Paraguay profile - Timeline

A chronology of key events:

1525 - Portuguese explorer Alejo Garcia visits Paraguay.

Bolivian troops carry out a patrol during their 1930's territorial war with Paraguay over the Chaco area. The conflict claimed 100,000 lives

1526 - Italian navigator Sebastian Cabot explores the rivers of Paraguay.

1537 - Spanish begin colonising the interior plains of Paraguay.

1609 - Spanish Jesuits begin converting the local population to Roman Catholicism.

1776 - Paraguay transferred from the Vice-royalty of Peru to the Vice-royalty of La Plata, which has its capital at Buenos Aires in Argentina.

1808 - Vice-royalty of La Plata becomes autonomous following the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy by Napoleon Bonaparte, but Paraguayans revolt against Buenos Aires.

Independence and war

1811 - Paraguay becomes independent.

1865-70 - Paraguay loses over half of its population and large tracts of land in war with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay over sea access.

1932-35 - Paraguay wins territory in the west from Bolivia during Chaco war.

From Stroessner to democracy

1954 - General Alfredo Stroessner seizes power in coup, ushering in more than 30 years of ruthless dictatorship.

1989 - Stroessner deposed in coup led by Gen Andres Rodriguez, who is then elected president. However, Stroessner's centre-right, military-backed National Republican Association-Colorado Party wins parliamentary elections.

1992 - New democratic constitution promulgated.

1993 - Colorado Party wins simple majority of seats in first free multiparty elections, while its candidate, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, wins first free presidential elections.

1998 - Colorado Party candidate Raul Cubas elected president amid allegations of fraud.

President Cubas quit when his vice president was assassinated

1999 - President Cubas resigns in wake of assassination of Vice-President Luis Maria Argana. Luis Gonzalez Macchi appointed caretaker president, forms government of national unity.

2000 October - An army major and two other men are sentenced to long prison terms for their roles in Argana's murder.

2000 May - Coup attempt foiled. Government blames "anti-democratic" forces loyal to exiled General Oviedo.

2001 May - Head of central bank resigns over alleged involvement in fraudulent transfer of $16m to US bank account.

2002 July - State of emergency declared after violent street protests. Protesters demand resignation of President Gonzalez Macchi and scrapping of free-market policies.

2002 December - Congress votes for impeachment proceedings against President Gonzalez Macchi over charges which include corruption. Mr Gonzalez Macchi survives a vote to remove him from office.

2003 August - Nicanor Duarte Frutos, from ruling Colorado Party, sworn in as president after winning April poll. Predecessor Luis Gonzalez Macchi barred from leaving country and put on trial on corruption charges.

Police crack down on workers who staged a land invasion in 2004. The demand for land distribution is a recurring theme

2004 April onwards - Peasants stage series of land invasions and other protests, demanding redistribution of agricultural land.

2004 June - Former military commander General Oviedo returns from exile in Brazil and is arrested at airport.

2005 February - President Nicanor Duarte promises a crackdown on organised crime following the kidnapping and murder of the daughter of former president Raul Cubas.

2005 June - Lower house rejects government proposals to privatise public utilities.

2005 August - Paraguay hosts the first-ever conference of landlocked nations. More than 30 states take part and demand preferential treatment in world trade talks.

Former president Luis Gonzales Macchi was sentenced to jail over illegal bank transfers

2006 June - Luis Gonzalez Macchi, president from 1999-2003, is sentenced to six years in jail over illegal bank transfers.

2006 August - Former military ruler Alfredo Stroessner dies in exile in Brazil, aged 93.

2007 March - Government declares state of emergency in response to outbreak of dengue fever.

2007 September - The government declares a state of emergency after fires destroy more than 100,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land.

Lugo presidency

2008 April - Leftist former bishop Fernando Lugo achieves historic victory in presidential election, defeating the ruling party candidate and ending 61 years of conservative rule.

2008 September - President Lugo accuses his predecessor, Nicanor Duarte, and former military commander General Lino Oviedo of masterminding a conspiracy against his government.

2009 April - President Lugo refuses to resign over claims by several women that he fathered children with them while he was a Catholic bishop

2009 July - Brazil and Paraguay reach a deal to end their long-running dispute over the cost of energy from the giant Itaipu hydro-electric plant on their border.

2010 April - Security forces launch operation against left-wing rebel group blamed for spate of violent incidents in northern Paraguay.

2011 October - Paraguayans approve a constitutional change giving the vote to the large number of citizens living abroad.

2012 June - President Lugo is ousted over his handling of a land eviction in which 17 people are killed. Federico Franco, his vice president, is sworn in to complete the remainder of Mr Lugo's term. Two months later the electoral court sets presidential elections for April 2013, and President Franco agrees to stand down then.

2012 July - The South American Mercosur trading bloc suspends Paraguay until next year's presidential election in protest at President Lugo's ouster, but stops short of imposing sanctions.

2012 December - Landless peasant leader Vidal Vega is shot dead. The deaths of 11 of his supporters and six police officers. led to the ouster of President Lugo in June.

2013 February - Presidential candidate Lino Oviedo dies in helicopter crash. The retired general, who helped overthrow the Stroessner dictatorship in 1989, was running for the third largest party in April's election.

2013 April - Horacio Cartes is elected president.

2013 August - Parliament votes to give President Cartes new powers to deploy the military against left-wing rebels.

2014 April - The Ache' indigenous people of Paraguay file a lawsuit accusing the former military government of genocide during more than thirty years of dictatorship under Alfredo Stroessner.

2015 January - Albino Jara, the leader of Paraguay's second biggest rebel group the Armed Peasant Association (ACA), is shot dead by special forces in a jungle area north of the capital Asuncion. The ACA is a spin-off of the country's main left-wing rebel group, the Paraguayan People's Arny (EPP).

2015 August - International outcry after an 11-year-old rape victim gives birth after being denied an abortion. Abortion is illegal unless the mother's life is at risk.

2015 November - The head of Paraguay's Indian Affairs office is sacked after he is accused of kicking an indigenous woman in the stomach during a protest by members of the Ava Guarani indigenous community over a legislative bill restricting their leasing of land.

2015 December - Paraguay is the worst-hit as South America experiences its worst floods in decades, forcing more than 100,000 residents to evacuate.

2016 January - Paraguay becomes the latest Latin American country to issue health alerts to try to prevent the spread of three mosquito-borne diseases - dengue fever, chikangunya and zika.

2016 July - Farmers leader Ruben Villalba is jailed for 35 years over the killing of 17 police officers and farmers in 2012, an incident which led to the impeachment of then President Fernando Lugo.

2017 April - President Cartes says he will no longer seek re-election, after his bid to change the constitution triggered deadly riots.

2018 May - Paraguay opens its Israel embassy in Jerusalem, making it the third nation to take the deeply controversial step after the United States and Guatemala.