page_title: Carmen Casco de Lara Castro
section_title: Women's and human rights work
hierarchical_section_title: Carmen Casco de Lara Castro / Women's and human rights work
caption_attribution_description: English: Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda (1912–2006) was a Paraguayan military officer who served as President of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989.
context_page_description: Carmen Casco de Lara Castro was a Paraguayan teacher, women's and human rights advocate and a politician. She established one of the first independent human rights organizations in Latin America and fought for both women's equality and an end to state-sponsored terrorism under the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. She was influential in passing legislation for pay equity and maternity rights, as well as securing the repeal of laws curtailing basic human rights.
  Born into an influential family, Casco was educated as a teacher and taught from the end of the 1930s to 1965. Having relatives sent into exile and witnessing the devastation of two wars, she was propelled into working to alleviate the suffering of those who were more marginalized than she. Initially she began working on issues involving women and political prisoners. When elected to serve on the 1967 Constitutional Assembly, she worked to have basic human rights added to the Paraguayan Constitution. One of the founders of the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights of Paraguay, she became its president and served in that capacity until her death.
context_section_description: By her own account, Casco began working with women's groups around 1946, mainly because she had the support of her brother Adolfo. While as a woman she had no real political power, she felt she had been less marginalized than others. Initially, women helped each other with social service needs, but in 1953, she and other professional women founded the Intituto Cultural de Amparo a la Mujer (Cultural Institute of Refuge for Women). Made up primarily of teachers, with a few doctors and lawyers, their objective was to counsel women and assist them in overcoming societal impediments, such as poor pay, discrimination, poverty, lack of health care, though at times they provided material support. They also attempted to refer women to other benevolent associations that might be able to help them. In 1954, a coup d'etat brought the dictator Alfredo Stroessner to power and within two years, he issued a decree banning the Institute and placing the women who organized it on lists of suspicious persons. The group did not disband, but instead transformed into the Women's Department of the Liberal Party, though in fact, the Liberal Party was still an illegal organization, as the one-party state was limited to the Colorado Party. Women were not allowed to run for office or participate in any decision-making process. Instead they performed benevolent works, visiting prisoners, raising money, hosting meetings and providing food for functions.
  The 1960s in Paraguay were characterized by repressive violence, armed attacks by soldiers and reprisals by guerrillas, which led to hundreds of deaths and imprisonment of political dissidents. Alternating waves of violence and conciliation served to strengthen fear and consolidate presidential power. In fact, women's suffrage was not achieved in Paraguay until 1961, and was not granted by means of women's agitation, as all forms of dissent were punished and democratization was extinguished. Rather, enfranchisement was granted because President Stroessner wanted to bolster his support with women who might influence voters. As early as 1962, together with María Campos Cervera, María Elena de Pérez, Mary del Pino, and Beatriz Méndez de Prieto, Casco established another organization they called Amparo a la Mujer (Refuge for Women) to continue the work they had begun in 1953. In 1963, a women's journal, Cuñatai, was launched, facilitating participation of women in the political arena, with Casco serving as the director. The journal survived for a year and a half. During all this time, Casco had continued teaching in various schools in Asunción, but in 1965 she stopped teaching and turned her focus to politics.
  
  In 1965, Casco became the president of the Primero Congreso Feminino liberal (First Liberal Feminist Congress) in which both women and men discussed women's civil and political roles in Paraguayan society. They addressed women's education, employment, and civic and social issues. In 1966, a new Constitution was proposed; Casco ran and was elected to the Constitutional Assembly. Although she was a member of the Liberal Party, her election was facilitated by her family connections, her involvement in human rights, and her support for both conservative and anti-communist views. Replacing the Constitution of 1940, the new Constitution was notable in that it had provisions for protecting human rights, including banning denial of habeas corpus and protections from mistreatment or torture. It also allowed for political opposition to re-emerge, prompting several former political leaders to return from exile, and protected individual rights, including the freedoms of association and movement. However, to gain those provisions delegates had to continue the executive authority over both the legislative and judicial branches of government and grant President Stroessner the ability to hold two additional five-year terms as president. 
  On 17 June 1967, Casco, Jerónimo Irala Burgos, Luís Alfonso Resck, and others founded the Comisión de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos del Paraguay (Commission for the Defense of 
caption: President Alfredo Stroessner
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