Word: stroessner
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...Still, it was to Miami that his body was flown for burial. It was Miami that had also been his first stop as an exile. But then, fearful that the U.S. might allow his extradition to Nicaragua, he moved on to Paraguay at the invitation of Dictator Alfredo Stroessner. In Asunción, Somoza's flamboyant social life and amorous escapades offended many Paraguayans. His reluctance to invest his hoarded fortune (estimated at $100 million) in the country was also said to have caused resentment. There was no doubt that Somoza had made bitter personal enemies as well...
...fear reprisal. When torture ends in death--as is often the case in countries such as Paraguay where political violence in standard state policy--most families bury their dead quietly and lay low, hoping to be forgotten. According to Amnesty International reports, the main human rights violations committed under Stroessner's rule are indefinite detention without trial, torture, often resulting in death, and "disappearance" following arrest. (In Filartiga's case, the government has made extensive use of all three techniques...
...Stroessner's regime has its reasons for singling out Filartiga as a politically dangerous figure. As the sole physician to almost 40,000 peasants in the poorest country of the continent, Filartiga had attained the unofficial status of folk hero and rural leader. If anyone can mobilize revolt, he is in the most strategic position to do so. Though Filartiga does not aspire to organize politically subversive activity, his art publicizes the repercussions of Stroessner's reign on an international scale which seriously threatens the dictatorship's security...
...Stroessner and the Filantigas weren't always on opposite sides of the fence. According to Chris Hager '66, who assisted Filartiga at the clinic last year, Filartiga's father was an influential industrialist, tobacco exporter, and personal friend of Stroessner...
Filartiga refuses to be affiliated with any party. Neither does he support a violent revolution. Human decency alone, he contends, dissolves dictatorships. More threatening to Stroessner than violent rebellion is caring. "I am serving the part of the country hated most--the people." Filartiga draws on dignity and faith to combat that hatred. Dignity Filartiga fosters every day as he promotes health among the peasants. Faith in the human capacity to overcome a dark political world allows him to continue his practice and sketch 100 drawings a year--in the shadow of his son's memory...