Paraguay coup-plotter released from prison

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Paraguay coup-plotter released from prison
Posted on Thu, Sep. 06, 2007
By PEDRO SERVIN
Associated Press

ASUNCION, Paraguay -- A former army general convicted of plotting a coup declared his political ambitions and vowed to govern Paraguay on Thursday, hours after walking out of prison after serving about half of a 10-year sentence.

Former Gen. Lino César Oviedo, 67, was given conditional freedom for good behavior after serving just over five years of a sentence for trying to overthrow President Juan Carlos Wasmosy in a short-lived rebellion in April 1996. He insists he is innocent.

'Democracy means respect for the will of the people. I have a small calendar and it says in there, `I will be released and I will govern Paraguay,' '' Oviedo told cheering supporters after leading them to the Catholic basilica of Caacupé for prayers of thanksgiving.

Oviedo, who made a bid for president in 1998 that gained wide support from Paraguay's poor majority, is backed by a small political party, Punace. Party leaders said recently that he was trying to regain his freedom in time to run for president in 2008.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/227833.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Backgrounder on U.S.-Paraguay Relations: Why Paraguay Matters

Friday, August 17th, 2007
Reports, Front Page, Paraguay
COHA Backgrounder on U.S.-Paraguay Relations: Why Paraguay Matters

As a landlocked country in South America and a nation whose economy heavily depends on illicit smuggling activities, Paraguay demonstrates a history of political instability, corruption and painfully slow structural reforms. In recent years, it has attracted more attention from the U.S. military due to the fact that parts of Paraguay are covered by vast jungles that are almost impossible to readily monitor. This makes the country a drug, contraband, and possibly (according to some U.S. authorities), a terrorist haven. Most notably, in a post 9/11 era in which the U.S. is fighting its “War on Terror” throughout the region and the world, Paraguay is of increasingly strategic importance. Although the quality of the U.S-Paraguay bilateral relationship has been vacillating for many months—sometimes cool, at other times warm—the approaching April 2008 presidential elections in that country is of the utmost interest to Washington. At stake is the legacy of the Colorado Party (PC), which has ruled Paraguay for 60 years, much of it with violence and venality, while having done next to nothing to curb the country’s widespread corruption nor guard its loosely monitored borders. The year 2008 has the potential to be a monumental marker for Paraguay as well as for its future political and military links to the U.S.

Duarte’s Current Relationship with the U.S.

Despite an overall history of friendly ties with the U.S., Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte has recently begun to distance himself from the Bush Administration, something that was hinted at in a meeting with COHA personnel in Washington, as well as during a visit the president made to the UN in New York a few days later, with both encounters taking place during a trip that the Paraguayan leader made to the U.S. in 2004. Several weeks ago, during a visit with COHA personnel in its Washington Office, the former U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Timothy Towell—who currently heads the Foreign Policy Group in Washington—referenced Duarte’s traditional relationship with the U.S. by saying, “ knows how to play the Yankees…he plays shoulder to shoulder with the U.S.” The ambassador added that the U.S. “loves” Duarte because of his unfaltering cooperation in helping to counter post-9/11 terrorism, most notably by facilitating the tracking of Islamic extremist groups such as allegedly Hezbollah agents at the confluence of the tri-border area of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. However, Duarte just might be beginning to show his teeth to Washington.
(snip/...)

http://www.coha.org/2007/08/17/coha-backgrounder-on-us-paraguay-relations-why-paraguay-matters/

[Peace Patriot]

4. Paraguay election "is of the utmost interest to Washington." They got that right.

They need more pots to pour filthy "war on drugs" money (our tax dollars) into, and they have a particular interest in destroying the social justice movement that has swept South America--with leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil and Chile (and in central America--leftist elected in Nicaragua, leftist came very close--0.05%--in Mexico, and leftist likely to win in Guatemala).

Paraguay is also a potential launching pad (with Colombia) for destabilization and toppling of democratic governments especially the Andean democracies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador). A strong leftist government in Paraguay would be a major setback for Bushites and global corporate predators. Duarte is feeling the heat from the left, and joined the Bank of the South, for instance. And right now Fernando Lugo (the beloved "bishop of the poor", presidential candidate) is way ahead in the polls. And we can be sure that the Bushites hate that fact, and will do everything they can to stop Lugo.

[Javaman]

2. I wonder how moron* fits into this, because you know

somehow he* does considering his little Connecticut sized ranch down there.

[Judi Lynn]

3. He'll be a next-door neighbor to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Bush family friend,

who has so much land right above the world's largest fresh water aquifer, close to the HUGE Mariscal Estigarribia air base, built there under the right-wing dictatorship of Stroessner, a true favorite with American fascists:

Dark Armies, Secret Bases, and Rummy, Oh My!
Conn Hallinan | November 21, 2005

Editor: John Gershman, IRC

Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org

It would be easy to make fun of President Bush's recent fiasco at the 4th Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. His grand plan for a free trade zone reaching from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego was soundly rejected by nations fed up with the economic and social chaos wrought by neoliberalism. At a press conference, South American journalists asked him rude questions about Karl Rove. And the President ended the whole debacle by uttering what may be the most trenchant observation the man has ever made on Latin America: “Wow! Brazil is big!”

But there is nothing amusing about an enormous U.S. base less than 120 miles from the Bolivian border, or the explosive growth of U.S.-financed mercenary armies that are doing everything from training the military in Paraguay and Ecuador to calling in air attacks against guerillas in Colombia. Indeed, it is feeling a little like the run up to the ‘60s and ‘70s, when Washington-sponsored military dictatorships dominated most of the continent, and dark armies ruled the night.

U.S. Special Forces began arriving this past summer at Paraguay's Mariscal Estigarribia air base, a sprawling complex built in 1982 during the reign of dictator Alfredo Stroessner. Argentinean journalists who got a peek at the place say the airfield can handle B-52 bombers and Galaxy C-5 cargo planes. It also has a huge radar system, vast hangers, and can house up to 16,000 troops. The air base is larger than the international airport at the capital city, Asuncion .

Some 500 special forces arrived July 1 for a three-month counterterrorism training exercise, code named Operation Commando Force 6.

Paraguayan denials that Mariscal Estigarribia is now a U.S. base have met with considerable skepticism by Brazil and Argentina . There is a disturbing resemblance between U.S. denials about Mariscal Estigarribia, and similar disclaimers made by the Pentagon about Eloy Alfaro airbase in Manta , Ecuador . The United States claimed the Manta base was a “dirt strip” used for weather surveillance. When local journalists revealed its size, however, the United States admitted the base harbored thousands of mercenaries and hundreds of U.S. troops, and Washington had signed a 10-year basing agreement with Ecuador .
(snip/...)

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/2939

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stroessner gave haven to Joseph Mengele, the butcher of Auschwitz.

Although he was doing well in South America, Mengele feared being captured so he left Argentina in 1959 and moved to Paraguay after managing to get a Paraguayan passport on the name "Mengele José". Mengele hoped that Paraguay would be safer for him, as dictator Alfredo Stroessner was of German descent. Among other locations in Paraguay, he lived on the outskirts of Hohenau, a German colony in the department of Itapúa. His anxiety, however, haunted him, especially after he heard of the Mossad's abduction of Eichmann and the trial and execution in Israel. Using the identity of "Peter Hochbichler", he crossed the border to Brazil in 1960 and lived in São Paulo with the Austrian-born Neo-Nazi Wolfgang Gerhard, who was a member of Hans-Ulrich Rudel's "Kameradenwerk."
(snip/...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele

~~~~~~~~~~
From Time Magazine, 1972:

Dr. Josef Mengele, 61, whom Anne Frank called the "angel of extermination," became notorious for his medical experiments at Auschwitz. It was he who separated those who would go to the gas chamber from those who would go to labor camps. Mengele slipped through the hands of the Allies after the war and lived in relative peace in his home town of Günzburg, Bavaria, until 1953, when hints of his crimes began to surface. He fled to Argentina and openly practiced medicine in Buenos Aires. In 1959, when the West German government obtained an indictment and moved to extradite him, Mengele slipped into Paraguay.

There, under the protection of Dictator General Alfredo Stroessner, he holds Paraguayan citizenship in his own name and is reputed to live on a tightly guarded estate said to be a haunt for former Nazis near the Brazilian border. He frequently slips out of the country for rendezvous with his wealthy family, despite a $70,000 Israeli-German reward for his capture.
(snip/...)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878108,00.html?iid=chix-sphere

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No surprise seeing nutball fascists from the U.S. migrating in that general direction, is it? Holy smokes.