Operation condor and human rights: A report from Paraguay's archive of terror

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 492-506

  Slack, Keith M ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 6144229807     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.1996.0024     Document Type: Review

References (47)

1. R. Andrew Nickson, Paraguay's Archivo del Terror, 30:1 LATIN AM. RES. REV. 125 (1995). Nickson's description of the archive provides some of the basic background information contained in this article. See id. at 125-27.
2. CONSTITUCIÓN DE LA REPUBLICA DEL PARAGUAY (La Ley Paraguaya S.A., 1992).
3. Interview with Martín Almada (conducted by the author and Katie Zoglin), in Asunción, Paraguay (15 May 1995).
4. LAWRENCE WESCHLER, A MIRACLE, A UNIVERSE 121 (1990).
5. GLADYS MEILINCER DE SANNEMANN, PARAGUAY EN EL OPERATIVO CONDOR 17 (1989).
6. Stella Calloni, The Horror Archives of Operation Condor, COVERT ACTION Q. 7, 11, 13 (Fall 1994).
7. Jack Anderson, Condor: South American Assassins, WASH. POST, 2 Aug. 1979, at D.C. 9.
8. Id.
9. Latin America: Murder, Inc., LATIN AMERICAN NEWSLETTER, LTD. 255 (17 Aug. 1979).
10. COMISIÓN NACIONAL SOBRE LA DESAPARICIÓN DE PERSONAS, NUNCA MÁS 255 (Writers & Scholars International trans., Farrar Straus Giroux 1986) (1984) (hereinafter NUNCA MÁS).
11. Interview with Martín Almada, supra note 3.
12. The archive is cataloged in a series of Biblios, Libros, Archivadores, and Armarios, without any formal system. Some documents have been assigned document numbers only. This article cites documents as they are cataloged in the archive and follows the citation model employed in ES MI INFORME: LOS ARCHIVOS DE LA POLÍCIA DE STROESSNER (Rosa Pauau Aguilar et al. eds., 1994). All translations are the author's. Biblio 245, at 122.
13. Biblio 245, at 122-2.
14. Id. at 122-3.
15. Libro D6, at 876.
16. The Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, or ESMA, in Buenos Aires was the main torture center during the Argentine "dirty war." See IAIN GUEST, BEHIND THE DISAPPEARANCES: ARGENTINA'S DIRTY WAR AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE UNITED NATIONS 37 (1990).
17. Document #002F16649. For a discussion of possible US involvement in Operation Condor, see infra Part III.
18. Archivador 246, at 1435. The countries indicated would be Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, the United States, and Venezuela.
19. Archivador 245, at 1522. One source, Calloni, supra note 6, at 57, suggests that Condor 1 was Contreras. This cannot be independently verified, however, by the documentation found in the archive.
20. In a case that relied extensively on material found in the archive, Coronel was recently sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for the 1976 torture and death of political prisoner Mario Schaerer Prono. Coronel is appealing the sentence.
21. Armario 1, unnumbered document.
22. Archivador 1008, at 1344 (emphasis added).
23. Armario 1, unnumbered document (28 May 1976) (emphasis added).
24. Archivador 147, unnumbered document (emphasis added).
25. Libro D6, at 1055 (emphasis added).
26. Libro D6, at 855.
27. Archivador 245, at 324.
28. Archivador 47, at 153.
29. Id.
30. Id. at 162.
31. INTERPOL CONST, art. 2(a) in MICHAEL FOONER, INTERPOL: ISSUES IN WORLD CRIME AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE 185 (1989).
32. NUNCA MÁS, supra note 10, at 255.
33. Letter from Pastor Coronel, Chief of Police, Paraguay, to Britez Borges, police official, Paraguay (on file in Paraguayan archive). The letter is undated but the archivists believe it is from 1976.
34. Armario 1.
35. Libro W48, at 1746; Archivador 39, at 134.
36. Libro A1, at 1550.
37. Id. at 131.
38. Testimony of Benito Guanes Serrano (1993), in File: Año 1993, No. 121, Folio 35, at 135 (on file with Judge Arnulfo Arias).
39. Archivador 47, at 267.
40. Calloni, supra note 6, at 60. See also AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1975-1976, at 107-08 (1977).
41. Archivador 147, at 89.
42. Archivador 245, at 1256.
43. Reclaman indemnización a [sic] Embajada USA, ABC COLOR (Asunción), 7 Apr. 1993, at 10.
44. See id. See also Calloni, supra note 5, at 58.
45. See, e.g., A.J. LANGGUTH, HIDDEN TERRORS 244 (1978).
46. In an interview with Martín Almada, supra note 2, he describes such a formalized "master plan" as a sort of "Mercosur of Terror."
47. Interview with Rosa Palau Aguilar, Director of the Paraguayan Archive, in Asunción, Paraguay (10 June 1995).