Villa 1969, p. 129.
  4. ^ Cooney 2004, p. 31-34.
  5. ^ Lima 2016, p. 232.
  6. ^ Doratioto 2002, p. 347.

Sources

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  • Capdevila, Luc (2010). Una Guerra Total: Paraguay, 1864-1870 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Sb. ISBN 9789871256747.
  • Cooney, Jerry W. (2004). "Economy and Manpower: Paraguay at War, 1864-69". In Kraay, Hendrik; Whigham, Thomas L. (eds.). I Die with my Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864-1870. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska. ISBN 0-8032-2762-0.
  • Doratioto, Francisco (2002). Maldita Guerra: Nova história da Guerra do Paraguai (in Portuguese) (2 ed.). São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. ISBN 978-65-5921-286-6.
  • Lima, Luiz Octávio de (2016). A Guerra do Paraguai. São Paulo: Planeta do Brasil. ISBN 9788542207996. OCLC 972903102.
  • Villa, Benigno (1969). Historias, anécdotas y "casos.".