Editing Alfredo Stroessner (section)

===Operation Condor===
{{Operation Condor}}

Paraguay was a leading participant in [[Operation Condor]], a campaign of [[state terror]] and security operations officially implemented in 1975 which were jointly conducted by the military dictatorships of six South American countries ([[Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)|Chile]], [[National Reorganization Process|Argentina]], [[History of Bolivia (1964–1982)|Bolivia]], Paraguay, [[Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay|Uruguay]] and [[Military dictatorship in Brazil|Brazil]]) with the support of the United States.<ref>[[Greg Grandin]] (2011). ''[http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo11643711.html The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War].'' [[University of Chicago Press]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6FivSpNY2fkC&pg=PA75 p. 75]. {{ISBN|9780226306902}}</ref><ref>Walter L. Hixson (2009). ''[http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300119121 The Myth of American Diplomacy: National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy].'' [[Yale University Press]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=DNId6HxkzQwC&pg=PA223 p. 223]. {{ISBN|0300151314}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=McSherry|first1=J. Patrice|author-link1= J. Patrice McSherry|editor1=Esparza, Marcia |editor2=Henry R. Huttenbach|editor3=Daniel Feierstein|title=State Violence and Genocide in Latin America: The Cold War Years (Critical Terrorism Studies)|chapter=Chapter 5: "Industrial repression" and Operation Condor in Latin America |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=acGNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 107]|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0415664578|chapter-url=https://www.routledge.com/State-Violence-and-Genocide-in-Latin-America-The-Cold-War-Years/Esparza-Huttenbach-Feierstein/p/book/9780415496377}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Blakeley|first=Ruth|date=2009 |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South|url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|publisher=[[Routledge]]|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 22] & [https://books.google.com/books?id=rft8AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 23]|isbn=978-0415686174}}</ref> Human rights violations characteristic of those in other South American countries such as [[kidnapping]]s, [[torture]], [[forced disappearance]]s and [[extrajudicial killing]]s were routine and systematic during the Stroessner regime. Following executions, many of the bodies of those killed by the regime were dumped in the [[Chaco Basin|Chaco]] or the [[Paraguay River|Río Paraguay]]. The discovery of the "[[Archives of Terror]]" in 1992 in the [[Lambaré]] suburb of [[Asunción]] confirmed allegations of widespread human rights violations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150909104641/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/thisday/dec22/archives-terror-discovered/ 1992: Archives of Terror Discovered]. ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]].'' Retrieved August 11, 2018.</ref>

During Stroessner's rule, two special departments were organized under the Ministry of the Interior led by [[Edgar Ynsfrán]]: the Department of Investigations of the Metropolitan Police (Departamento de Investigaciones de la Policía de la Capital, DIPC) under the leadership of [[Pastor Coronel]],<ref name="abc.com.py">{{Cite web |url=https://www.abc.com.py/especiales/memorias-reconstruccion-de-la-historia-reciente-del-paraguay/supuesta-conspiracion-politica-y-muerte-de-un-cadete-1002886.html |title=Supuesta conspiración política y muerte de un cadete |access-date=2019-07-07 |archive-date=2019-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707180749/https://www.abc.com.py/especiales/memorias-reconstruccion-de-la-historia-reciente-del-paraguay/supuesta-conspiracion-politica-y-muerte-de-un-cadete-1002886.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the National Directorate of Technical Affairs (Dirección Nacional de Asuntos Técnicos, DNAT) directed by [[Antonio Campos Alum]].<ref name=insfran3>{{Cite news |url=https://elpais.com/diario/1991/09/04/agenda/683935203_850215.html |title=Edgar L. Ynsfran, ex ministro del Interior paraguayo |newspaper=El País |date=4 September 1991 |access-date=2019-07-07 |archive-date=2019-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527152607/https://elpais.com/diario/1991/09/04/agenda/683935203_850215.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Both units specialized in political repression. Pastor Coronel became infamous for his brutality. He would interview people in a ''pileta'', a bath of human vomit and excrement, or ram electric cattle prods up their rectums.<ref name="pileta"/><ref>{{cite news |last=Schemo |first=Diana Jean |date=1999 |title=Files in Paraguay Detail Atrocities of U.S. Allies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/11/world/files-in-paraguay-detail-atrocities-of-us-allies.html|work=The New York Times |access-date= August 18, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Telegraph">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1526487/General-Alfredo-Stroessner.html General Alfredo Stroessner]. ''The Telegraph,'' August 17, 2006. Retrieved August 6, 2015.</ref> In 1975, the Secretary of the [[Paraguayan Communist Party]], {{ill|Miguel Ángel Soler|es|vertical-align=sup}}, was dismembered alive by chainsaw while Stroessner listened on the phone.<ref name="pileta">[[#Gimlette|Gimlette]], p. 12</ref><ref>Alex Henderson (February 4, 2015). [http://www.alternet.org/world/7-fascist-regimes-enthusiastically-supported-america 7 Fascist Regimes Enthusiastically Supported by America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150314005559/http://www.alternet.org/world/7-fascist-regimes-enthusiastically-supported-america |date=14 March 2015 }}. ''[[Alternet]].'' Retrieved March 8, 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Green |first=W. John |date=2015|title=A History of Political Murder in Latin America: Killing the Messengers of Change |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCazCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA266|publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |page=266 |isbn=978-1438456638|quote=Stroessner reportedly listened on the phone as the secretary of the Paraguayan communist party was ripped apart with a chainsaw.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Whitehead |first=Anne |date=1998 |title=Paradise Mislaid: In Search of the Australian Tribe of Paraguay|publisher=[[University of Queensland Press]]|page= 554|isbn=978-0702226519|quote=According to testimony submitted by Amnesty International to the Paraguayan Supreme Court in 1979, Miguel Angel Solar, Secretary of the Parguayan Communist Party, was methodically taken apart, dismembered alive by chainsaw.}}</ref> The screams of tortured dissidents were often recorded and played over the phone to family members, and sometimes the bloody garments of those killed were sent to their homes.<ref name ="Montefiore">[[Simon Sebag Montefiore]]. ''History's Monsters.'' Metro Books, 2008. p. 271. {{ISBN|1435109376}}</ref>

Under Stroessner, egregious human rights violations were committed against the indigenous [[Aché]] population of Paraguay's eastern districts, largely as the result of U.S. and European corporations wanting access to the country's forests, mines and grazing lands.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Arens|editor-first=Richard|date=1976|title=Genocide in Paraguay|url=http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/116_reg.html|publisher=[[Temple University Press]]|isbn=978-0877220886|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002035708/http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/116_reg.html|archive-date=October 2, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Cooper"/> The Aché resided on land that was coveted and had resisted relocation attempts by the Paraguayan army. The government retaliated with massacres and forced many Aché into slavery. In 1974, the UN accused Paraguay of [[slavery]] and [[genocide]]. Only a few hundred Aché remained alive by the late 1970s.<ref name="Cooper"/> The Stroessner regime financed this [[Genocide of indigenous peoples in Paraguay|genocide]] with U.S. aid.<ref name="Cooper"/>

Stroessner was careful not to show off or draw attention from jealous generals or foreign journalists. He avoided rallies and took simple holidays in [[Patagonia]]. He became more tolerant of opposition as the years passed, but there was no change in the regime's basic character.

During Stroessner's rule, no [[Socialist state|socialist nation]]s had diplomatic relations with Paraguay, with the sole exception of [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+py0106) ''Paraguay: A Country Study'', "Foreign Relations"]. Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved on August 21, 2014.</ref> Stroessner made many [[state visits]], including to [[Japan]], the United States, and [[France]], as well as to [[South Africa]], a country which Paraguay developed close bilateral ties with in the 1970s.<ref name="WiardaKline2013">{{cite book|author1=Howard J. Wiarda|author2=Harvey F. Kline|title=Latin American Politics and Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7g_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA268|date=31 December 2013|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=978-0-8133-4904-6|pages=268–}}</ref> He also made several visits to [[West Germany]], although over the years his relations with that country deteriorated. Since he had always been known as pro-German, this worsening of relations, combined with his feeling that the U.S. had abandoned him, was regarded as a personal blow to Stroessner.

It has been asserted that the [[Roman Catholic Church]] is the only reason Stroessner did not have absolute control over the country.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+py0100) ''Paraguay: A Country Study'', "Interest Groups: The Roman Catholic Church"]. Lcweb2.loc.gov. Retrieved on August 21, 2014.</ref> In 1971, the Archbishop of Asunción [[Ismael_Rolón|Ismael Rolón Silvero]] excommunicated the minister of the interior and the chief of police in response to attacks on priests.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 4, 1971 |title=Paraguay Church Battles Regime|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/04/archives/paraguay-church-battles-regime-excommunicates-30-after-a-bishop-is.html|work=The New York Times |access-date= March 28, 2025}}</ref> On September 12, 1972, police attacked a protest meeting and tore down anti-government posters at the [[Universidad_Católica_"Nuestra_Señora_de_la_Asunción"|Catholic University]].<ref>Kohut, David and Vilella, Olga (2010) ''Historical Dictionary of the "Dirty Wars" (Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest, No. 40)''. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-8108-5839-8}}. p. 235</ref> When [[Pope John Paul II]] visited Paraguay in 1988, his visit bolstered what was already a robust anti-Stroessner movement within the country.<ref>[http://www.nysun.com/article/38108 ''New York Sun'' Obituaries: "Alfredo Stroessner, 93, Old-Style Military Dictator of Paraguay"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109054717/http://www.nysun.com/article/38108 |date=9 January 2009 }}. Nysun.com. Retrieved on August 21, 2014.</ref>

Stroessner gave a written television interview to [[Alan Whicker]] as part of a documentary called ''The Last Dictator'' (UK: 7 April 1970) for the television series ''[[Whicker's World]]''. The programme was released in a [[DVD region code#2|Region 2]] [[DVD]] box-set by the UK's Network imprint.