Paraguay had a dictatorship ruled by Higinio Morinigo , he had fascist tendencies and he was sympathetic to the axis powers . Our country ' s large German community were supporters of Nazism , as well as most of the population . Large numbers of Paraguayan military officers and government officials were openly sympathetic to the Axis . Police cadets wore swastikas and Italian insignia on their uniforms . Paraguay was also the first country to have a nazi political party outside of germany . The only reason we didn ' t join germany ' s side in ww 2 is because the US gave us aid and military hardware in 1942 . Paraguay declared war on Germany on February 2 , 1945 , by which time the war was almost over . Many years later during Alfredo Stroessner ' s dictatorship Paraguay provided refuge to Nazi war criminals . Including Josef Mengele , who came to Paraguay before going to Brazil .