8
procedures for the extradition of those facing charges for crimes committed in one
country and arrested in another.
As a secret treaty, Condor elevated crimes against human rights to the highest
level of State policy, under the direct control of heads of State and ministers. And, its
existence as an official instrument of six nations prevents these regimes from explaining
their crimes against human rights as isolated acts of deluded officials or corrupt
agents.”16
27.
The list of the numerous victims of the Stroessner regime has been prepared
and published by the Comité de Iglesias para Ayudas de Emergencia (CIPAE) based
on the so-called “Terror Files” and with the symbolic title Testimonio contra el Olvido.
The introduction to this document presents some important data, including: first,
with the emergence of the moral conscience in the history of human thought, there
is no way of denying the involvement of society (with the exception of the oppressed
and tortured) in the establishment and preservation for so many years of the regime
of oppression.17 Second, the grave human rights violations that occurred during the
years of repression (1954-1989) were perpetrated with society’s apparent
indifference to human suffering.18
28.
Third, the “permanent repressive State harassment,”19 of a truly “totalitarian
military State,”20 persisted throughout the extended state of siege (1954-1987),
during which “the Executive had discretionary powers to detain, torture, expel, or
even disappear persons.”21 And finally, fourth, these grave systematic human rights
violations were perpetrated insufflated by the illusion of material “progress”
disseminated by the militarism and “understood from the perspective of State
totalitarianism.”22 The victims in the case of Goiburú et al. v. Paraguay before the
Inter-American Court appear in the document Testimonio contra el Olvido based on
the “Terror Files”: it mentions Agustín Goiburú,23 Carlos José Mancuello,24 Rodolfo
Ramírez Villalba25 and Benjamín Ramírez Villalba.26 Numerous other victims had their
rights violated by the same repressive regime and this context of terror,
characteristic of authentic State crime prolonged over time and multiplying
defenseless victims, cannot be minimized here.
16
.
J. Dinges, Operación Cóndor - Una Década de Terrorismo Internacional en el Cono Sur, Santiago, Ed.
B Chile, 2004, pp. 39-40; J. Dinges, Os Anos do Condor - Uma Década de Terrorismo Internacional no Cone
Sul, São Paulo, Cia. das Letras, 2004, pp. 40-41; J. Dinges, The Condor Years - How Pinochet and His Allies
Brought Terrorism to Three Continents, N.Y./London, The New Press, 2004, pp. 17-18.
17
.
CIPAE, Testimonio contra el Olvido - Reseña de la Infamia y el Terror (Paraguay 1954-1989),
Asunción, Ed. CIPAE, 1999, p. 10.
18
.
Ibid., pp. 12 and 25.
19
.
Ibid., p. 34.
20
.
Ibid., p. 32.
21
.
Ibid., p. 26.
22
.
Ibid., p. 32.
23
.
Ibid., pp. 85 and 340.
24
.
Ibid., p. 392.
25
.
Ibid., pp. 120 and 462.
26
.
Ibid., pp. 120 and 462.
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