Antonio Maidana

From 1954 to 1989, Paraguay was led by General Alfredo Stroessner. His father, Hugo Stroessner, was an immigrant from Bavaria, while his mother, Heriberta Martínez, was Paraguayan. In foreign policy, Stroessner proclaimed Paraguay "the best friend of the United States" in the region. The country actively supported the anti-communist initiatives of Washington, including dispatching a military contingent to the Dominican Republic to participate in the American intervention of 1965.

Formally, Paraguay maintained a semblance of democracy: every five years elections were held, in which Stroessner invariably won, and a parliament operated, rubber-stamping the head of state's decisions. At Stroessner's initiative, representatives of the special services of Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and other countries of the region united to fight the leftist movements. In Paraguay itself during his rule, according to the data of the Truth and Justice Commission (2004), about 20,000 people fell victim to repression (including those imprisoned and tortured); several hundred were killed or disappeared. Under Stroessner, many Nazi criminals (according to various estimates, several hundred people) found refuge in Paraguay. Among them was the former Auschwitz physician Josef Mengele, who enjoyed the patronage of the regime, although claims about his "close friendship" with Stroessner remain a subject of debate among historians.

The fate of Antonio Maidana — the leader of the Paraguayan communists — became a symbol of resistance to the dictatorship. Antonio Maidana was born in 1916. An educator by training, he became involved in political struggle in his youth. In 1936 he joined the ranks of the Paraguayan Communist Party (PCP). In 1941 and 1943 he was arrested for participating in teachers' strikes; he escaped from prison, hid in Uruguay, and returned to Paraguay in 1946 on the wave of democratic concessions by the authorities. In 1947, Maidana was again imprisoned, but staged an escape. In 1958, together with his brother Ananías Maidana and other comrades, he was again arrested on charges of organizing a strike. While he was in prison, he was elected in absentia general secretary of the PCP.

Leftist circles all over the world advocated for Maidana's release. After 19 years of imprisonment, he was freed in 1977 thanks to an amnesty. He spent some time in emigration, including in Sweden and the USSR. From June 1978, Maidana was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Paraguay. In 1980 he was in Buenos Aires, performing the duties of party leader. In August 1980, Antonio Maidana and the veteran of the labor movement Emilio Roa were abducted by special services and disappeared. They became victims of a continental project involving the special services of Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and other countries — the so-called Operation Condor. Paraguayan special services officially joined Operation Condor in 1975. The Paraguayan Communist Party and human rights organizations believe that it was with the activity of this network that the killings and numerous abductions of patriot émigrés residing in neighboring countries — followed by their forced return home, into the dungeons of Stroessner's regime — were connected.

Stroessner's dictatorship fell in February 1989 as a result of a military coup led by General Andrés Rodríguez. However, the consequences of the regime, including the issue of the "disappeared" and the unsolved crimes of Operation Condor, remain a painful topic for Paraguayan society to this day.