PARAGUAY:
Torture Victim Still
Fears Colorado Party
‘Mafia’
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS)
- The Colorado Party has
become a "criminal
mafia" during its 61
years in government in
Paraguay, and it will
continue to be a force
to be reckoned with in
spite of its defeat in
last month’s elections,
says Anuncio Martí, a
Paraguayan citizen
living in exile in
Brazil.
Martí said he was
abducted and tortured in
Asunción in January 2002
by "a paramilitary and
parapolice group linked
to the government."
Since 2003 he has lived
as a political refugee
in a Brazilian city,
along with two fellow
members of the Partido
Patria Libre (roughly,
Free Homeland Party, PPL),
Juan Arrom and Víctor
Colmán.
Martí rejoiced at the
victory of opposition
candidate Fernando Lugo,
a progressive Catholic
bishop who was elected
president in Paraguay on
Apr. 20. But he still
has mixed feelings of
hope and fear. The
election result was "an
important step forward
for democracy," but "not
the beginning of a real
process of change," he
told IPS.
"We hope that at least
the criminalisation of
social struggles and
mass movements will
end," so that
"construction of a
participative democracy"
can begin, he said. His
scepticism with regard
to the prospect of a
government of the
people, led by Lugo who
is known as "the bishop
of the poor," is partly
due to his own personal
experience.
On Jan. 17, 2002, Martí
and Arrom were kidnapped
in downtown Asunción,
taken to a clandestine
location, and brutally
tortured for nearly two
weeks by a group of 15
police and military
personnel and criminal
investigation agents
belonging to the
official Centre for
Judicial Investigations
(CIJ).
"The struggle against
the dictatorship" of
General Alfredo
Stroessner (1954-1989)
"had just ended, and we
lowered our guard" after
he was overthrown, Martí
admitted. Then his group
of activists founded the
Movement (now Party) for
a Free Homeland (MPL,
now PPL), a Marxist
revolutionary movement.
"After the military
dictatorship, we didn’t
think that the torture
centres would continue
to exist. We learned the
hard way, by experience,
and we were lucky to
survive, when so many
lost their lives," he
said.
Martí and Arrom were
rescued by relatives and
human rights activists
who mobilised during
those two weeks, and
managed to find the
house on the outskirts
of Asunción where they
were being held, on Jan.
31. Finding the house
surrounded by relatives
and journalists who had
been called to the
scene, the kidnappers
fled, leaving the two
detainees behind.
Both required
hospitalisation for
their torture-related
injuries. Two years
later, in exile in
Brazil, Arrom had to
undergo corrective
surgery to his hip as a
consequence of the
abuse. In Martí’s case,
the gashes on his wrists
are the most visible
scars.
The torture the men were
subjected to mainly
involved "direct blows
with iron bars, fists
and firearms, as well as
near-suffocation with
plastic bags and
near-drowning in water,"
said Martí. The plan was
to make them both
"disappear," but they
escaped with their lives
because their captors
"did not agree" on how
to kill them, he said.
There is no doubt that
the death squad was
acting on orders from
the government of former
President Luis González
Macchi (1999-2003),
Martí said.
On the third day of
their illegal detention,
the Interior Ministry
publicly accused Martí
and Arrom of kidnapping
a wealthy Paraguayan
woman, and said they
were both "fugitives." A
mock police operation
was deployed, ostensibly
to search for them along
the Brazilian border.
Arrom, the head of the
MPL, reported that two
government ministers
tried to persuade him to
sign a declaration that
his movement and other
opposition groups were
planning a coup d’état,
in return for giving him
his freedom outside
Paraguayan territory.
"They wanted to make us
scapegoats, an excuse
for a crusade against
supposed ‘terrorists’ in
Paraguay, and for
clamping down on the
people’s mass
movements," said Martí,
pointing out that these
events followed the
Sept. 11, 2001 terror
attacks in the United
States, which he said
served as a pretext to
crack down on social
activists in many
countries.
Washington maintains
that the area where the
borders of Paraguay,
Brazil and Argentina
meet, known as the
Triple Frontier, is a
hotbed of international
terrorism, he said.
In 2002 the government
went on the offensive
against the MPL. Three
other activists were
also arrested and
tortured, among them
Víctor Colmán, who was
granted asylum in Brazil
in 2003, where he joined
Arrom and Martí.
The MPL was also accused
of being the "Paraguayan
arm" of the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC),
because of the
movement’s solidarity
campaigns for the Cuban
Revolution and its
support for a negotiated
peace agreement in
Colombia, which has
lived through almost
half a century of armed
conflict, Martí said.
In the wake of the
scandal that followed
the kidnappings of Arrom
and Martí, Interior
Minister Julio Fanego
and Justice and Labour
Minister Silvio
Ferreira, who had
proposed the false
confession to Arrom,
both resigned.
The chief of police was
sacked and the National
Information Service
(SIN), made up of
members of the armed
forces accused of the
abduction and torture of
Martí and Arrom, was
dissolved.
Members of Congress
blamed these events on
González Macchi and
Attorney General Oscar
Latorre, but no one was
brought to justice.
The Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) ordered
precautionary measures
to protect five members
of the PPL, including
Martí and Arrom.
The case has also been
taken to the
Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, where a
decision is pending.
Experience would
indicate that the
Colorado Party "mafia,
that enriched a small
group of Paraguayan
families," will put up a
stiff opposition,
threatening the dreams
encouraged by the
elections, Martí said.
"Everything depends on
whether social and mass
people’s organisations
are able to influence
the direction of Lugo’s
government," he
concluded.
In a drive-by shooting
on Apr. 8, Alfredo
Ávalos, a leader of the
Tekojoja popular
movement which supports
Lugo, was seriously
injured, and his
Brazilian wife Silvana
Rodríguez was killed, a
clear sign that violence
continues to be a
hallmark of Paraguayan
politics. |
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