58
70.
Furthermore, the judicial decision of December 7, 2000, which ordered the
preventive detention of the accused, Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda and Sabino
Augusto Montanaro, for the subsequent purpose of requesting their extradition
(supra para. 61(75)), indicates:
[…] There is firm evidence of responsibility linking the defendants Alfredo Stroessner
Matiauda and Sabino Augusto Montanaro […] to the abduction and disappearance of Dr.
Agustín Goiburú. In addition, it should be recalled that, at the time of the facts, there
was a dictatorship in Paraguay, as indicated in Act No. 838/96, which states that, when
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda was in power there was real State terrorism where the
fundamental rights of the human being were violated. […]
Terrorism organized by the State itself is a form of organized crime that has occurred in
numerous countries and, in particular, in Latin America, where the police forces,
diplomatic service, Government officials and military officials in Government have
coordinated and carried out “cleansing tasks” and “special death flights.” This type of
criminal organization has even crossed frontiers, with agents in border countries, as
occurred in this case, where the Paraguayan Consul, Francisco Ortiz Téllez, appointed by
decree signed by the dictator Alfredo Stroessner, acted as a monitoring agent and
informer in the border country with and among those who planned and executed
countless illegal acts, ranging from murder to abductions and torture. “Operation
Condor” was the code name of this international criminal organization.54
71.
Also, the judicial decision issued on August 4, 1993, by the Fourth Criminal
Court of First Instance ordered the preventive detention for the purpose of
extradition of Alfredo Stroessner, because “there [was] sufficient evidence of
responsibility against the accused […] taking into account the circumstances that he
had been informed in detailed about the repressive operations carried out by police
and military forces.” The court also found:
[…] That the almost complete evidence of the existence of a criminal act that merits
imprisonment has been corroborated in the proceedings. […] They document the
participation of ESMAGENFA in the alleged repressive operations carried out in the 1970s
against political activists and leaders opposed to the Government in power at the time,
as well as the reports periodically sent to the then President of the Republic and
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, describing the operations of pursuit, capture,
arrest and detention of individuals, without any judicial order, in offices of the Asunción
Police Investigations Department.
That, in relation to the sufficient evidence of responsibility arising from the conduct of
Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda with regard to the investigation underway in these
preliminary criminal proceedings, we should mention that a great deal of evidence has
been provided against him, showing the control exercised by the Government over the
activities of individuals it considered dangerous. There is information on the strict control
of the different activities of these individuals. The accused, Alfredo Stroessner,
personally exercised harsh repression and firm control of the opposing trade unions and
students in their homes or their places of work, according to memorandums attached to
the proceedings. From the proceedings, also, it is evident that the Head of
Investigations informed the President of the Republic constantly about all the activities
that were considered subversive in all social spheres of the country. During the
perpetration of the alleged illegal act investigated in this case – in 1976 – the repressive
mechanism is documented and also the absence of the constitutional rights to liberty
and freedom of expression for the population in general, and peasant farmers, workers
and students, owing to the actions of the Asunción Police through the Investigations
Department and the Army, through ESMAGENFA. In this regard, there is sufficient
evidence of responsibility against the accused STROESSNER MATIAUDA based on the
54
Cf. ruling of December 7, 2000, delivered b the No. 3 Criminal Tribunal (de Liquidación and
Sentencia) (file of attachments to the application, attachment 1(2), tome I, folio 82 and attachment 1(3),
tome III, folio 2197).
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