LO'PEZ, FRANCISCO SoLaico, 1827-70; b. Paraguay; educated
abroad, and in 184,5 appointed commander-in-chief of the
Paraguayan army. In 1854 he was sent to Europe on a diplomatic
mission, and negotiated treaties with England, France, and
Sardinia. In Europe he made the acquaintance of a Mrs. Lynch,
the Irish wife of a French officer. Lopez took her to Paraguay
with him, and made her his mistress. She was a woman of
considerable talent and force of character, and exercised a
great influence oyer Lopez. He at once took the office of
minister of war, and began to prepare secretly for a forcible
annexation to Paraguay of parts of Brazil, the Ai gentine
Republic, and Bolivia. ln 1862 he succeeded his father in the
presidency, and in 1864, tinder the pretense of pro tecting the
" equilibrium" of the Plata river, he called on Brazil to
withdraw her troops from Uruguay, where a civil war was in
progress, in which Brazil had intervened. Upon the refusal of
Brazil, he took possession of the Brazilia.n province of Matto