Paraguay unveils archives from Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship (US ally)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Paraguay unveils archives from Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship
• Archive may contain reports on Operation Condor
• Documents could provide clues on fates of disappeared

Associated Press
guardian.co.uk,

Human rights activists gained access today to a dictatorship-era military archive that appears to contain long-held secrets about Paraguay's persecution of opponents during Alfredo Stroessner's 1954-1989 rule.

The basement archive in the ministry of defence appears to hold some records about Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign by South American military governments against leftists during the 1970s and 80s, according to rights activist Martin Almada.

The discovery was announced hours after Almada gained access the rows of boxes and yellowed ledgers this morning. He said the documents apparently contain names of Argentine opponents of Stroessner's government.

"In skimming through them, we uncovered some interesting information regarding Operation Condor," said Almada, who directs a museum about past government repression and torture.

Several South American military governments are accused of working together to crack down on leftist dissidents beginning in the mid-1970s.
Many alleged "Operation Condor" abuses are being investigated for the first time after Argentina overturned legal amnesties and Uruguay elected its first leftist president.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/14/alfredo-stroessner-paraguay-operation-condor

[ljm2002]

1. That's good...

...let there be light!

K&R

[YouTakeTheSkyway]

2. Great Find!

Glad to see some of this stuff beginning to come out.

[justinaforjustice]

3. Now Please Open the Bush-Cheney Archives, President Obama.

Let us hope we don't have to wait 30 or 40 years for the exposure of the Bush-Cheney archives. President Obama and Attorney General Holder seem all too ready to hide the Bush-Cheney crimes.

We need to prosecute the war criminals who kidnapped, tortured, disappeared, murdered and illegally invaded two countries. And we need to do it now to effectively prevent if from ever happening again.

[L. Coyote]

6. This Operation Condor archive may be enough to indicte Bush I

Open the Reagan-Bush archives sealed by Bush II.

Lots of Operation Condor info here:

George Bush Sr. May Face Charges: Conspiring to Kidnap and Murder Political Activists
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2459135

[Liberation Angel]

7. great link coyote!

thanks

My family was in Argentina during some of the terrors nd Peron's coup (before my time but two siblings were born there))

a college friend was terrified to go back during some of the really bad years (actuallly it was heinous for decades)

This is good news and i am right there with you

open the archives, investigate, indict, prosecute, imprison!

No punishment is too severe for these crimes, though I oppose the death penalty.

[L. Coyote]

8. Thanks. We worked hard on that compilation. And learned a lot too.

[Liberation Angel]

9. Because some of my family was in Argentina and Uruguay

during this period, this all is very important to me and I have been researching these periods (from 1940's or so on) for years.

The Nazification of Latin America began in the 1930's and the hangover or blowback from US corporate and government support for that is still plaguing Latin America and the world. I know it was not just in Latin America (but in Africa dn Asia too), but I know much more about this because of my family ties.

Thanks again.

Just one more reason to open all these archives for truth and reconciliation and ultimately some measures of justice!

[ro1942]

4. Great news, thanks for posting

[Peace Patriot]

5. The same things are being done to Honduran leftists right now--murder,

torture, rape, imprisonment for their political opinions, and severe repression - and they are rampant in Colombia, the recipient of $6 BILLION in US taxpayer military aid, where thousands of union leaders, human rights workers, political leftists, peasant farmers and others have been murdered by the Colombian military and its closely tied rightwing paramilitary death squads!

I'm glad to see the truth coming out in Paraguay--and other countries where similar atrocities occurred with the complicity of our government, and I hope the lesson and the warning does some good to protect peoples' lives TODAY.