José Segundo Decoud

José Segundo Decoud Domecq (14 May 1848 – 3 March 1909) was a Paraguayan politician, journalist, diplomat and military officer. He is often considered one of the foremost intellectuals of his generation, and was also one of the first liberals of the country. Decoud was one of the founders of the long-standing Colorado Party, having been its first vice-president and written its founding instrument.

During the Paraguayan War, Decoud was a member of the Paraguayan Legion fighting against the Paraguayan government. After leaving the regiment, he wrote an anti-Triple Alliance newspaper criticizing their territorial claims on Paraguay; and once the war was nearly over, he returned to Asunción, and helped found La Regeneración, Paraguay's first wholly private newspaper.

He balanced his director duties with his roles as a member of the constitutional assembly which drafted the 1870 Constitution and in 1871 was made minister of Foreign Affairs for Cirilo Rivarola's government, having previously been Rivarola's secretary while the latter served as triumvir. His father Juan Francisco had been considered for the role of triumvir, but the Brazilian authorities distrusted the Decoud family and named Rivarola in his stead.

Afterwards, as Paraguayan politics took a violent turn, Decoud temporarily withdrew from government duties to focus on his career as a journalist, and returned only in 1878 as minister for the Candido Bareiro government. The 1880s were the years in which he was most active and had the greatest impact upon Paraguayan politics. In 1883, as chancellor, he signed the Decoud-Kubly agreement with Uruguay, where Uruguay forgave any war debts Paraguay might have with them. In 1885, he went to London as an extraordinary envoy and managed to renegotiate Paraguay's debt from a little short of 3 million pounds sterling to 850 thousand, though the country had to cede 8,700 km2 of land to the bondholders in exchange. As a diplomat, he also represented Paraguay as ambassador to the Empire of Brazil and to the Uruguayan government. Besides this, he was a co-founder of the Colorado Party in 1887, alongside ex-president Bernardino Caballero and others, contributing a number of years as a leading ideologue. The foundation of the country's first university, the Universidad Nacional de Asunción, was in good part motivated by him as well. In addition, he was a mason.

alt=A picture of the 6 members of Caballero's cabinet; Caballero, the president, is sitting down at the center.

Some controversies marked his career. He was one of the foremost advocates for the process of land sales by the government conducted from 1883 onwards, which served to rapidly privatize land ownership and had a somewhat short-lived impact on the country's finances. He also was accused of having plotted with Argentine authorities in the 1870s to allow for Paraguay's annexation to the former country; his involvement with the Paraguayan Legion during the 1860s saw him frequently being called a traitor by his political adversaries in his later life. In the 1890s, he would still occupy many cabinet positions and was even considered for the presidency, but political intrigues kept him from power. In 1900, he left the Colorado Party in disagreement with its policies.

Journalistic career José Segundo Decoud began his career in the Paraguayan press soon after his return to the country in 1869. Together with his brother Héctor Decoud, he worked as an editor and writer for the newspaper La Regeneración in that same year; the paper lasted until September 1870. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he contributed to other newspapers such as La Reforma and La Opinión Pública. His more impactful texts were frequently republished in Argentine newspapers. Decoud also translated Joseph Alden's The Science of Government in Connection with American Institutions to Spanish, and wrote books and articles, with Recuerdos históricos, La amistad, Cuestiones Políticas y Económicas and El patriotismo being amongst the most important according to , his biographer, who also claimed that Decoud had been preparing for some years to write a book that would discuss Paraguayan history from the colonial era to his time before his death.

In 2014, the historian and diplomat Ricardo Scavone Yegros prepared a compilation and a critical study of Decoud's works, publishing it under one binding.

Death Disillusioned with the direction of post-war Paraguayan politics, Decoud committed suicide in 1909, leaving a letter to his wife in which he stated:

His suicide letter can be read in Francisco Doratioto's Relações Brasil-Paraguai: afastamento, tensões e reaproximação (1889-1954).

Selected bibliography