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The Archives of Terror
Inscribed 2009
What is it
A collection of official documents covering the 35 years
of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship in Paraguay.
Why was it inscribed
The archives are evidence of police and political
repression, torture, assassination and covert intelligence
activity that are part of the larger Plan Condor.
Where is it
Centre of Documentation and Archives for the Defence
of Human Rights (CDyA), Asunción, Paraguay
The Archives of Terror are official documents of police
repression from the 35 years of Alfredo Stroessner’s
dictatorship. The archives were discovered in 1992, three
years after the toppling of Stroessner’s regime and the
dictator’s flight to exile in Brazil. The documents contain
details of 50,000 people murdered, 30,000 people who
disappeared and 400,000 people imprisoned. They also
contain supporting evidence of the existence of Plan
Condor, a campaign of political repressions involving
assassination and intelligence operations implemented by
right-wing dictators of Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay).
The archives are largely made up of materials produced
by the Paraguayan police force under Stroessner’s regime.
The chief of the Investigations Department, Pastor
Coronel, showed an obsession for meticulous filing, if
possible in duplicate, and the documents are extremely
comprehensive. They include 1888 identity cards and
passports, 20,000 photographs, 11,225 index cards and
materials confiscated by the police: personal letters,
political literature, photographs, pamphlets, books and
newspaper clippings. The archives provide vivid proof of
the systematic and widespread repression, torture, murder
and forced disappearance by Stroessner’s regime.
The Archives of Terror provide concrete evidence that
allow people to investigate, analyse and reach a better
understanding of how Stroessner’s authoritarian regime
damaged societal values, culture, social behaviour and
human relations. The archives also demonstrate how the
regime of terror imprisoned people arbitrarily, paralyzed
498 The Archives of Terror
justice and caused Paraguayan citizens to emigrate
en masse. In addition, the archives provide evidence
that physical and mental torture became a systematic
procedure employed by the regime to repress people with
incompatible political ideas and beliefs.
The discovery of the archives has had two major
consequences. Firstly, it led the national and international
community to find evidence and proof against repressors.
Secondly, it helped family members and others to discover
more about what happened to lost, arrested or tortured
victims. Thousands of Paraguayans and citizens from