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Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Paraguay protesters see dictatorship's legacy in entrenched right-wing party
by Associated Press
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay --
It was one of the first actions taken by Paraguayans in public defiance
of their overthrown dictator, a military strongman who unleashed a
35-year reign of terror, killing hundreds of people and imprisoning
thousands more.
In a howl of dissent, crowds massed around the newly elected socialist
mayor of Asunción, Paraguay's capital, to tear down a bronze statue
honoring Latin America's longest-ruling dictator, Gen. Alfredo
Stroessner, two years after his 1989 ouster.
When the hulking metal finally came crashing down to a salvo of cheers,
Stroessner's large brass feet stayed planted on the plinth. Residents
joke it remains an unwitting symbol of his entrenched presence in
Asunción -- 70 years ago to the day on Thursday that he seized power
in 1954 coup and secured the virtually uninterrupted dominance of his
conservative Colorado party.
"Stroessner planted a seed, and that seed has germinated," said Emilio
Barreto, an 84-year-old unionist's son who was among nearly 20,000
Paraguayans estimated to have been tortured and imprisoned without
charge during Stroessner's rule. "Today we've been through 35 years of
dictatorship and 35 years of so-called democracy."
Those who pushed the process of democratization after Stroessner's
downfall said they had wanted to believe their country was on the
upswing, that its civic institutions were getting stronger.
But now activists say they've increasingly seen a trend in the opposite
direction.
In a rare eruption of public outrage on Thursday, hundreds of
protesters streamed through downtown Asunción, raising their fists and
chanting, "Never again, dictatorship."
"We're witnessing a curtailing of civil liberties," said Hugo Valiente
from Amnesty International in Paraguay, citing a series of recent
government moves that he said "have the clear purpose of discouraging
people from exercising freedom of association."
A government spokesperson and Colorado party members did not respond to
questions from The Associated Press.
Anxieties about democratic backsliding added urgency to the 70th
anniversary -- which also marks one year since President Santiago
Peña's inauguration.
Leading Thursday's protest was Paraguay's small but passionate
opposition -- including Kattya González, a center-left senator and
vocal government critic who was summarily booted from the Senate last
February.
She had garnered the third-most votes in last year's legislative
elections. But in a vote that rights groups said violated due process,
she was ejected by allies of former President Horacio Cartes, a
powerful cigarette tycoon sanctioned by the Biden administration for
corruption who remains president of the Colorado party.
"We don't see the popular will being reflected in our representative
bodies," González said. "That's why we're demonstrating today."
The government has chalked her expulsion up to the will of Congress,
where the Colorado party has a majority. In June, the party removed a
lawmaker from its ranks who had similarly spoken out against Cartes'
alleged corruption.
Last week, Paraguay even demanded that the United States accelerate the
departure of its ambassador after the White House imposed sanctions on
a tobacco company that it alleged had paid millions of dollars to
Cartes.
Cartes denies the allegations.
When Paraguay's senate last month rushed through a contentious bill
that expands government powers to audit nonprofits, the former mayor of
Asunción raised alarm, recalling the symbolic triumph of 1991.
"Let's remember the moment we knocked down the statue," Carlos
Filizzola said, "for its symbolism against what the dictatorship was."
The government said the bill aims to boost scrutiny of NGO finances to
counter money laundering. Critics said it mimics so-called nonprofit
transparency measures in place from Russia to Venezuela that send a
chill through civil society. The United Nations appealed to Paraguay's
lower house to reject it.
Experts argue that the past is still present in Paraguay because the
government hasn't reckoned with the legacy of Stroessner, who
entrenched the small South American country's highly unequal
distribution of land ownership and turned Paraguay into a smuggling
hub.
His enduring influence was never more obvious than in 2018, when
Paraguay elected then-President Mario Abdo BenÃtez, the son of
Stroessner's personal secretary who had served as a pallbearer at the
dictator's 2006 funeral.
"The totalitarian control of Stroessner created a real identification
between political party and the state," said historian Milda Rivarola.
"That's what made the Paraguayan political regime so special, the only
country on the continent that never really had a progressive
government."
Paraguay's left-wing opposition party held power just once -- from
2008-12 -- before its president's impeachment.
"In our country, this history of the dictatorship is hidden, there's no
policy of memory," said Rogelio Goiburú, who oversees efforts to
recover victims' remains for the Justice Ministry and whose father was
disappeared by the dictatorship.
Efforts to bring justice to those responsible for crimes against
humanity have been far more extensive in neighboring Argentina, where
courts have convicted hundreds of military officers of dictatorship-era
crimes and forensic teams have identified 800 victims.
But in Paraguay, there have been no blockbuster trials of junta
leaders. Public schools -- many still decorated with plaques paying
tribute to Stroessner -- avoid mention of the 20th-century dictatorship
in national history lessons.
The remains of just four victims have been identified with the help of
Argentine researchers. Goiburú said the Justice Ministry commission
has no budget or state support.
"I'm still putting up with everything because of that motto, 'Never
Again.' We do this so we don't lose our memory, so this doesn't happen
again," he said from a riverside park in dilapidated downtown
Asunción. In 1991, Filizzola, the former mayor, named it Plaza of the
Disappeared.
"That's why we have to continue," he said.
#paraguay #freedom #liberty #dictatorship #human-rights #colorado-party #justice #totalitarian #totalitarianism #never-again
