The “Paraguayan Archives of Terror” is the name that is used to refer to the official documents regarding the police and military repression that occurred in Paraguay under Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship. This archive also contains documents sent by the police and military forces of different authoritarian governments in the region, particularly linked to Operation Condor’s repressive coordination.
The collection occupies around 300 linear metres and comprises criminal records, statements from captured individuals, books on the control of prisoners, intelligence information reports on the tracking down of people or organisations, photographs taken by the police, materials that had been obtained during raids, etc.
On 22nd December 1992, the documents were confiscated thanks to the court proceedings initiated by the Paraguayan lawyer and former political prisoner, Martín Almada with the authorisation of Judge José Agustín Fernández. At the time, the documents were being stored in a police station in the city of Lambaré, situated in the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción.
The discovery was so important that the day was legally declared the “Day of National Dignity”.