thumb|Stroessner (right) greets Brazilian President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco during the opening ceremonies of the Friendship Bridge, connecting Brazil and Paraguay, 27 March 1965 For the first 13 years of his rule, Stroessner ruled under a severely authoritarian constitution enacted in 1940. In the mid 1960s, in an attempt to placate growing international criticism, Stroessner began allowing some opposition parties to function, although these functioned as opposition in name only. Stroessner also fired the interior minister Ynsfrán in 1966, but his replacement, Sabino Augusto Montanaro (a member of the "Cuatrinomio de Oro", a group of politicians intimately connected to Stroessner) continued the same violent policies. The 1940 constitution was replaced in 1967 with an equally repressive document. Like its predecessor, it gave the president broad powers to take exceptional actions for the good of the country, such as suspending civil liberties and intervening in the economy. It thus formed the legal basis for the state of virtual martial law under which Stroessner governed. While it limited the president to two five-year terms, it stipulated that only those terms completed after the 1968 election would count toward that limit. In 1977, faced with having to leave office for good the following year, Stroessner pushed through a constitutional amendment allowing him to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.
thumb|Stroessner (right) greets Brazilian President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco during the opening c,eremonies of the Friendship Bridge, connecting Brazil and Paraguay, 27 March 1965 For the first 13 years of his rule, Stroessner ruled under a severely authoritarian constitution enacted in 1940. In the mid 1960s, in an attempt to placate growing international criticism, Stroessner began allowing some opposition parties to function although these functioned as opposition in name only. Stroessner also fired the interior minister Ynsfrán in 1966, but his replacement, Sabino Augusto Montanaro (a member of the "Cuatrinomio de Oro", a group of politicians intimately connected to Stroessner) continued the same viole,nt policies. The 1940 constitution was replaced in 1967 with an equally repressive document. Like its predecessor, it gave the president broad powers to take exceptional actions for the good of the country, such as suspending civil liberties and intervening in the economy. It thus formed the legal basis for the state of virtual martial law under which Stroessner governed. While it limited the president to two five-year terms, it stipulated that only those terms completed after the 1968 election would count toward that limit. In 1977 faced with having to leave office for good the following year, Stroessner pushed through a constitutional amendment allowing him to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms.