16
The atrocities of “Operation Condor” reveal that human evil has no limits. In the
context of this Operation, the case of Dr. Agustín Goiburú is today considered
“paradigmatic of the cooperation of the [Paraguayan and Argentine] intelligence
services.55 Since the participating States concealed their criminal policy, it is not
surprising that, following the discovery, of the “Terror Files” (the main documentary
source in Latin America of the evil “Operation Condor”), in Paraguay in December
1992, “hundreds of habeas data were filed by former political prisoners or their next
of kin.”56
VII.
Condor Redivivus: History repeats itself
54.
The repressive acts of “Operation Condor,” on a widespread inter-State scale,
that occurred – as has been historically proved – in the 1970s, can happen again. If
they have occurred once or more, they can happen again; atrocities have repeated
themselves over time. I fear that, today, such acts may be being repeated. And, just
as many years elapsed before we learned about the acts committed under the
criminal policies of the States in “Operation Condor” (and we still do not know
everything today), perhaps it will take a long time before we learn about what is
happening today – also with State concealment.
55.
In the 1970s, it was the “war [sic] against subversion,” today it is the “war
[sic] against terrorism.” In both cases, for the perpetrators of grave human rights
violations, the ends justify the means, and anything is allowed, outside the law. As
an advocate of the current “war [sic] on terrorism,” stated recently, “those who are
not with us are against us,” exactly as the members of the Army, all Heads of State,
engaged in “Operation Condor” affirmed in the 1970s in order to sow terror and try
to justify State crimes.
56.
State crimes really exist, they have existed and continue existing, as recent
reports indicate (for example, a report for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe) on systematic practices of torture in prisons (even secret prisons), on
other continents – authentic concentration camps – in the so-called “war [sic] on
terrorism”).57 Today, also, information is emerging on the practice of torture (under
the euphemism of “intensive interrogation”), illegal and arbitrary detentions,
abductions, clandestine flights, and forced disappearances of persons, of possible
extrajudicial executions, also on an inter-State scale.58
55
.
A. Boccia Paz, M.H. López, A.V. Pecci and M.G. Giménez, op. cit. supra n. (56), p. 205; and cf. J.
Dinges, Operación Cóndor..., op. cit. infra n. (16), p. 305.
56
.
A. Boccia Paz, M.A. González and R. Palau Aguilar, Es Mi Informe - Los Archivos Secretos de la Policía
de Stroessner, 4a. ed., Asunción, CDE, 1994, p. 30.
57
.
Cf. D. Marty (rapporteur), “Alleged Secret Detentions in Council of Europe Member States”,
Strasbourg, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly/Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, doc.
AS/Jur(2006)03.rev., of January 22, 2006, pp. 1-25; D. Marty (rapporteur), “Alleged Secret Detentions and
Unlawful Inter-State Transfers Involving Council of Europe Member States”, Strasbourg, Council of Europe
Parliamentary Assembly/Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, doc. AS/Jur(2006)16-II, of June 7,
2006, pp. 1-71 (limited circulation).
58
.
Cf. J. Patrice McSherry, Predatory States..., op. cit. supra n. (51), pp. XXI, 247-249 and 254; and cf.
J. Dinges, Operación Cóndor..., op. cit. supra n. (16), p. 22.
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