Esteban Cuya
Researcher of The Human Rights Centre at Nuremberg.
Paraguay enjoyed great
prestige among anticommunist criminals of the world during the dictatorship of
General Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989. In addition to its strategic
location in South America, Paraguay offered an "enviable political
stability", that guaranteed impunity for crimes committed ", as well
as all kinds of legal and administrative facilities, financial, and logistical.
Italian Fascists, Nazi Germans, Croatian
and Cuban terrorists, Argentine, Brazilian and Spanish anticommunists, Bolivian
assassins, Chilean genocidal, and all
kinds of military and civilians involved in human rights violations, arms
trafficking, espionage, chose to Paraguay shelter and were welcomed by the
highest authorities of the country as "freedom fighters" and
"international heroes."
The dictatorial regime led by General Stroessner, with
the collaboration of military and conservative businessmen offered the context
of "peace" and seeking criminal impunity as the doctor Nazi Josef
Mengele, the Spanish Juan León Cordón Franco, among other characters that
settled in Paraguay. Many of the Chilean secret agents responsible for serious
human rights violations, unlawful arrests and disappearances continued living in
Paraguay until 1992 under assumed names.
The "Paraguayan model" of totalitarianism that
ensured "social peace at any cost" was praised among others by the
then U.S. President Richard Nixon, who acknowledged that Paraguay was a key
strategic focus for the fight against communism. On May 4, 1968, to reach
Asunción, Nixon told Stroessner: "In the field of international affairs, I
know no other nation has been lifted his strongest against the threat of
communism."
The Paraguayan dictatorship aroused envy among the
military from the Southern Cone of America, who also aspired to direct the destiny of their countries for extended
periods to enable them to achieve their long-term projects. For this
reason, many top secret agents from Latin America converged in Paraguay on
several occasions in order to learn from their experience of repression and
coordinate strategies to "Cleanse the region of the potential threat of
communism and subversion”.
Since mid 40s there were close
relationships between Army forces and officers from South America, who had been
together at the U.S counterinsurgency specialization academies (La Escuela de las Américas) 1 , where friendships
were forged. In other stages within the region, American military had lived for
periods of six months to two years in training centers in Argentina and Panama.
Such Argentine military relations with their Uruguayans, Paraguayans, Brazilians,
Chileans, Bolivians and Peruvians counterparts,
would pay off in the years of dictatorship(1976-1983), some of which we will
see below.
The Prats
case
On 30 September 1974, in Buenos Aires, at 00.40 hours,
when returning home, former Vice President
of Chile Salvador Allende's government, General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia
Gonzales Csuffered a bomb attack that
took their life. Thus ended one of the first operations abroad by the National Intelligence Directorate of
Chile, DINA, commanded by General Manuel Contreras, who considered Prats as one
of the stronger opponents of Gral. Augusto Pinochet. Among those responsible
for the attack on Prats, were Michael Townley, an American electronics expert
and special agent of the DIN ; Juan Luis Bulnes Ossa, Chilean right-wing
militant, and the Chilean Army Major Armando Fernandez Larios, who joined in
October 1973 the " Caravan of Death ", who massacred 72 prisoners in
five Chilean cities. For the monitoring
of Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, in the preparatory phase of the crime, Chilean
agents used plates that belonged to of the Federal Police of Buenos Aires, the
Immigration Office credentials and cars that were assigned to the Argentine
army.
The Letelier
case
On 18th September, 1976,
Orlando Letelier, who served as foreign minister under Salvador Allende, was
traveling to work at the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington when a bomb
was ignited under his car. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, a 25 year old American involved in the
campaign to bring democracy to Chile, both died of their injuries. Just days before his death, Pinochet´s
government had stripped Letelier out of his nationality because Letelier looked to "to influence U.S.
foreign policy demanding total suspension of military aid to Chile. As in the
above cases, responsible for coordinating the operation was the American
Michael Townley, an unconditional agent of Manuel Contreras, head of DINA. A
few weeks earlier, Chilean secret agents had obtained Paraguayan passports and
visas to enter the United States. Chilean Foreign Ministry also gave DINA
agents passports with false names. With the discovery of the archives of
terror, in Paraguay, it is confirmed that the Letelier assassination was
gestated by Manuel Contreras, in "Operation Condor."
Condor Operation
According to research
conducted in relation to the murder of Orlando Letelier, it has been
established that the Chilean general Manuel Contreras, head of DINA, conceived
and organized the Operation Condor, which
task was the "collection, exchange and storage intelligence data
related to left-wing activists, communists and Marxists, in order to eliminate
Marxist terrorist in the area. " This accusation has been ratified with some documents found in the secret
archives of Paraguayan police. Contreras traveled to Argentina, Bolivia,
Paraguay, Venezuela and the United States, to expose its repressive
supranational project and convince the heads of the secret services of these
countries on the importance of coordination and cooperation "to eliminate
communism" and defend "Western Christian" society.
In August 1975 in an effort
to put " Condor operation" to
work, Manuel Contreras met in Washington DC with Vernon Walters, deputy
director of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, U.S. Then, as part of
"Operation Condor" it was
achieved a broad range of agreements
between the secret services of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay,
and encouraged the participation of Brazil and Peru. The scope was set within
the borders of of all member countries, establishing facilities for the
clandestine movement of agents in these countries, and the implementation of joint
repressive operations. They also approved the formation of special teams from
member countries to travel anywhere in the world, with the aim of eliminating political
opponents, subversive associates of terrorist groups of any country of the
region. Even before the coup in Argentina (March 1976),agreements had been
reached between the secret services of Argentina and Chile, for the exchange of
"key" information and to facilitate the capture of Chilean leftist
militants. This cooperation was coined as “Operation Condor."
Many left-wing militants and sympathizers: Chileans,
Uruguayans, Paraguayans, Brazilians and Bolivians that were temporarily
established in Argentina were captured in this territory. Likewise, others were
captured a in Paraguay, by police officers from their respective countries, in
the context of this coordinated repression known as "Operation Condor
". Those who suffered more
persecution in Argentina were primarily the leaders the Chilean left-wing party
MIR. Other human rights groups have
documented cases of police repression against Germans, Spanish, and Peruvian
Jews, and others who are among the thousands
missing. As has been demonstrated in various legal proceedings, the secret
services of Chile and Paraguay had at their disposal state airlines and
"carte blanche" in the foreign ministries, the postal service, the
courts, etc. They also covered their activities with "ghosts"
business and industries. In Chile were created 30 fictitious companies
serving the DINA.
Since May 1975 many Chilean political
activists were arrested by police in Argentina and Paraguay to be delivered to
the DINA. Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcon, a member of the People's Revolutionary
Army, was arrested by police in Paraguay while crossing the border from
Argentina. He was then handed over to the DINA agents in Paraguay and illegally
transferred to Santiago, where their traces were lost. In the capture and
interrogation of Fuentes Alarcon participated, as the Rettig Commission
established, "the Argentine intelligence services, representatives of the
U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires, which kept to Chilean Police informed of the
result of the interrogation, and the Paraguayan police, who captured and
allowed the transfer of Chilean underground militants". The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Chile, in its final report documents the cases of
33 Chilean citizens missing after being caught by Argentine, Paraguayan and
Brazilian police forces, and were delivered to the DINA, only between 1975 and
1976.
On 22 December 1992, Judge José Agustín Fernández,
accidentally discovered the secret archive of the Paraguayan repressive
intelligence, in the office of "Sección política y afines" of
the Investigative Police of Asuncion, while investigating the case of Martin
Almada, a teacher who had been arrested and tortured in Asunción between 1974
and 1977. Fernandez explained that within police circles he obtained
confidential information that confirmed the existence of the files. So, they
secretly went to this reserved area where they discovered what Paraguayan journalism
named "The Archives of Terror".
"When we discovered it, it was so many documents
that it was impossible to leave them available to the police because they could
destroy them, burn them. So with the help of a News Journal truck, we took them
to my office, and then to the Supreme Court deposits ", said the judge. Among
the files, there are plenty of documents related to cases of detainees and
missing people that Paraguayan government had always denied to have them under
its power, so the Judge Fernandez said:" There is evidence that in
Paraguay there was torture, imprisonment of political activists, the systematic
control of many people. "
It also includes numerous documents
related to "Operation Condor"
concocted by Manuel Contreras, renowned human rights violator, head of the
DINA. Documentation found confirmed that under the "Cooperation
Agreement" a numbers of the
murders were committed: the one of former Chilean minister Orlando Letelier; former
President of Bolivia, General Juan José Torres who was murdered in Argentina;
of Uruguayan lawmakers Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutiérrez Ruiz and Dr.
Augustine Goyburu, Colorado Popular Movement leader of Paraguay; and hundreds
of political activists from Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
There was found mail that belonged
to the region police, records and transfer of detainees sheets, cards,
photographs and passports of leftist activists from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil; There
were also found plans to get rid of suspects,
reports of subversive movements in the different countries the Southern Cone, the
analysis of the activities of Non-Governmental Development Organizations in
Paraguay, as well as detailed reports addressed to Paraguayan dictator Stroessner related to the targeting and killings of key political
opponents.
There is also documentation that facilitated the stay of
Croatian mercenaries in Paraguay, Italians, Cubans, Chileans, among others, and
the presence of Nazi criminals in the Southern Cone of America, and the
assassination of Israeli agents who pursued them, the secret service
connections with the American CIA and drug trafficking. There are sufficient
and irrefutable evidence that state terrorism was practiced internationally.
Documentation found and the testimony of several of those involved,
demonstrates the complicity of the police and the government of Paraguay with
the brutal repression by the dictatorships of Argentina and Chile, as well as
with Brazil and Bolivia. It also demonstrates how General Augusto Pinochet
upheld the practice of state terrorism inside and outside their country. There
is evidence that both Pinochet and Stroessner devoted special attention to the
strengthening and coordination of security services, which that aim, they met
on several occasions. Repression proved to
be so efficient, that even officials of U.S. State Department acknowledged that
"The intelligence services of the Southern Cone have met and have a clear
program of mutual aid”.
Why the
files were not destroyed?
It is likely that senior
military and police officers involved in human rights violations and
participating in "Operation Condor" had hopes of restoring Stroessner
dictatorship. They fell into overconfidence that immobilized them before destroying
incriminating documents which they thought could still be useful in the future.
Intelligence records are updated from Paraguay until 1991, two years after the
coup that overthrew Stroessner and ended his dictatorship. Actually the
discovery of the "Archives of Terror" was achieved thanks to police
unhappy with their bosses. These same officers have denounced that corruption
rules within the military and law enforcement agencies. For no one in Paraguay
it was a mystery to know that the highest police chiefs and military officials
linked to General Stroessner were part of the vast woven chain of moral and
political corruption during long years of dictatorship of Stroessner. The
smuggling of stolen cars from Brazil and Uruguay, their selling it Bolivia and Peru, cocaine
trafficking, gambling casinos, money laundering from drug trafficking,
prostitution chains among countless illegal activities were carried out openly
by some of the highest authorities of Paraguay police and military, as has been
seen in recent months.
Convinced of the importance of the documentation
discovered, lawyers and representatives of human rights organizations in
Brazil, Argentina and Chile, traveled to Asunción, to review "the archives
of terror" in which incriminating evidence found against the heads of the
services secrets of the region. With the discovery of "Archives of
Terror" in Paraguay, new possibilities have opened for applying justice to
the main agents of repression in the Southern Cone of America, so that their
crimes will not go unpunished.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation
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