Paraguayan policeman on trial for torture meted out decades ago

[Judi Lynn]

February 17, 2024
MNA International

By AFP

Five decades ago, he was a feared policeman nicknamed “the Whip,” an enforcer of Paraguay’s military dictatorship. Today, aged 87, Eusebio Torres is finally standing trial on torture allegations dating to 1976.

Some 20 witnesses testified against Torres in a court in Asuncion this past week, detailing his alleged cruelty and opening a rare window onto crimes committed under the 1954-1989 rule of strongman Alfredo Stroessner — South America’s longest-serving dictatorship.

Torres, under house arrest, attended the hearings online, listening stoically as witnesses detailed allegations of extreme brutality committed against dissidents — real and suspected — of the Stroessner regime.

“He (Torres) ordered me to undress and, with his leather-braided whip, he began to hit me hard, with rage… One of the impacts burst my eye,” one of them, Carlos Arestivo, told the court of an incident 47 years ago.

. . .

This was a year of mass arrests at the height of “Operation Condor” that saw South America’s military dictatorships club together to hunt down and eliminate left-wing dissidents across national borders.

The right-wing Colorado Party that was in power in Paraguay at the time continues to dominate politics today, and Torres was honored by the state in 2014 for a half-century career — an event that sparked much anger.

More:
https://www.macaubusiness.com/paraguayan-policeman-on-trial-for-torture-meted-out-decades-ago/

(By the way, Washington has always been just fine with Paraguay's Colordo Party, and totally accepted the 35 year presidency of right-wing genocidal torturer, murderer, racist fascist President Stroessner.)






Below, image of Eusebio Torres' boss, genocidal, homocidal racist fascist General Alfredo Stroessner