Event Summary
On 12 February 2026, a Sentencing Court convicted three former police officers of the regime of General Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), for acts of physical and psychological torture that occurred in the 1970s. The trial was based on complaints made in 2011 by Domingo Guzmán Rolón, a victim of “Operation Condor”, for rapes suffered when he was 19 years old. Six years later, in 2017, the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against ten former police officers, of which only three were tried in court, with others having died before trial and others remaining fugitives. After another eight years and several delays, the oral and public trial was conducted at the end of 2025 and the sentences delivered in February 2026. Given the advanced age of the defendants, house arrest was ordered but during the ratification of the sentences, prison sentences may still be imposed. The complainant died in 2024, without knowing the outcome of the process.
During the Stroessner regime, at least 336 persons disappeared, 59 were executed, and 18,772 persons detained and tortured, according to the Final Report of the Truth and Justice Commission (2008). Despite the fact that 450 perpetrators were identified, only eleven torturers of the Stroessner regime have been convicted to date. Given the impunity for hundreds of perpetrators, the sentence is an important milestone in achieving accountability and has been celebrated by Rolón’s relatives, groups of victims of the Stroessner dictatorship and social organizations that have been accompanying the long process.
Despite the fact that the crimes already happened in the 1970s and the old age of both defendants and victims, the sentence is observed as relevant in the country’s judicial history, highlighting that the reduction of impunity prevents torture practices, established jurisprudence for possible new complaints from victims, and contributes to the collective memory of the dictatorship. The sentence also contributes to avoiding authoritarian setbacks and strengthening regard for the freedoms achieved since the end of the dictatorship. By providing the concrete evidence needed for education on the crimes committed, it counteracts narratives that deny the civil-military dictatorship and state terrorism committed during the Stroessner regime that have been spreading in the country for decades. Lastly, this development contributes to a more enabling environment for CSOs working on the defense of democratic values, the construction of tolerance, respect for differences, and the exercise of the freedoms enshrined in the rule of law.