Paraguay: Trucks of terror

Spanish paper El Mundo has an interesting piece on the camionetas del terror in Paraguay. I've written previously on that icon of the dictatorship in Argentina, the Ford Falcon. In Paraguay, apparently, the equivalent was the Chevrolet Custom 10 in red, as donated by the US and used to transport those picked up by the security forces to police stations, prisons, detention and torture centres. For many, it was the last vehicle they would ever sit in. A survivor of the dictatorship describes the fear provoked by the sight of the red trucks cruising the streets of Asunción.

Now one of them has been recovered and will be displayed outside the memory museum in the Paraguayan capital (Museo de las Memorias de Asunción).

Las camionetas del terror llegan al Museo de las Memorias de Paraguay (El Mundo)

Paraguay marks 25 years of partial democracy

On 3 February, Paraguay will commemorate a quarter of a century of "incomplete" democracy. Alfredo Stroessner, head of Latin America's longest-running dictatorship, was finally forced out by a further coup in 1989. Shortly afterwards, he fled to Brazil, where he died 17 years later.

The overthrow led to a certain political opening up, the recovery of some political freedoms, the progressive reintegration of Paraguay into the international community and slow steps towards democracy, at least nominally. But in elections in May 1989, the Partido Colorado - the party of the dictatorship - won with 74% of the votes. The historic transfer of power away from the party did not come until 2008, and it returned to government in 2013.

The crimes which took place during the dictatorship remain largely unpunished. These are thought to include 425 deaths or disappearances and 20,000 politicial prisoners.

A recent survey illustrates how far the process of democratisation has to go in Paraguay: 32% of the population today would prefer an authoritarian government. This is the highest proportion in Latin America, according to Latinobarómetro.

Fernando Masi of the Paraguayan economic research institute Cadep judges the country to be "a low-quality democracy". He also explains that 1989 was not the moment when Paraguay "regained" its democracy but rather when it started building it - and this without a clean break, since the Partido Colorado remained in power.

Paraguay is still the country with the second-greatest concentration of land ownership in the world, according to the UN. 2.6% of landlords own 85.5% of agricultural land. Nepotism remains a major issue, although some protests highlighted the problem in the last year.


Paraguay: A 25 años del golpe que terminó con la dictadura mas larga de Sudamérica (Telam)

Paraguay conmemora 25 años de democracia incompleta (Terra)

Paraguay: Protests over Stroessner's remains

Today is the centenary of the birth of Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay between 1984 and 1989. He died in 2006 in Brazil and is buried there. Now his family wants to repatriate his remains so that, in the words of his grandson, also called Alfredo and a senator, "soon the whole Stroessner family will be together in Paraguay".

The plan has triggered protests from victims and human rights movements.

The family originally wanted the repatriation to coincide with the anniversary, that obviously hasn't happenend, and it's unclear exactly when or if it will go ahead.

Row over Paraguay dictator Alfredo Stroessner's remains (BBC)
Ex presos políticos paraguayos repudian repatriación de restos de exdictador (AFP)

Paraguay: New memory museum

A ceremony was held on Friday in Abraham Cué, a police station in San Juan Bautista, Paraguay, which functioned as a detention/torture centre in 1976. The timing was arranged for the 36th anniversary of the "Pascua Dolorosa" (Painful Easter), a wave of repression which occurred in Paraguay in April 1976.

Abraham Cué was declared the second memory museum in the country in an event attended by representatives of the interior ministry and victims' relatives, among others. However, none of the news articles I've read give details of the contents of the museum or when it is due to open (or if, indeed, it is already open).

h/t Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana

Paraguay: convierten ex centro de tortura en museo (Terra)
Abraham Cué, como sitio de memoria histórica (ABC Paraguay)

News Round-up

Latin America
Human rights agenda has expanded (IPS)
IPS takes the conference of human rights defenders organised by CELS in Buenos Aires as its cue to survey the state of human rights in the region. It finds that the range of issues has expanded from a focus on authoritarian regimes to include environmental and other concerns. However, there is a broad range of threats as well:

"Today it is not only the state that violates human rights, but also companies, para-state agencies and organised crime," said [Gastón] Chillier [of CELS].

Human rights activism is still potentially deadly in Latin America, and I take my hat off to all those brave people who do it anyway.

Paraguay
US donation to help Paraguay fight guerrillas (Guardian)
U.S. Government to Help Paraguay Fight Guerrillas (Americas Quarterly)
The US government is giving Paraguay more than $1 million in equipment and training to help it combat a small guerrilla group, the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (Paraguayan People’s Army–EPP. I know practically nothing about this group, which is estimated to have just 20 armed members, but will keep an eye out for more detail.

Peru
Keiko Fujimori: "Quizás está llegando ya el momento de solicitar un indulto" (El Comercio)
Keiko Fujimori: Moment Is Coming To Request Pardon For Father (Peruvian Times)
Keiko says her father is very ill and the time is coming to pardon him because "it would be terrible if he died in prison". My sympathy is limited, I have to say.

News Round-up

Argentina
I did not know that UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, was a victim of the Argentine junta:
Argentina's Dirty War lessons for the world (BBC)

Guatemala
Reuters profiles new Guatemalan president Otto Perez and discusses his role in the country's civil war
Special report: Guatemala's new leader faces questions (Reuters)

Paraguay

Paraguay: no money to identify dictatorship dead (AP)

Peru:
Colina victims laid to rest
Nineteen Years Later, Death Squad Victims Given Burial in Santa (Peruvian Times)

Resources: Truth and justice in Paraguay

A recommendation for those interested in memory issues in Paraguay is the website Verdad y Justicia from the Paraguayan government ombudsman (defensoria del pueblo). It's Spanish language and includes the complete report of the country's TRC for download as PDF.

Paraguay: Dictatorship Archives Opened

Human rights activists in Paraguay, led by Martin Almada, now have access to military archives apparently containing information about the Stroessner era. In addition, the files seem to include material on Argentines as well, leading to hopes that it could reveal more about Operation Condor, the pan-Latin American intelligence campaign.

"Many relatives of disappeared prisoners don't know where their loved ones are buried. Maybe these documents will provide clues," Almada said.

Paraguay unveils archives from dictatorship (AP)

See also excellent photos here

News Round-up 30/09/09

Chile

Chilean judge questions son of dictator Pinochet (AP)

Chile again fails to ratify the Interamerican Convention on the forced disappearance of persons due to a failure to achieve quorum in parliament (via El blog de la Republica)
La Camara sin diputados suficientes para legislar sobre desaparicion forzada de personas (El mostrador)

Colombia

No one responsible for 185 murders committed by paramilitaries (Colombia Reports)

Guatemala/US

The sordid history of Lewis Amselem, Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the OAS (Machetera)

Panama

Obituary of Guillermo Endara, successor to Noriega (New York Times)

Paraguay

Interior Minister called it "unfortunate" that convicts were able to collect pay for so long: yeah, that's one word for it.
Convicted Paraguay torturers kept earning salaries (AP)

Peru

Did Fujimori plead guilty to avoid a trial which would have focused attention on uncomfortable truths involving his presidential candidate daughter?
Todo por Keiko (Colectivo por la memoria)

Argentina/Paraguay: Military Dr to be Extradited

Former captain Norberto Atilio Bianco is to be extradited from Paraguay, where he fled last year, back to Argentina to face charges of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship. He has already been convicted of appropriating two children, who were registered as his own while in fact they were the offspring of disappeared persons. He is also accused of running a clandestine maternity ward in the military hospital of the Campo de Mayo in the late 1970s, where more than 35 women may have given birth before having their babies stolen.

Bianco, who is currently under house arrest, won't be sent back to Argentina immediately as he is likely to appeal the extradition order.

Extraditaran desde Paraguay a un medico represor (Critica Digital)

News Round-Up 4/08/2009

Argentina
Paying homage to the founder of the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (APDH; Permanent Assembly for Human Rights), Pablo Pimentel, on the 25th anniversary of his death.
La memoria de un luchador (Pagina/12)

Paraguay
Mengele's Undisclosed Location (The Atlantic)

Peru
Fujimori on Trial reports on the continuing, and unacceptable, delays to reparations:
Council asks for victims' reparations to be a priority (Fujimori on Trial)

News Round-Up 30/07/2009

Chile
Even the far-right Unión Demócrata Independiente doesn't want Rodrigo García Pinochet, Augusto's grandson, as their candidate. He's annoyed.
My how times change (IKN)
Nieto de Pinochet acusa a la derecha de darle la espalda por su apellido (El Comercio)

Paraguay

"Until yesterday, the 'Stronistas' (as Stroessner's followers are referred to here) said there were no victims of forced disappearance, that it was all just our lies,"

First Remains of Victims of Dictatorship (IPS)

Peru
Paranoid archbishop Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani stirred up rumours of foreign interference in indigenous disputes in his Independence Day homily.
Cardinal Cipriani warns of "foreign meddling in Peru's internal affairs" during 28th July homily (Peruvian Times)

Paraguay: Victims' Remains Found

The bodies of at least two victims of the Stroessner dictatorship have been discovered on the site of a police station in Tacumbu, Ascuncion.* Working on tip offs from retired police officers and information from human rights activists, investigators found the remains in a 2.5 by 1m grave.

The Paraguayan Minister of the Interior, Rafael Filizzola, promised that the deaths would be thoroughly investigated. President Lugo also visited the site on Thursday.

There is a suggestion that one of the victims may be Argentine Oscar Luis Rojas, who disappeared in 1977. Having been jailed in Paraguay, he was supposed to be returned to his native country, but never arrived.

According to SDP Noticias, this is the first such discovery since the end of the Stroessner regime, despite the fact that an estimated 3,000 people were disappeared during the dictatorship, so this is quite a momentous event for Paraguay.

Grave of Suspected Torture Victims Found in Paraguay (CNN)
Seguiran busqueda de cadaveres tras hallazgo de osamentas en Paruguay (SDP)
Visita Lugo fosa clandestina en predio policial (CNN)

*Thanks to Lauren writing at The Latin Americanist for drawing my attention to this story.

Paraguay: Dictatorship Official Jailed

After his recent return to Paraguay, Sabino Montanaro is now facing charges of torture and other crimes against humanity. This week, the 86-year old was transferred to prison.

Montanaro’s attorneys are challenging the arrest based on the fact that Paraguay allows defendants over 70 years-old to be in home detention during criminal prosecution. Defense counsel also question whether Montanaro can be prosecuted due his frail physical and mental condition.

Montanaro was transferred from the police hospital amid a strong show of security measures in the face of heated demonstrations by the relatives of those who went missing during the dictatorship.

"This is an historic moment. He is the last link in our fight against impunity", said Guillermina Kanonikoff, the widow of Mario Schaerer Prono. Schaerer Prono was a member of a clandestine student organization that opposed Stroessner. He was captured, tortured and killed. Kanonikoff added that the former minister was part of a regime that decided "who lived, who died and who disappeared."

After 12 Years on the Run, Former Minister in Prison for Crimes against Humanity (Impunity Watch)

Latin America: Truth Commission Resources

Argentina:
Comision Nacional sobre la Desparicion de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persions, CONADEP, 1983)
Report entitled "Nunca Mas" (Never Again)

Bolivia: Comision Nacional de Investigacion de Desaparecidos (National Commission of Enquiry into Disappearances, 1982)
Commission dissolved early without producing a report, see here

Chile: Comision Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliacion (National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, known as the Rettig commission, 1990)
Report here in English, here in Spanish
Comision Nacional sobre Prision Politica y Tortura (National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, known as the Valech commission, 2003)
Report here in Spanish

Ecuador: Comision "Verdad y Justicia" (Truth and Justice Commission, 1996)
More information here
Comision de la Verdad (Truth Commission, 2007)
Official site here

El Salvador: Comision de la Verdad para El Salvador (Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, 1992)
Report: De la locura a la esperanza: la guerra de 12 años en El Salvador
From Madness to Hope: the 12 year War in El Salvador

Guatemala: Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico (Commission for Historical Clarification, 1997)
Report: Memoria del Silencio
Memory of Silence

Panama: Comision de la Verdad (Truth Commission, 2001)
More information here

Paraguay: Comision de Verdad y Justicia (Truth and Justice Commission, 2003)
Conclusion and recommendations of report in Spanish here

Peru: Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2001)
Final report here in Spanish, here summarised in English

Uruguay: Comisión Investigadora sobre la Situación de Personas Desaparecidas y Hechos que la Motivaron (Investigative Commission on the Situation of Disappeared People and its Causes, 1985)
More information here
Comision para la Paz (Peace Commission, 2000)
Scroll down to the bottom of the entry here to download a Word document of the final report in Spanish

Other sources of information

Brandon Hamber
David Gairdner, The Role of Truth Commissions in Political Transition in Chile and El Salvador (pdf)
Institutional Center for Transitional Justice
Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions
United States Institute of Peace

Paraguay: Dictatorship Official Should Tell All

President Lugo has called on a former Interior Minister under dictator Stroessner to reveal the whereabouts of the remains of victims from Paraguay's repression. I'm not too hopeful of his chances of success, since Sabino Montanaro is 86, and his lawyer said openly a couple of days ago that he had returned to Paraguay since he was now too old to be jailed there. Plus, a court doctor describes him as "confused".

Dictatorship-era aide must tell of bodies (AP)

News Round-Up

"Head in your hands" post of the week: Insight into Why Sendero Terrorists are Gaining Ground (Inca Kola News)

Brazil's Supreme Court Repeals Censorship Law from 1960s (Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, thanks to Listen, Yankee! for pointing out this one)

Mexico: Army Accused of Human Rights Abuses (New York Times)

Paraguay: Protests and Rubber Bullets Greet Return of Dictatorship Criminal (Upside Down World) - this is a really excellent piece, incidentally

News Round-Up

Peru:

The Public Prosecutor’s Office finished presenting final arguments for [the Fujimori] trial, reiterating its request for 30 years of prison and a reparation of 100,600,000 Peruvian soles (just over US$32 million) to victims — 100 million soles ($32 million) for the victims of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, and 300,000 soles (nearly $96,000) each for kidnap victims Gustavo Gorriti and Samuel Dyer.

Public Prosecutor Reiterates Request for 30-year Prison Sentence (Fujimori on Trial)

Peru's Attorney General narrowly escaped a murder attempt last weekend.

Police initially believed the attack was a carjacking gone wrong. The events of the attack, however suggest that the attack was an assassination attempt. An inquiry has begun into the shooting.

Peruvian Attorney General Survives Assassination Attempt (Impunity Watch)

Paraguay:

Paraguayan society is marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of former dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) amid uncertainty surrounding the loss of power of the Colorado Party, which ruled the country for 61 years.[...]

The Truth and Justice Commission, created by law in 2003, recorded 128,076 direct and indirect victims of the dictatorship, of whom 19,682 were arbitrarily detained, 18,722 were subjected to different forms of torture, 59 were executed and 337 disappeared.

Twenty Years of Transition (IPS)

Colombia/Venezuela:

Any evenhanded comparison of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments’ human rights records would have to note that, though Venezuela’s record is far from perfect, that country is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice journalism.

But a new survey by FAIR shows that, over the past 10 years, editors at four leading U.S. newspapers have focused more on purported human rights abuses in Venezuela than in Colombia, and their commentary would suggest that Venezuela’s government has a worse human rights record than Colombia’s. These papers, FAIR found, seem more interested in reinforcing official U.S. policy toward the region than in genuinely supporting the rights of Colombians and Venezuelans.

Human Rights Coverage Serving Washington's Needs (NACLA)

Paraguay: Human Rights Improvements

A report has praised Paraguay's recognition of its past human rights violations and identified areas where strong democratic structures are still lacking:

Paraguay: Strides in Human Rights (IPS)

Blog Round-Up

Some shocking pictures in
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay (Upside Down World)

IPS on the military massacre in Bogota in 1985, in which 11 Supreme Court magistrates and at least 80 others died. The killings were a botched response to the capture of the building by guerrillas.
The Truth Is Slowly Coming Out

Meanwhile,
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration (Ecuador Rising)