Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was a Paraguayan army officer, politician and statesman who served as President of Paraguay from 15 August 1954 to 3 February 1989. Stroessner led a coup d'état on 4 May 1954 with the support of the army and the Colorado Party, with which he was affiliated. After a brief provisional government headed by Tomás Romero Pereira, he was the Colorado Party's presidential candidate for the 1954 general election, and was elected unopposed since all other parties were banned from 1947 to 1962.

Encarnación is a district and the capital city of Itapúa Department in Paraguay, located at the south-east of the department, on the right-hand (western) shore of the Paraná River, opposite Posadas, Argentina. The city has an area of 274 km2 and a population of 93,497, and the Greater Encarnacion area has a population of over 225,000 according to a 2020 estimate. Encarnación is the third-largest city of Paraguay. The city was originally named Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación de Itapúa, and is considered the capital of summer by most of its inhabitants.