Haunted by ghosts of its dictatorship, Paraguay set to pivot back to the right in election
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Source: Guardian
The military regime of Alfredo Stroessner jailed, tortured and ‘disappeared’ opponents. Now the son of Stroessner’s private secretary is likely to become president
Laurence Blair in Asunción
Fri 20 Apr 2018 05.00 EDT
Fifty-eight years later, when Rogelio Goiburú dug up the body in a remote part of eastern Paraguay this March, a few teeth were all that were left to identify it.
“We’re fighting against time,” he said. Paraguay’s soil is highly acidic, he explained. “It eats bones very quickly, so the DNA disappears, and it’s much harder to obtain a genetic profile.”
Goiburú, 62, heads Paraguay’s commission for historical memory and reparation. Since 2011, the underfunded body has documented some 450 desaparecidos, located and exhumed 37 bodies, named four, and returned them to living relatives where possible.
All were victims of the 1954-89 regime of Alfredo Stroessner, which jailed, raped, tortured and “disappeared” opponents under the auspices of a US-backed anti-communist crusade.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/20/paraguay-presidential-election-past-dictatorship-right
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Sure. With a congratulatory statement and a little flattery in their respective right-wing outlets.
The truth is not too many Argentine or Brazilians want much to do with Paraguay - particularly conservatives. They see Paraguay, frankly, in much the same way many Californians view Tijuana: somewhere you'd go only when you're up to no good.
All the best to the centrist candidate Alegre, and above all to the people of Paraguay.
Dictator Alfredo Stroessner and his private secretary Mario Abdo Benítez (right) around 1980. His ability to placate the temperamental (and alcoholic) dictator earned him the nickname "Stroessner's court jester."
