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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl05042009.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl05042009.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">May 4,
2009<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>The Return of
Montanaro <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Protest and Rubber Bullets in Paraquay
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By BENJAMIN
DANGL <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">W</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>orkers and activists gathered in the central
plaza of Asunción, Paraguay on May 1st to commemorate International
Workers Day. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo marked the day by raising
the minimum wage by 5%, half of what many of the unions present were
demanding. But another piece of news set the tone for this annual
gathering: the return to Paraguay of an ex-minister from the dictatorship
who orchestrated the murder and torture of thousands of political
dissidents.<br><br>
In the early hours of May 1st, Sabino Augusto Montanaro, the Interior
Minister in Paraguay during the repressive Alfredo Stroessner
dictatorship (1954-1989), returned to his country after 20 years in
Honduras. Doctors say 86 year old Montanaro is suffering from senility
and Parkinson’s disease. Montanaro’s lawyer
<a href="http://www.jakueke.com/articulo.php?ID=8930">Luis Troche
said</a> his client returned to the country not to apologize for his
crimes or face justice, but because, “according to Paraguayan law, he is
too old to go to jail.”<br><br>
Montanaro served as a minister under Stroessner from 1966 to the end of
the dictatorship, and played a key role in the regime’s repression,
directing the abduction, torture and murder of political opponents of
Stroessner. Now, upon his return to Paraguay, he faces various criminal
charges, and thousands of angry citizens, many of whom greeted his return
to the country with protests, and calls for the ex-minister’s
imprisonment. <br><br>
Martin Almada, a human rights lawyer and former political
prisoner,<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/190485933X/counterpunchmaga">
<img src="http://www.counterpunch.org/dangl.gif" width=148 height=222 alt="[]">
</a> discovered documents which prove that Montanaro played a key role in
Operation Condor, a unified, cross-border network of repression
coordinated by military dictatorships in the region throughout the 1970
and ‘80s. <br><br>
In 2006, Stroessner died at age 93 in Brasilia without facing justice for
the repression that took place under his watch, including the
disappearance of some 400 people and the torture of 18,000, according to
a
<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/noticias/secciones/nota/48894-NN/represor-regresa-a-paraguay-por-enfermedad/">
Truth and Justice Commission</a>. <br><br>
Paraguayan Bishop Mario Melanio Medina told the
<a href="http://www.abc.com.py/2009-05-02/articulos/517905/ex-ministro-fue-la-mano-derecha-de-stroessner-dice-obispo">
ABC Color</a> newspaper that Montanaro was Stroessner’s “right hand man”
and “number one [in command] after Stroessner.”<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>Rubber Bullets and
Memory</b> <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Around noon at the May 1st rally, some
1,000 protesters began marching toward the private hospital where Montaro
was a patient. While pounding drums and yelling political chants, the
marchers paraded down the middle of many streets that were empty due to
the holiday. The chants and drumming increased in volume when the
marchers passed the red headquarters of the Colorado Party, Stroessner’s
party which lost its 60 year long grip on the country with the 2008
election of Fernando Lugo. <br><br>
The march reached a climax upon arriving at the hospital. Dozens of riot
cops surrounded the building, protecting the ex-minister by creating a
wall with their thick metal shields, while hundreds of victims, and
family members of victims of Montanaro’s repression, rallied in the
streets outside, demanding justice. <br>
When the majority of the marchers arrived at the hospital, one group
charged the front door, trying to break through the police line and get
to Montanaro. The police responded with brutal force that left one man
bloody and stunned.<br><br>
As the numbers of protesters outside the hospital increased, news spread
that a judge ordered Montanaro’s transfer from the private hospital to a
police hospital. Protesters responded by gathering around the side of the
hospital where ambulances leave and arrive. Police formed another wall in
this section of the hospital to protect Montanaro’s ambulance and allow
for his safe transferal. <br><br>
When the gates opened, and the ambulance transporting Montanaro began to
leave, police pushed protesters back, crashing night sticks and shields
on the bodies of the marchers, who responded by throwing stones at the
police and ambulance. Protesters managed to get to the ambulance,
breaking its windows with rocks as the police repression increased and
the ambulance sped off. Police dispersed the crowd with a barrage of
rubber bullets that injured a number of protesters. <br><br>
Later, a vigil including hundreds of people gathered in front of the
police hospital. “We, the relatives of the victims, are going to mount a
special vigilance so this criminal has no space nor privilege in which to
hide, or to argue that he’s insane to escape justice,” said Rolando
Goiburu, the son of Dr. Agustin Goiburu who was disappeared under
Stroessner, according to
<a href="http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=333468&CategoryId=12394">
EFE</a>.<br><br>
Earlier in the day President Lugo arrived to echo the protesters
sentiments. He spoke of Montanaro’s return: “I promise that there will be
justice, the same mistakes that previous governments made will not be
repeated, and there won’t be any privileges for anyone.” He told
protesters outside the hospital that this is a “good opportunity to
recuperate historical memory.” <br><br>
Judith Rolón, a daughter of Martín Rolón who was disappeared during the
Stroessner dictatorship,
<a href="http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/218003-No-va-a-tener-paz-hasta-que-diga-d%25C3%25B3nde-est%25C3%25A1n-los-desaparecidos">
said</a> Montanaro “will not have peace until he says where the
disappeared are.”<br><br>
<b>Benjamin Dangl</b> is currently based in Paraguay and is the author of
"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/190485933X/counterpunchmaga">
The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in
Bolivia</a>" (AK Press). He edits UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on
activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a
progressive perspective on world events. Email:
Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.<br><br>
<br><br>
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