Paraguay’s ambassador to Taiwan, Dario Filártiga, named in criminal complaint over alleged dictatorship-era crimes against humanity

Victims of Paraguay’s 35-year dictatorship filed the complaint June 23 with the Office of the Attorney General in connection with the Caaguazú Case, one of the most serious episodes of rural repression under the Stroessner regime. The filing asks prosecutors to examine the responsibility of surviving former officials, including Filártiga, who at the time served as secretary to Interior Minister Sabino Augusto Montanaro.

Filártiga is currently Paraguay’s ambassador to Taiwan and previously served as a political adviser to former President Horacio Cartes. The complaint seeks to determine whether his position within the Interior Ministry placed him within the chain of command linked to the state operation denounced by the victims.

The criminal complaint alleges crimes against humanity, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, and political persecution. The signatories include Pedro Arthuro Santa Cruz, the attorney representing the victims, and Arcadio Flores and Apolonia Flores, the surviving victims. According to the filing, the abuses committed against rural civilians were not isolated incidents but part of a systematic attack by the Paraguayan state.

The link to Ambassador Darío Filártiga 

The legal filing identifies several alleged members of the dictatorship’s repressive structure who are still alive. It asks the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate Filártiga’s potential criminal liability because of his role as secretary to Montanaro, the powerful interior minister widely identified by victims as a central political figure in the regime’s repression.

The complaint also names Mario Cazal Gómez, former secretary of the Caaguazú Government Delegation, as one of the surviving individuals whose role should be examined.

Prosecutors are also asked to investigate retired Gen. Juan de la Cruz Peña, former head of the military detachment in Acaraymí. The list further includes police officer Juan Carlos Bedoya and armed forces noncommissioned officer Santos López. Former police investigators Juan Martínez, Dionisio Noldin, Camilo Almada Morel, Lucilo Benítez, Adán Ramírez, and Eusebio Torres are also named in the complaint.

How the Caaguazú Case began

The conflict began between 1972 and 1973, when 50 rural families settled in Acaraymí, Hernandarias, in Alto Paraná. The move was organized with support from the Christian Agrarian Leagues, a rural movement that was heavily persecuted during the dictatorship.

Beginning in 1974, military and police units allegedly harassed the families in an effort to remove them from the land. The confrontation escalated on March 7, 1980, when about 20 farmers from Acaraymí boarded a Rápido Caaguazú bus to travel to Asunción and petition the Rural Welfare Institute for land titles.

A police checkpoint intercepted the bus near Torín, in Caaguazú Department, triggering an armed chase. The farmers abandoned the vehicle in Campo 8 and fled into nearby wooded areas.

Torture, disappearances and killings

Security forces then launched a large-scale operation involving helicopters, heavy weapons and the so-called Colorado Militias. The victims surrendered on March 9 in an area known as San Antonio-mí. According to the complaint, they were detained by the Paraguayan state without valid judicial warrants.

Ten people were killed or disappeared, including Estanislao Sotelo, Mario Ruiz Díaz and Feliciano Verdún. Ten others were allegedly subjected to severe torture in facilities in Coronel Oviedo and Asunción.

The crackdown also affected minors. Apolonia Flores, who was 12 at the time, was shot six times. “And that is when they began torturing me,” she said, describing the actions of the military. The repression also led to the death of 70-year-old Marcelino Casco Alderete at the Police Polyclinic.

Victims seek urgent court measures

The complainants asked prosecutors to request reports and case files from the Museum of Justice, which holds Paraguay’s Archive of Terror, a key collection of documents from the Stroessner era. They also requested records from the Directorate for Truth, Justice and Reparations and the Ministry of National Defense.

The filing calls for urgent precautionary measures against the suspects under investigation, including travel bans, passport seizures and preventive asset freezes.

The case is now in the hands of the Office of the Attorney General, which must decide how to formally process the complaint. The next key steps are the appointment of prosecutors and the enforcement of the precautionary measures requested by the victims’ representatives.