The Stroesnner dictatorship was one of the worst among all the dictatorships in Latin America during those times. Paraguay was a staging ground for right wing training (at the hands of the CIA) and attacks. It was in Paraguay that they developed torture techniques that would later be used against insurgents in Iraq and Guantanamo. Paraguay played a leading role in Operation Condor, which was the first “war on terror,” as leftists were branded “terrorists” and summarily tortured, executed and/or “disappeared.”
Paraguay’s Lugo apologizes to dictatorship victims
http://www.pr-inside.com/paraguay-s-lugo-apologizes-to-dictatorship-victims-r778646.htm
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) – President Fernando Lugo apologized Thursday on behalf of Paraguay to victims of the 1954-1989 dictatorship of the late Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
Speaking at the presentation of a report by the country’s Truth and Justice Commission, Lugo asked for “forgiveness from the victims” for abuses under what he called “the worst dictatorship,” which must never again return to Paraguay.
The commission presented documents containing the names of some 300 politicians, oppositions, students and union leaders who were tortured after being arrested by Stroessner’s security forces and whose remains were never found.
Stroessner was ousted in February 1989 by a military coup and died in exile in Brazil in 2006. He was 93 years old.
Lugo, a left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop, took office on Aug. 15 and ended 61 years of uninterrupted rule by the Colorado Party, which supported Stroessner’s regime.
His government is being visited this week by Thomas Shannon, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.
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