The World - News from April 9, 1987

Paraguay’s President Alfredo Stroessner lifted a 40-year-old state of siege, saying he no longer needs it to maintain peace, ruling party politicians said. Stroessner and government spokesmen did not immediately comment. Ruling party congressmen, asking not to be identified, said that the special security powers granted under the state of siege expired at midnight Wednesday when the army general’s 32-year-old government did not renew a decree, as it had done every three months since taking power in a 1954 military coup. The state of siege was first declared in 1947 during a civil war.