“Terrorist files” as they are called Thousands of documents about police repression in Paraguay it showed connections between South American dictatorships under the Condor Planrepresent one of the main legacies of the late Paraguayan activist, lawyer and writer. Martin Almada.

Below are the keys to these documents discovered by Almada, which He died last Saturday at the age of 87. and this Sunday he was fired by his family and friends.

What are “horror files”?

This is how they were baptized records found December 22, 1992 in Production Department of the Paraguayan Policeunit located in the city of Lambare, where Almada and then-criminal judge Jose Agustin Fernandez went to lead the raid.

Both were believed to be seeking material from the Metropolitan Police Investigation Department. largest detention and torture center in the country during the extensive dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954–1989).

Fernandez, who directs the Center for Documentation and Archives for the Defense of Human Rights and the Museum of Justice, which is responsible for storing the “Archives of Terrorism,” mentioned EFE that Almada contacted him by telephone to coordinate the location of the operation.

The meeting place was at Lambar, located about 11 kilometers from the capital.

The files were left on the ground floor of the police station in a room locked with a huge lock, which had to be opened by a locksmith under the watchful eye of Almada, Fernandez and numerous journalists.

Among other things they found cases of people detained as part of Operation Condorfiles containing information from Paraguayans and foreigners subject to monitoring and detainee control folders.

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In addition, some 700,000 pagescassette tapes of programs, speeches by opponents, activists or students, as well as photographs, books and personal items, among other things.

The documents were delivered by truck to the judge’s office. The task took about 12 hours to complete.

Almada, discoverer

For Fernandez Almada “played a transcendental role” in this conclusion.

In his opinion, the “tremendous merit” of this activist was that raise the first Habeas Data case in the country.

The request, which sought to obtain details of Almada’s detention (1974-1977), was protected by the Constitution adopted in June 1992 and currently in force.

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“He is the discoverer and then the one who internationalized the contents of the archive.”– he added about Almada’s work and recalled that it was he who received the “information” about the location of the inscriptions.

Portrait “written in blood and fire”

According to Fernandez, the documents served evidence of human rights violations in the country and allowed the Truth Commission to determine that there are more than 400 are missing and a little bit 20,000 direct victims these facts.

It also showed linking countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay to the Condor Plan..

“Documents in the archive reveal the apparent existence of this Condor plan“Fernandez indicated, mentioning the existence of files of the first meetings and invitations between those who led this operation.

Some of these files were used in the arrest of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as well as in trials in Uruguay, Argentina and Italy, among others.

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“It was a living portrait, painted with blood, fire, death and forced disappearance.”

He said that at that time “the scheme was the same” between participating countries.

“There was no extradition: just a man was detained and made to disappear. “It was a terrible time, a past we don’t want to remember and a past we must learn from,” he concluded.

EFE