The discovery of the archives in 1992, coming as Paraguayans tackled their first democratic presidential elections, brought euphoria at first. But for many, early exhilaration has given way to disillusionment. Key documents published in newspapers days after their discovery vanished from the archives. The archives, at least now, contain no direct accounts of tortures or deaths, only of prisoners whom the police arrested but never released, and formulaic confessions that say nothing about the methods used to obtain them. Only five officials here have been convicted for torturing and killing Paraguayans who challenged the Stroessner dictatorship.
None have the security forces' code of silence.
Nobody has said where the bodies are buried. Mrs. Goiburu said the present Government had pressed her to drop efforts to find her husband's killer, as well as a lawsuit against General Stroessner for her husband's disappearance. Recently, Paraguay's new President, Luis Gonz lez Macchi, dismissed her from her job representing the Ministry of Education and Culture in a national professional association. The dictatorship is over, the widow said, but the reflexes of terror linger on.