Francisco Solano López Francisco Solano López Carrillo ( 24 July 1827 – 1 March 1870 ) was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870 . He was the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López , whom had left his son a prosperous nation . Solano López is widely regarded as being responsible for the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance , which led to his death . Life and career . Life before the war . Solano López was born in Manorá , a " barrio " of Asunción . He was made Brigadier General of the Paraguayan Army by his father at the age of 18 , in 1844 , during the spasmodic hostilities then prevailing with Argentina . He was sent in 1853 as minister plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom , France , and Italy , and spent a year and a half in Europe . He purchased large quantities of arms and military supplies , together with several steamers , and organized a project for building a railroad and establishing a French colony in Paraguay . He also became infatuated with the empire of Napoleon III and with Napoleon Bonaparte himself . López equipped his army with exact copies of uniforms of Napoleonic army . He ordered for himself an exact replica of Napoleons crown . While there , he met a Parisian courtesan , the Irishwoman Eliza Lynch , and brought her with him back to Paraguay . There she was his mistress and " de facto " first lady till his death , strongly influencing his later ambitious schemes . Returning to Paraguay , Solano López became Minister of War in 1855 . He was appointed as Vice President by his father . In November 1859 , López was on board the war steamer " Tacuari " , which was attacked by British Royal Navy ships attempting to pressure his father into releasing a British citizen from prison . The British consul who ordered the attack was Sir William Thornton , who would later personally support Argentina in the War of the Triple Alliance . When his father died in 1862 , López called a congress that unanimously chose him as president for ten years . Role in beginning the war . In 1864 , Brazil – which did not have friendly relations with Paraguay – began supporting a rising revolution in Uruguay by Venancio Flores against the White party government of Atanasio Aguirre , who was an ally of Paraguay . Uruguay requested Paraguay to intervene in the matter . López manifested this support via a letter to Brazil , in which he said that any occupation of Uruguayan lands by Brazil would be considered as an attack on Paraguay . When Brazil did not heed the letter and invaded Uruguay on 12 October 1864 , López seized the Brazilian merchant steamer " Marqués de Olinda " in the harbor of Asunción and imprisoned the Brazilian governor of the province of Mato Grosso , who was on board . In the following month ( December 1864 ) he dispatched a force to invade Mato Grosso . The force seized and sacked the town of Corumbá and took possession of the province and its diamond mines , together with an immense quantity of arms and ammunition , including enough gunpowder to last the whole Paraguayan Army for at least a year of active war . However , Paraguayan forces could not or would not seize the capital city of Cuiabá , in northern Mato Grosso . López next intended to send troops to Uruguay to support the government of his ally , yet when he requested permission from Argentina to cross Argentine soil , Argentine President Bartolomé Mitre refused to allow the Paraguayan force to cross the intervening Argentine province of Corrientes . By then Brazil had already overthrown the Uruguayan government of Aguirre and installed Flores in his stead , rendering Uruguay little more than a Brazilian puppet state . A hastily summoned congress composed of Lópezs own nominees bestowed the title of " marshal " upon him and gave him extraordinary war powers . On 13 April 1865 , he declared war on Argentina , seizing two Argentine war vessels in the Bay of Corrientes . The next day , he occupied the town of Corrientes , instituted a provisional government of his Argentine partisans , and announced that Paraguay had annexed Corrientes Province and Argentinas Entre Ríos Province . On 1 May 1865 , Brazil joined Argentina and Uruguay in signing the Treaty of the Triple Alliance , which stipulated that they should unitedly pursue war with Paraguay until the existing government of Paraguay was overthrown and " until no arms or elements of war should be left to it . " This agreement was literally carried out . War of the Triple Alliance . The war which ensued , lasting until 1 March 1870 , was carried on with great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes , though López ' s disasters steadily increased . On 12 September 1866 , López invited Mitre to a conference in Yatayty Corá . López believed that the time was right to treat for peace and was ready to sign a peace treaty with the Allies . No agreement was reached though since Mitre ' s conditions for rendition were that every article of the Secret Treaty of the Triple Alliance was still to be carried out , a condition to which López refused . Regardless of López ' s refusal , a peace treaty was not something Mitre could guarantee since article 6 in the secret treaty stated that " The allies solemnly commit themselves not to abandon arms unless commonly agreed , and as long as they haven ’ t overthrown the current government of Paraguay , as well as not to try separately , nor sign any peace treaty , truce , armistice which would put an end to or suspend the war , unless agreed by all parties " . This not only rendered any possibility of truce or peace nearly impossible but also stipulated that the war was to continue until the current government ceased to be , which meant the death of López . In 1868 , when the allies were pressing him hard , he convinced himself that his Paraguayan supporters had actually formed a conspiracy against his life . Thereupon , several hundred prominent Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order , including his brothers and brothers - in - law , cabinet ministers , judges , prefects , military officers , bishops and priests , and nine - tenths of the civil officers , together with more than two hundred foreigners , among them several members of the diplomatic legations ( the San Fernando massacres ) . During this time he also had his 70 - year - old mother flogged and ordered her execution , because she revealed to him that he had been born out of wedlock . Battle of Cerro Corá . López was at last driven with a handful of troops to the northern frontier of Paraguay . He arrived at Cerro Corá on 14 February 1870 . Two detachments were sent in pursuit of Solano López , who was accompanied by 200 men in the forests in the north , where he received news of the considerable Brazilian forces that were closing in on him . This caused some of the officials who were still with López to abandon him and approach the allied force , under the command of the Brazilian General José Antônio Correia da Câmara , which they readily joined as scouts in order to lead them to López . Upon hearing about this , López called a last war council with the remaining officers of his general staff in order to decide the course of action for the upcoming battle : whether they should escape into the hill range or stay and make a stand against the attackers . The counsel decided to stay and end the war once and for all by fighting to the death . The Brazilian force reached the camp on the 1 March . During the battle that ensued , López was separated from the remainder of his army and was accompanied only by his aide and a couple of officers . He had been wounded with a spear in the stomach and hit with a sword in the side of his head and so was too weak to walk by himself . They led him to the Aquidabangui stream , and there they left him on the pretext of getting reinforcements . While Lopez was alone with his aide , General Câmara arrived along with six soldiers and approached him , calling on him to surrender and guaranteeing his life . López refused and shouting " Muero con mi patria ! " ( I die with my nation ) , tried to attack Câmara with his sword . Câmara ordered him to be disarmed , but López died during the struggle with the soldiers who were trying to disarm him . This incident marked the end of the war of the Triple Alliance . Legacy . There is a debate within Paraguay as to whether he was a fearless leader who led his troops to the end , or whether he foolishly led Paraguay into a war which it could never possibly win , and which nearly eliminated the country from the map . This debate was not helped by the revisionist stance taken by the Stroessner regime , regarding national history . Conversely , he is considered by some Latin Americans as a champion for the rights of smaller nations against the imperialism of more powerful neighbors . For example , Eduardo Galeano argues that he and his father continued the work of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia in defending Paraguay as " the only country that foreign capital had not deformed " . There is an ongoing debate in Paraguay among historians regarding López ' s final words . The two versions are " Muero por mi patria " ( " I die for my nation " ) or " ' Muero con mi patria " ( " I die with my nation " ) . Regarding the event , Juan Silvano Godoi wrote : 1 March is a national holiday in Paraguay , called " Dia de los Heroes " ( Heroes ' Day ) , held in honor of López ' s memory . It is the most important holiday in the country next to the independence day . To date , López is considered to be the greatest Paraguayan national hero and his remains are located at the " Panteon de los Heroes " ( National Pantheon of the Heroes ) in Asunción . It is customary in Asunción that when something historic worth celebrating happens ( such as the victory of the former President Lugo in the 2008 elections ) people flock with their flags to the street in front of it and celebrate the event . Recently , Argentine president Cristina Kirchner named an Argentinean military unit after Marshal Francisco Solano López . It was the 2nd Armored Artillery Group . During the ceremony the national anthem of both nations was sung and high - ranking officers of both armies were present . The Chief of the Argentine Army gave a speech at the event in which he stated : " Talking about the Paraguayan Army and the Argentine Army is talking of one and the same thing . Today , in the Argentine army , honored by the visit of Paraguay ' s Army Commandant , we are working intensely in fulfilling the dream of the fathers of our nation . Of those men who wanted to build a great nation , General San Martín and , precisely , Marshal López . " . Afterwards , Lieutenant General Bendini said : At the end of the ceremony the Paraguayan Army Commandant presented the unit with a portrait of López . The Paraguayan President ' s Office is called " Palacio de López " ( Lopez ' s Palace ) as it was built by López before the war as his home . However , it was never finished until after the war was over so he never resided in it . The life of López is the basis for the play " Visions " by Louis Nowra .