Coronel, Pastor

Originally from the city of San Estanislao, it is also called Santani ( Department of San Pedro ) - a major educational center of Paraguay. He served in official positions in the Ministry of Education and Culture ^[1] . Adhered to ultra-right stronistic views, was a member of the party of Colorado . He was an active supporter of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner .

In 1968, President Stroessner commissioned Coronel to lead the secret police investigative unit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Pastor Coronel was appointed Director of the Metropolitan Police Investigation Department ( DIPC ). The tasks of the department included political investigation, investigation and neutralization of illegal political opposition.

Repression

Through the Asuncion Police Heads Ramon Duarte Veru , Francisco Brétes and Minister of the Interior Sabino Montanaro, the DIPC structure closed to Alfredo Stroessner. ^[2] However, practical investigative and operational activities were supervised by Pastor Coronel. He led the arrests, interrogations, torture, and secret killings of opposition members. He was also responsible for issuing identification documents to the citizens of Paraguay.

Coronel personally participated in interrogations, tortured, and organized abductions and killings. Examples of the Secretary-General of the Paraguayan Communist Party (PKP) Miguel Анngel Soler , the leader of the Paraguayan Komsomol Derlis Villagra , and the trade union activist of the PKP member Ruben González Acosta are known . They were arrested in late 1975 , during a special operation by the Ministry of Internal Affairs / DIPC against the communist underground. Soler and Gonzalez were brutally tortured, taken to a concentration camp and soon died (there is information that Soler was dismembered by a saw, and Stroessner personally listened to this on the phone). Coronel ordered to hang Villagra after one of the interrogations ^[3] . The murders of Soler ^[4] and Gonzalez ^{[5] were} imputed to Coronel personally.

With the leading participation of the Coronel, the leader of the underground military-political organization Mario Scherer Prono ^[6] , members of the armed underground Amilcar Oviedo, Carlos Manuelo, the brothers Rodolfo and Benjamin Ramirez Villialba were captured, tortured and killed. The order to eliminate them was given by Pastor Coronel, who at the same time issued the documentation about the alleged “escape” ^[7] .

Coronel also led the repression of liberal opposition, socialist- febrierists and members of the MOPOK movement. In particular, he organized the persecution of MOPOK leader Agustin Goiburu - arrest in 1969 , abduction and murder in 1977 ^[8] . Led by Coronel, DIPC was actively involved in Operation Condor ^[9] . In this direction, Coronel oversaw communications with the Argentinean SIDE .

A special area of ​​the Coronel’s struggle was the prosecution of people suspected of homosexuality. A corresponding arrest campaign was carried out in the spring of 1982 , the number of those arrested was in the hundreds. Their treatment was such that the Catholic Church came out in defense.

Status

As Colorado's senior functionary, Pastor Coronel was the organizer of the Macheteros de Santani party battle groups . These brigades, like death squads, were formed from fellow countrymen Coronel, residents of San Estanishloo and surrounding villages. The foremen were police officers. Macheteros attacked the opposition, beatings and killings ^[10] . They also spoke at party demonstrations, exerted psychological pressure on opponents, raising the machete high ^[11] .

Pastor Coronel actively participated in the shadow business, which played a crucial role in the economic system of stronism. He was engaged in smuggling cattle across the Paraguayan- Brazilian border, and organized the sale of heroin. Subsequently, documents were published showing Coronel’s connections with the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on the basis of a joint drug business ^[12] .

By the end of the 1970s, Pastor Coronel belonged to the top of the stronistic regime. He led a large power structure, was in the leadership of Colorado, had a serious personal condition. However, his official-political positions were greatly undermined in the early 1980s. The reason was the murder in Asuncion of Anastasio Somosa who fled from Nicaragua to Paraguay ^[2] . The safety of Somose was personally guaranteed by President Stroessner, the provision was entrusted to Coronel. However, on September 17, 1980, Somosa was killed by a group of Argentinean militants on the orders of the Sandinista government . This incident hit hard on the prestige of the stronistic regime.

The nature of the activities of Pastor Coronel was well known in the country. They talked about his use during interrogations of such methods as beating with clubs, braided cables, immersion in dirty water. The number of repressed by the Coronel at times is significantly exaggerated (numbers exceeding 270 thousand people are called ^[13] , which in principle is hardly possible in a country with a population of 2-4 million), but it was undoubtedly thousands of Paraguayans. The directors of DIPC were perceived as “the worst executioner of the time of the dictatorship” ^[14] . Coronel's image features - 120 kilogram weight, defiantly cruel facial expressions, obvious sadistic inclinations - contributed to this reputation.

On February 3, 1989, dictator Alfredo Stroessner was overthrown by the military coup of General Andrés Rodriguez . The figures of the new government themselves came from the Paraguayan army and the party of Colorado, were staunch stronists, many of them were Stroessner's associates, and Rodriguez - his relative. However, Pastor Coronel had no chance in the new political reality. Responsibility for the repressive cruelty of previous decades rested precisely with him and a group of his subordinates.

Coronel was arrested a few days after the coup. He was charged with abuse of power, secret killings and torture. In 1992, a Paraguayan human rights defender, Martin Almada, discovered in the Asuncion suburb of Lambar the “Archives of Terror” ^[12] - dossiers, reports, and other information about state terror of stressner times. The shocking facts of sadistic reprisals became known. Against Pastor Coronel, new documentary evidence has appeared ^[15] . In his house in Lima ( Department of San Pedro ), the burial of the dead was discovered ^[16] .

Pastor Coronel was found guilty of a number of acts of political repression and collectively sentenced to 25 years in prison ^[17] . He spent the last years of his life in prison. He never changed his views, never expressed regret about his previous activities ^[1] . He died at the age of 71 from a heart attack caused by overweight.

• Antonio Campos Alum
• Alejandro Fretes Davalos
• Ramon camps