A court in Asunción sentenced this Tuesday 88-year-old Eusebio Torres Romero to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence, for the flogging, drowning, blows in the back, electric shocks or kicks that he inflicted on the complainants during his illegal detention in Asunción in 1976, during the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner.
Paraguayan Carlos Casco no longer expected a verdict against the police officer who tortured him, his brother Luis and his wife María Teresa Dejesús Aguilera for months while she was pregnant. Nevertheless, the three filed a complaint against him in 2011. I also didn't expect the verdict to be exemplary, but it was, after a historic trial, the first oral and public trial of a torturer of the dictatorship in Paraguay, a regime that lasted 35 years, the longest in America. delicious.
Former inspector Eusebio Torres follows the visit to the cells from the phone of his son and defense attorney Santi Carneri
The Paraguayan dictatorship began with a coup in 1954 and ended with another in 1989. The regime's longevity was due to the support of the United States government and the sustained and systematic repression of the population, which, according to calculations by Paraguay's Human Rights Coordinator, made up a third of the population at the time it suffered torture.
According to dozens of witnesses, many of them were responsible for Eusebio Torres, the police officer and lawyer convicted of the criminal act of torture, which, as the court emphasizes, does not constitute a crime against humanity. He also explains that the sentence is specifically intended for those “who, for one reason or another, may return to their old ways, knowing that they will be punished.”
“Justice was done, not revenge, we wanted justice to be done for this police officer who tortured me.” “What had to be given was given,” rejoiced Carlos Casco, 69 years old and with gray hair, at the end of the trial gently, while the audience in the courtroom applauded and chanted: “No more dictatorship!” “No more torture!”, “Where are the disappeared?”
Carlos Casco was 21 years old, he was studying medicine in the Argentine province of Corrientes, south of Paraguay, and had decided to return to his country to see his family. In Paraguay he was part of the Military Political Organization (OPM), one of the many armed initiatives by Paraguayans to overthrow the dictator Stroessner, who repeatedly falsified elections, imprisoned, killed and disappeared opponents.
Casco crossed the majestic, turbulent and wide Paraná River to the port of Asunción, where he was arrested and taken to the cells of the police investigation department. This dark cave with narrow corridors and damp walls in the heart of the capital was the scene of electric shocks to the genitals, suffocation by excrement, beatings and endless threats that Paraguayan civilians received from authorities during the dictatorship.
As the evidence and the 20 statements from victims during the trial showed, Eusebio Torres also imprisoned there Carlos' wife María Teresa and Carlos' brother Luis, who did not belong to any organization but were tortured nonetheless. She was six months pregnant. After torture, they were taken to Emboscada prison, an hour from the capital, where the regime concentrated the majority of political prisoners.
Carlos Casco visits the dungeons where he was imprisoned in 1976. Santi Carneri
There, in the shade of a huge, beautiful tree, for two years they spent their days supporting each other and healing their wounds through work and art: theater, music, dance, writing. , were the remedies, along with plants and love, that healed Torres' victims. This is how another torture victim of the time, Celsa Ramírez, remembers it in the documentary Guapo'y, which is now touring film festivals around the world.
The verdict, read by judges Juan Ortiz, Rosana Maldonado and Manuel Aguirre, recalls that Torres tortured on the direct orders of the Interior Ministry and the dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Also that the Colorado Party government between 1954 and 1989 was not “authoritarian”, but “a completely dictatorial regime” that prevented people's freedom of movement in a timely manner and practiced systematic oppression of the population.
The court underlines the importance of this process because “determines that torture was carried out systematically” during the dictatorship. He was tortured “all over the country,” not just in Asunción.
“This gives hope for the more than 40 cases of torture under the dictatorship that are archived in the public prosecutor's office.” We consider it a victory that shows that there can be justice in Paraguay and a promising future for other cases opened,” Antonio Pecci, journalist and victim of former Commissioner Torres, told EL PAÍS.
“Today this court did justice by reminding that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations and that anyone who commits this type of crime will be punished,” said the Human Rights Coordinator (Codehupy).
The Colorado Party's dictatorship in Paraguay left more than 400 missing, extrajudicial executions and tens of thousands tortured, as well as many years of impunity for its perpetrators and heirs, an impunity that appears to be crumbling.
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