Workers and activists gathered in the central plaza of Asuncion, Paraguay on May 1 to commemorate International Workers Day. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, a former priest elected in April last year on a pro-poor platform, marked the day by raising the minimum wage by 5%, half of what many of the unions present were demanding.
But another piece of news set the tone for this annual gathering: the return to Paraguay of an ex-minister from the former dictatorship who orchestrated the murder and torture of thousands of political dissidents.
Sabino Augusto Montanaro, interior minister in Paraguay during the repressive 1954-1989 dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship, returned to his country in the early hours of May 1 after 20 years in Honduras.
Doctors say 86-year-old Montanaro is suffering from senility and Parkinson's disease. Montanaro's lawyer, Luis Troche, said his client returned to the country not to apologise for his crimes or face justice, but because, "according to Paraguayan law, he is too old to go to jail".
Montanaro served as a minister under Stroessner from 1966 to the end of the dictatorship. He played a key role in the regime's repression, directing the abduction, torture and murder of political opponents.
Returning to Paraguay, he faces various criminal charges and thousands of angry citizens. Many Paraguayans greeted Montanaro's return with protests and calls for his imprisonment.
Martin Almada, a human rights lawyer and former political prisoner, discovered documents that prove Montanaro played a key role in Operation Condor — a unified, cross-border network of repression coordinated by military dictatorships in the region throughout the 1970 and '80s.
Stroessner died at age 93 in 2006 in Brasilia without facing justice for the crimes of his regime, including the disappearance of some 400 people and the torture of 18,000, according to a Truth and Justice Commission.
Paraguayan Bishop Mario Melanio Medina told the May 2 ABC Colour that Montanaro was Stroessner's "right hand man" and "number one [in command] after Stroessner".
Around noon at the May 1 rally, some 1000 protesters began marching toward the private hospital where Montaro was a patient. Pounding drums and yelling political chants, the marchers paraded down the middle of many streets, empty due to the holiday.
The chants and drumming increased in volume when the marchers passed the red headquarters of the Colorado Party, Stroessner's party that lost its 60 year long grip on the country with Lugo's election.
The march reached a climax upon arriving at the hospital. Dozens of riot cops surrounded the building, protecting the ex-minister by creating a wall with their thick metal shields, while hundreds of his victims, and victims' family members, rallied in the streets outside to demand justice.
When the majority of the marchers arrived at the hospital, one group charged the front door, trying to break through the police line and get to Montanaro. The police responded with brutal force that left one man bloodied and stunned.
As the numbers of protesters increased, news spread that a judge had ordered Montanaro's transfer from the private hospital to a police hospital. Protesters gathered around the side of the hospital where ambulances leave and arrive.
Police formed another wall in this section of the hospital to protect Montanaro's ambulance.
When the gates opened, and the ambulance transporting Montanaro began to leave, police pushed protesters back. They crashed night sticks and shields on the bodies of the marchers, who responded by throwing stones at the police and ambulance.
Protesters managed to get to the ambulance, breaking its windows with rocks as the police repression increased and the ambulance sped off.
Police dispersed the crowd with a barrage of rubber bullets that injured a number of protesters.
Later, hundreds of people held a vigil in front of the police hospital. "We, the relatives of the victims, are going to mount a special vigilance so this criminal has no space nor privilege in which to hide, or to argue that he's insane to escape justice", said Rolando Goiburu, the son of Dr. Agustin Goiburu who was disappeared under Stroessner, EFE reported on May 1.
Earlier in the day, Lugo arrived to echo the protesters sentiments. He said of Montanaro's return: "I promise that there will be justice, the same mistakes that previous governments made will not be repeated, and there won't be any privileges for anyone."
He told protesters outside the hospital that this is a "good opportunity to recover historical memory".
The May 1 Ultimahora.com reported that Judith Rolon, a daughter of Martin Rolon who was disappeared during the Stroessner dictatorship, said Montanaro "will not have peace until he says where the disappeared are".
[Reprinted from Towardfreedom.org. Benjamin Dangl is currently based in Paraguay, and is editor of Upsidedownworld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. He can be contacted at