José Félix Estigarribia

José Félix Estigarribia (1888 to 1940) was a Paraguayan army officer who commanded his country's forces in the Chaco War against Bolivia and later served as its president. Born to peasant parents in Caraguatay, he trained as an agronomist before joining the army in 1910, studied in Chile and at the military schools of France, and became Chief of Staff of the army in 1928. Appointed commander in chief when war over the Chaco became unavoidable, he directed operations from 1932 to 1935, halted the Bolivian advance toward the Paraguay River with a fast counter-attack, and returned to Asuncion in 1935 as the Hero of the Chaco War. He rose to lieutenant general and was promoted to field marshal after his death. Elected president in 1939, he suspended the constitution in 1940 and imposed an authoritarian replacement, and he was killed with his wife in a plane crash on 7 September 1940.