That is the one!
President-dictator of Paraguay he succeeded his father in the post. The family had run Paraguay as kind of their personal property restricting outside contact and controlling the whole economy.
his rule was despotic but normal enough until he embroiled his country in what became known as the war of the triple alliance which in the end saw Paraguay fighting all of its neighbours in support of Lopez territorial ambitions.
For a country the size of Paraguay however, just under a million people, taking on Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina simultaneously proved a bit much. As the war went on lopezs disastrous leadership became worse and worse as he went steadily crazy, culminating in a paranoiac frenzy in 1868 that led to the execution of several hundred of the remaining leading citizens of Paraguay including most of his surviving relatives plus several hundred foreigners and diplomats just to make sure everyone was unhappy.
The war lost he insisted on a protracted guerrilla war rather than surrender ensuring wholesale destruction and death on a massive scale before he was finally killed in 1870
his country as a result lost between 60 and 90 percent of its total population and was almost wiped off the map, only 28000 adult males remaining alive most older Han military age. In some parts of he country the female o male ratio stood at 20:1.
for reasons of anti British sentiment and nationalistic historical revisionism he has been cast in Paraguay and Argentina as a liberation hero standing against colonial oppressors, when in reality he is basically one of the most destructive maniacs of all time. He holds a dubious record for leading his nation into the most destructive war proportionally of modern times.
thanks to the revisionists though he got a nifty stamp and some statues.