Nemesio Barreto Monzón05 mei 2006 – 15:17

Journalism and servilism

The convenient attitude assumed by the media during the dictatorship of Stroessner is today one of the most forbearing stories told. And it is curious that it happens this way, since the media, except in some cases, was closely linked to the bloodthirsty dictator. The documented and sincere history “finds out for us” , that not all the media was adverse to the dictator, and for many of those who “passed” to the lines of the opposition, it took thirty years to find out that Stroessner was nothing else but a dull despot; many others made a shy opposition just shortly before the military coup d’etat of 1989, and a selected collectivity discovered the dictatorship only during the splendid morning of February 3, 1989.

In honour to the truth, we also have to mention that during more than three decades, many media companies were closed by the dictatorship, such as “The Independent”, in 1958; “The Morning”, in 1960; “The Country”, in 1963; “Community”, a newspaper of the Catholic Church, in 1969; “Abc-color”, in 1984. In regard to the radio stations, the “Mariscal Francisco Solano López Broadcasting” was closed in 1959; “à‘andutí Radio” was closed in 1987, just to mention some of those who suffered the harassment of the dictatorship. One of the most credible explanations of why a fervent admirer of the “Distinguished Boss” would pass to the opposite side of the street is the one that refers to one of the few literary distractions of the dictator, which was to prepare, with the help of the telephone directory, an update or redistribution of privileges, adding or subtracting names to his list of benefitiaries.

The loss of privileges, as a result of a restructuration of the governmental favours, generated implacable internal struggles between those related to the power. Suddenly and inexplicably, one was moved away from the list of commensals of that feast that seemed to be endless. This throwing out of heaven always produced a remnant of humiliated and offended people, since of the famous “price of peace” they would not see anything of it. The affected person, obviously, considered it was unfair to be deprived of his/her benefits after so many years engaged to adulation. When someone felt in misfortune, he/she would appeal to his/her friends regarding such unfair discrimination, but when the “restructuration” was no longer possible, the excluded person begun to custion the distribution system of the discretional power, whose most irritating effect was to prove that his/her part of the greeding was now in the account of the new commensals. Among the affected persons by these exclusions was Aldo Zuccolillo himself, owner of the “Abc-Color” newspaper, a man strongly linked and identified with the dictatorship. Once the “Condor Operation” and the “Painful Easter” were over, and the “Christian Agricultural Leagues” were exterminated in the “Massacre of Caaguazດ, already in the “Fall of the Patriarch”, the “dictablanda” (softening of the dictatorship) was starting. Like many others, Aldo Zuccolillo finds out that the dictatorship was no longer profitable. Thus, he begun to “recycle” himself, and thus be became the “owner of the truth and the democracy”, according to the words of the journalist Victor Benítez. Nevertheless, a little bit of sincere history, without subtracting merits, is always healthy, since there are fearsome collaborators of the dictator Stroessner hiding behind these “knights of the past”.

Case of Captain José Antonio Valiente

The case of Captain Valiente is very similar to the missing Argentinean businessman Fernando Branca. He was the husband of Martha Rodriguez Mc Cormack, mistress of Emilio Massera. Martha Rodríguez Mc Cormack later became the mistress of Huberto Roviralta, a polo player. For the Argentinean dictatorship, Fernando Branca “became absent himself during a trip on a ship where he was invited by Admiral Massera. The night before, Fernando Branca and the former Admiral had dinner together at the Hostal del Lago, whilst at a table close to them, the men of the task group in charge of the foreseen work for the next day, where identifying their target”. Captain José Antonio Valiente, was born on April 21, 1927. Married to Graciela Pappalardo, sister of Teófilo Conrado Pappalardo, Head of the State Ceremonial of Alfredo Stroessner. The marriage of Graciela Pappalardo with José Antonio Valiente was annuled through the Sentence nr. 577, dictated by the Judge Angel Roberto Seifart, on October 27, 1970. Seifart became later Vice President of the Republic during the government of Wasmosy (1993 – 1998). Graciela Pappalardo is the current wife of the media entrepreneur Aldo Alberto Zuccolillo Moscarda, director and owner of the “Abc-Color” newspaper. Aldo Zuccolillo Moscarda, was born in Asunción on July 3, 1930. José Antonio Valiente, owner of the “Felsina” bar, which no longer exists, was murdered in Buenos Aires, after the military coup d’etat in 1976. Pursuant to a document of the File of Terror (Microfilm 00028F0474) the presumed murder was Juan Carlos Cabañas, former secretary of Dr. Edgar Insfrán, fearsome State Secretary of the dictator Stroessner, from 1956 to 1966. According to some relatives, José Antonio Valiente had a daughter called María Adelaida, who had her name changed and whose current name is ¿Adelaida? The crime of José Antonio Valiente was never solved. He dissapeared in Argentina, and his name never appeared among the thousands of persons who dissapeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. The year 1976 ended with more than twenty deaths. The police stations, full of political prisoners, could no longer operate, and the overcrowding was bad, that a concentration camp was opened in Emboscada. This was the tragic balance of the past year when, in August of 1977, Mr. Terence Todman, then Attached Secretary for Interamerican Affairs of President James Carter. The “Independent Movement” (IM) sent Mr. Todman a dossier about the serious violations of the human rights in Paraguay. It mentioned the serious situation of the political prisoners in general, who were systematically tortured at the Investigations Department (Refer to File of Terror, CDA, Microfilm nr. 00017F1819).

Another Unsolved Crime: Jorge Luis Marchi

The first attempt to burn the “Nueva Americana” store happened in August of 1988. At that time, the night watchman Jorge Luis Marchi, died. A young man, Pablo Galeano Britez, 22 years old, widow, was accused as the author of this homicide. The forensic doctor at that time was José María Llano. The investigation of this case was carried out by the Judge Eladio Duarte Carballo. When the “Nueva Americana” store finally burned, in 1991, Aldo Zuccolillo, director of “Abc-Color”, was manager – partner of the firm. The short-circuit that originated the fire, according to some people, was a tax debt of Gs. 500,000,000, a sum that would currently equal the amount of US$ 850,000.00 (The Resolution nr. 54, dated March 6, 1972 and the Resolutions nr. 327 and 328, dated July 26, 1991, are herewith mentioned). The Ministry Of Finances claimed a tax debt of Gs. 450,856,452. The intervention act of the inspectors of the Ministry Of Finances is dated on July 1; on July 4, the mentioned firma requested the breaking up of the tax debt. Regretfully, in December of 1991, a huge fire fully consumed the “Nueva Americana” store. Pursuant to members of the “Voluntary Fire Department” , the fire had a very flashy effect: there was no money to pay the tax debt, however right after it, a new “Nueva Americana” store was built, 17 times more expensive than the claimed tax debt.

Absence of the Admiral

The “Rats Nest”, according to the opinion of Humberto Pérez Cáceres, of the Febrerist Party, about “Abc-Color”, was celebrating its 10th. anniversary just a few days prior to the arrival of Mr. Terence Todman. Happier than a dogb with two tails, Zuccolillo thanked for the pleasant presence of the dictator with catastrophe size headlines: “President Stroessner visited our house” (9.8.1977). However, and despite the carefully prepared agenda of the Head of the State Ceremonial, Conrado Pappalardo, the “distinguished visitor”, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera and his wife, Delia Ester Dieyra, who arrived only on Thursday, August 11, 1977, regretfully missed the appointment.

Zuccolillo recriminates James Carter

Zuccolillo never cared about the human rights and there is no evidence that he ever did any denunciation about the violation of the human rights, not even before the Interamerican Press Society (IPS). To the contrary, at that time, Zuccolillo criticised President’s Carter policy of defense of the human rights, saying that “we have to make understand the USA that its current approach needs corrections as well as guarantees that it will not abandon the authentic democracies to the comunism, never and under no circumstances. And until today we do not have said guarantee”. (Abc-Color, 16.8.77, page 10.)

Donation to “The Technical”

It is clear that for Zuccolillo, the government of Stroessner was then an “authentic democracy”, and as a proof of compliance with his regime, he would say in another leading article that “This newspaper has already outlined some of its points of view about the issue –human rights- to Mr. Todman, but there are others that were not outlined, because we understood that, above all, we are facing things that we Paraguayans should outline and solve exclusively among us” (Abc-Color, 18.8.77). The strong identification of Zuccolillo with the regime of Stroessner made his smuggling, tires, iron bars business work fine. In other words, his support to the dictatorship was such a profitable business that there was even money left to donate US$ 8,000.00 to Antonio Campos Alum, known as the “Butcher of the Technical”.

Profitability and patriotism

Zucolillo always put a price to pleasentness and received, in fact, reasonable benefits of the turn governments. During the government of Wasmosy, just to mention as an example, only in September of 1996, he received official announcements for an amount of Gs. 62,266,310. We can also mention that he accused Lino Oviedo of being a “coup d’etat” type military, but later (18.4.97), speculating about the future advantages, he stated to “Radio Uno” that Lino Oviedo was the only one able to keep the Colorado Party in power and the “he was his favorite candidate”. This contradictory gentleman, following the family tradition, also became part of the “Wallet Party”. Mr. Antonio Zuccolillo Abbondante, who had sold “abbondant” sugar to the Bolivians during the Chaco War, gave his son the basic lessons about the scarce profitability of patriotism.

The “Z Plan”

The ideologist of the “Z Plan”, which consisted in sitting Zuccolillo on the chair occupied by the dictator Stroessner, was the controverted Dr. Fernando Levi Ruffinelli. However, said plan failed when Angel Arias, manager of “Abc-Color”, committed the imprudence of making comments to his relative, Alejandro Cáceres Almada. Thus, Zuccolillo lost definitively his chance to occupy the Presidential Chair. The “Z Plan” was just another raving of Aldo Zuccolillo.

Zuccolillo defines the meaning of corruption

The year of the 40th. anniversary of the store called “Ferretería Americana SRL” , “Abc-Color” , in the leading article of July 9th, 1995, told us Paraguayans from inside and outside, that the “tax dodging…should not be confused with corruption”. The organization called Transparency International should take note of this novel and unappealable definition. Thus, thanks to the wisdom of Zuccolillo, the tax dodgers now do not need to worry, since they already have the certainty that they have been excluded from the tax list of corrupt subjects.

Gone with the Fire

The same day in which the seat of the American Embassy was opened and multicolour lights were turned on simultaneously in Asunción and in Washington, the lights were also turned on at the popular corner of Mariscal Estigarribia street and Independencia Nacional street. In fact, the “Ferretería Americana SRL” store was incorporated by means of the Public Deed nr. 10, on December 19, 1955, before Carlos Solari, a Notary Public. When the “Ferretería Americana” “got combusted”, as said by Dante, Aldo Zuccolillo, director of “Abc-Color” , was partner – manager of the firm. The short-circuit that started the fire, according to non voluntary firemen, was a tax debt of Gs. 500 millions, a sum of approximately US$ 850.000 (to date). It was not the first time that Zuccolillo was dodging taxes. In this regard, we can mention the Resolution nr. 54, of March 6, 1972. Then, the Resolutions nr. 327 and 328, dated July 26, 1991 appeared, which together claimed a tax debt of Gs. 450.856.452. The intervention act of the inspectors of the Treasury were dated July 1; on July 4, the firm requested the fractioning of the said debt. Regretfully, in the month of its 46th. anniversary, a huge fire consumed all the store of Zuccolillo. The fire had notorious effects. There was no money to pay the tax debt, however, soon after the fire, a new store called “Nueva Americana” was built, which was 17 times more expensive than the fractioned tax debt.

“Gossip tangled by his own tongue”

On Monday, March 13, 1995, “Abc-Color” published a leading article that talked about “The return of Stroessner and the judgement to the dictatorship”, just a little bit above the leading article’s page, we read: “closed by the dictatorship on March 22, 1984, for defending freedom”. (The question is: When did Zuccolillo defend freedom?) There is no reason to question the presumed assertion of the slogan, mainly in its first part. Neither, there is a reason not to say that “Abc-Color” begun to feel the severity of the dictatorship 17 years after its incorporation, when Stroessner was about to celebrate thirty years in power. It could also be said that – with no need to apply the metric tape to the obedience – between 1967 and 1984, “Abc-Color” wrote so many praises to the dictator in its pages, that they would be more than sufficient to cover with them all the walls of the Palacio de López (Government Palace). Therefore, the praisers, benefitiaries (Zuccolillo among them) and those who legitimated the dictatorship, should be included in the judgement to the dictatorship.

Aldo Alberto Zuccolillo founded “Abc-Color” on August 8, 1967, under the patronage of General Alfredo Stroessner, who attended the opening ceremony of the “young newspaper with faith in the homeland”. Since then, and shortly before its closing in 1984, in countless leading articles, Zuccolillo defended with vehemence the policy and the long peace and progress era of General Stroessner. Of course, Zuccolillo’s business prospered thanks to the “distinguished boss” and due to it, it was common to see both of them in numerous “prints” of that time. (Remember that Zuccolillo supplied Chevrolet cars – red capers – to the Police of Stroessner, and due to it, cynicism is more than evident when he mentions in the article called “10 Years Ago” that “the only presence of the “red capers” in the neighborhoods was traumatic for any citizen” (Abc-Color, 29/8/97).

Zuccolillo and his links with Stroessner

“Pictures of Zuccolillo with Stroessner, there must be lots of them …, the truth is that we all wanted to appear with him, me too, why not? It is true, there may be 20 years, the first ones of the government of Stroessner, I wish somebody could tell me that those were not very constructive years, that there may be deffects regarding human rights, which I accept with pleasure. But, that those years were constructive, indeed, they were and our leading articles mentioned it, 20 years of building”. Statement of Aldo Zuccolillo to the radio station called “Radio à‘andutí” on December 12, 1996. Aldo Zuccolillo suffers of a sort of “selective amnesia” every time he refers to the “followers of Stroessner”, and it is even understandable that he acts this way, mainly because he himself was strongly linked to General Stroessner. This fact explains his own exclusion from the list of the “followers of Stroessner” prepared for the dissapeared article called “10 Years Ago”; it also explains why his brothers, Antonio Zuccolillo, father-in-law of Stroessner and Ambassador of Paraguay in London, and Julio César Zuccolillo, an informer to the service of the Head of the Investigations Department, Pastor Coronel, and finally, his brother-in-law, Conrado Pappalardo Zaldivar, the eternal person in charge of the ceremonial acts of the dictator, were unfairly and notoriously absent in said list. If you start searching in the articles of “10 Years Ago”, which comprises the period between 1979 – 1989, then you will prove that certain names are notoriously absent. For instance, why does not the name of his brother-in-law Pappalardo appear in the list of those who accompanied Stroessner in his trip to Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida (USA) in June of 1988? Or is it that Conrado Pappalardo, according to the journalistical criterion of Zuccolillo, did not have enough merits to be in the list of “followers of Stroessner” of “Abc-Color”?, or is it that the article called “10 Years Ago” did not admit relatives in it? With these backgrounds, and to say so with Zuccolillo’s own words: “It is good that the collective memory does not let itself get confused for the inversion of guilts and responsibilities that are attempted in this campaign, perhaps because those who invent and use them trust that, after forging so much the past, the memory of this people will weaken, will get disorientated and will end up absolving the real guilty ones of our current misfortunes”. To this comment, we should add another one, that Mr. Zuccolillo has a hobby, which is precisely to forge the past.

Flirting with the hangmen

After knowing that General Rafael Videla was coming to visit Paraguay, three weeks before Alejandro José Logoluso and Marta Landi were arrested, and who later dissapeared in Argentina, Aldo Zuccolillo prepared a leading article to flirt in advance with the hangmen. In a leading article called “It is easy to pontify far away from the problem” (4.3.77), Aldo Zuccolillo upholds following: “There are certain countries where, in fact, not all human rights have the acknowledgement and respect they should have, but in which said situation can not be deemed as definitive, because they really don’t wish them to be so”. I.e., pursuant to Zuccolillo, Videla and his joint, killed, tortured and made approximately 15.000 people dissapear unintentionally. “The Republic of Argentina can be considered as a good example of the first one. Its own government and people admit that currently, certain types of freedom are restricted and some of the human rights are infringed, however, the general trend of that country, the final desire of the Argentinean, including their governors, is to overcome that state of things, to re-establish the absolute normality as soon as possible”. This affirmation, besides being a perverse forgery, offends the memory of thousands of victims, wheather dissapeared or surviving ones, of the great human massacre that at then operated at full steam. But in the desire to please the killers, Zuccolillo continues stating: “Whilst a nation keeps said desires alive, it will be hard to classify it among the declared enemies of the human rights. Anyway, it is not possible to reach that judgement without making first a sincere effort to be in their circumstances and think, with justice and without passion, what would one do in their place”. This illustrative leading article tells us what Aldo Zuccolillo would do, “with justice and without passion”, being in the place of Videla. This is the real Zuccolillo, depicted by himself. Zuccolillo, “gossip tangled by his own tongue”, had political and affective links with the dictatorship, that is why his brother-in-law, the person in charge of the ceremonial acts of the dictator, Conrado Pappalardo, does not appear in his list of the article called “10 Years Ago”. And there is more that could be found out: Was it a dictatorship when on June 15, 1974, Hugo Fernando Zuccolillo (son of Tuco and nephew of Acero*) married Maria Olivia Stroessner Mora? or when “President Stroessner visited our house” ? (Abc-Color, 9.8.77). Then, the only thing we need to find out is, when exactly did the dictatorship begin for Aldo Zuccolillo? “The loss of privileges and tax matters, added to other trivialities, caused Aldo Zuccolillo to start rowing towards the other side of the river; any ordinary day, thirty years after it started, Zuccolillo suddenly discovers the dictatorship. Since then, his obsession was to get rid of his former godfathers, he wanted to “burn the ships”, to retrace his steps of pleasantness and flattery; however, he left so many footsteps that there was not enough firewood to carry out such an ambitious plan. We heard that advisors and specialists in “errata” explained Aldo Zuccolillo that to erase the past was not an easy to do task, but that this “absentminded” people could accept to be told about the end of the film: thus, the series called “10 Years Ago” was born. As it may be verified, the director of “Abc-Color” militated in so many causes, that it is curious that ……(*Acero: Zuccolillo’s nickname).

Zuccolillo, roundtrip itinerary

Mr. Miguel Ignacio Pereira purchased in 1966 la firm “La Industrial y Comercial Lala Ltda.”, a firma which Aldo Zuccolillo had in San Pablo, Brazil. With the money he made with this commercial operation, adding the contributions of other partners, one year later the newspaper called “Abc-Color” was established. The Most Excellent President of the Republic, Mr. Alfredo Stroessner, was specially invited to the opening act of the newspaper that wanted to “assess with objectivity” the government works of the dictator. As expected, Zuccolillo soon got enrolled in the lines of those who criticised the oppositors who did not want to legitimate with their votes the candidature of General Alfredo Stroessner, stating that “the political jobbery has not only been enthroned in the life of the government’s structures, but it also has its ‘modus operandis’ in the mentality of the opposition itself, which one way or another supports an absurd civic abstentionism, or lives rumouring systematic and presumed coups d’etat, or speculates about imminent changes with the accuracy of a pythoness (“Political Jobbery”, leading article of “Abc-Color”, 9.1.1968).

At that time, there were thousands of exiled citizens of all political parties and political prisoners scattered all over the country’s police stations, 176 prisoners counting only the list of the “Technical Department”, headed by Antonio Campos Alum. Nobody cared much about the situation of the political prisoners, who at that time were already spending years inside dirty dungeons, such as, for instance, Napoleon Ortigoza, Antonio and Ananías Maidana, Alfredo Alcorta, Julio Rojas, Emilio Barreto, Livio Gonzalez Santander, etc. As a tradesman, linked to the groups of power, he knew perfectly the “scarce profitability of patriotism”, so that what Zuccolillo wanted was that it be voted, but with well defined interests and which had nothing to do with the democracy. Among the civic reasons, there was the Decree nr. 29.252, dated September, 1967, that was created by the Wheat National Board, for the execution of the National Crop Program of Wheat. For the financing purposes of the “Wheat Plan”, the local bank called “Banco Nacional de Fomento” assigned in 1968 a fund of Gs. 500 millions, an important amount of money for that time; the main benefitiary of this fund was no one else but the eternal person in charge of the State Ceremonial, Conrado Pappalardo Zaldivar, who later became the very famous brother-in-law of Aldo Zuccolillo. Some people with a good memory still conserve the hope and the interest in knowing if the Gs. 42 millions (approximately US$ 334.000), the amount of the loan granted to Pappalardo, returned to the place of origin or if said sum became part of the privileged list of the “accounts of the silly” of the “Banco Nacional de Fomento”. Out of the fund of the “Wheat Plan”, the Pappalardo firm used nothing less but 9% of the total amount, a sufficient percentage to felt honoured with the friendship of Stroessner. Zuccolillo and Pappalardo – the tropical version of Charles Maurice Talleyrand – “the gentlemen of the golden wallet”, never cared about democracy or human rights. To the contrary, they always arranged with the different rulers. However, these gentlemen have the strange virtue to know whom to betray and exactly when to do so, “what could happen if the victory becomes more expensive than the defeat”.

Zuccolillo and his reputation as betrayer

Aldo Zuccolillo, director of “Abc-Color”, has a large journey as betrayer, a fact that can be verified in publications of his own newspaper. Zuccolillo acquired his sad reputation as betrayer in that tragic year of 1976, when he publishes in the front page the picture of the priest called Miguel Sanmartí García, whom he accused to be the main boss of a terrorist organization (“Abc-Color”, 8.8.76). Zuccolillo’s reputation as betrayer reached Spain. In regard to the priest Sanmartí García, the magazine called “Cambio 16” refered to matter in the following words: “Like in an American ‘Far West’ poster, next to the picture of the one wanted by the justice, appeared the news in the newspaper called “Abc-Color” of Asunción, Paraguay, at the beginning of April. There was little that could be done by the local ‘citizens’ to help capture him. At that time, the ‘dangerous criminal’ was comfortably living at the residency of his Order in the city of Barcelona, where he arrived five months ago” (“Cambio 16”, nr. 233, Madrid, May 24, 1976). This happy coincidence of Zuccolillo with the “high objectives of the Superior Government of eradicating the cancer of communism” was compensated on the next year, when on August 8, 1977, the dictator Stroessner attended the tenth anniversary party of “Abc-Color”. Nevertheless, he would not be pleased with being just an ordinary betrayer, since his main competitor in flattery, Humberto Rubín, was already rised to the rank of Official Host of Stroessner’s birthdays, it was clear that Zuccolillo needed to collect more merits. Consistent with this purpose, on March 8, 1979, Aldo Zuccolillo contributed with Gs. 1.000.000 (US$ 8.000.-) in order that the fearsome Director of the Police “Technical Department” could denounce before the World Anti-communist Congress “the pro-communist manoeuvre of President Carter”. The “democratic Zuccolillo” considers the death machine directed by Campos Alum as inefficient, so he carries out his own research in “Abc-Color”, discovering in record time the antidote against the stateless communism. However, in regard to the “recipe of Zuccolillo” it is possible to observe a huge flattery of the repression. In fact, in the leading article titled “The true enemy of communism lies in the democracy” (“Abc-Color”, 24.6.79, page 8), Zuccolillo states following: “Of course, this does not mean that among the fighting methods against communism the military power does not occupy an (important) place or that we should give up to everything that is embraced by the generic concept of repression..”.

It is very clear, pursuant to this ruthless person, there is no need to “give up” torture –goad, bathtub and stick- that are included in the “generic concept of repression”. Following with his demential way of thinking, Zuccolillo arrives to the novel conclusion that “the communism is not afraid of this form of excessive repression. To the contrary, the indications that reveal it tries and encourages, are numerous. It looks to be persecuted and wants the persecution to be as intense and heartless as possible…”. For Aldo Zuccolillo, who today wants to appear before the public opinion as the “defender of freedom”, the political prisoners used to spend very nice and pleasant times at the comfortable “Technical Department” or at the “Investigations Department” headed by Pastor Coronel, and the more “intense and cruel” was the “immersion”, the “immersed subject” –pursuant to Zuccolillo- felt as if he/she was having a wonderful session of turkish bath or swimming at a beautiful caribbean beach. But there is more, the “democratic Zuccolillo”, in the penultimate part of his “Flattery of the repression”, still dares to affirm that “the repression in excess may sometimes rise out of the sincerity…”. Any comment about this madness is on the account of those who suffered persecutions and terrible tortures. Also Zuccolillo, an outstanding disciple of the inquisitor Torquemada, not only justified the “twenty years of labor, but occupied his position in the trenches of Campos Alum to oppose to the defense of President Carter’s human rights. Today, Zuccolillo feels angry when the newspaper called “Noticias” publishes the pictures of those who were killed in March (1999) but has no inconvenience to jeopardize the life of a witness, by publishing his picture and personal information. Zuccolillo continues defending those who promised blood rivers, those who were instigating to violate the human rights, a truly serious fact and considered as an offence in all the signatory countries of the Human Rights Universal Statement.

Reaction of Zuccolillo in regard to the Pinochet Case

By request of Baltazar Garzon, the Spanish judge, on October 16, 1998, the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London. At Yegros street (where the “Abc-Color” offices are located in the city of Asuncion / Paraguay), the Spanish claim to judge an Southamerican dictator outside his “natural” environment was not well seen. Angry due to such “arbitrary” claim of the Spanish judge, Aldo Zuccolillo publishes then a large leading article where he asks himself: “What is the difference between the dictator Augusto Pinochet and the tyrant Fidel Castro, far beyond the fact that this last one lead his nation towards recession, hunger and prostitution, whilst the first one modernized and brought prosperity to his nation?”.

In his leading article, Zuccolillo openly assumes the defense of Pinochet, and to integrate his plea in a correct manner, he does it in the following terms: “The Chinese communist government killed at the same time thousands of students at the Tiananmen Square, who were demonstrating in favor of the democracy, much more than those denounced as dead and missing during the cruel war of guerrillas held during the seventeen years of dictatorial regime of Pinochet”. (Refer to: “Embarrasing International Hypocrisy”. Leading Article of “Abc-Color”, November 8, 1998, Page 14). In this leading article, that could have been written by the Chilean General Manuel Contreras himself, former Head of the DINA (Intelligence Agency of Chile), Zuccolillo exposes his arguments as a new defending lawyer: Pinochet can not be judged because he is no different than Fidel Castro; second: Pinochet brought prosperity to Chile and Castro brought recession, hunger and prostitution; third: Pinochet can not be judged before the Chinese communists be seated on the carpet; and last, the “dead and missing” in Chile, died or dissapeared“during the cruel war of guerrillas”, i.e., they died in action; then, nobody complains when the law is equal for everybody. Pursuant to Zuccolillo, what happened in Chile, is more or less like what Arthur de Gobineau would say, that “the savages also begun eating the cannibals”. Now, what is the reason of this motivated defense of Pinochet? Why so much anger at Yegros street? This anger may not be such and due to it we have to place it in the context. At the end of last October, the lawyer Samuel Buffone –legal agent of the relatives of Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Moffit in Washington- requested the re-opening of the “Letelier Case”. At the same time, judge Baltazar Garzón requested reports to Washington about the participation of Michael Townley in the kidnapping and killing of the Spanish diplomatic named Carmelo Soria. The reader should ask himself/herself, why is Zuccolillo so concerned about the requests of Buffone and Garzón? In the meantime, we can categorically affirm that Zuccolillo does care and a lot, and to understand him, we will have to tell again the indispensable part of an old story.

A brother-in-law in trouble

When Zuccolillo was persecuting imaginary terrorists in 1976, two real terrorists arrived to Asunción in the first week of June of said year: Michael Townley and Armando Fernández Larios. They were members from the DINA (Intelligence Agency of Chile), the fearful secret police of Chile. In Asunción, they were in touch with Aldo Zucolillo’s brother-in-law, the eternal Head of the State Ceremonial, Dr. Conrado Pappalardo Zaldivar, who managed before the American Embassy in Asunción counterfeited passports for Michael Townley and Fernandez Larios, with the supposed names of William Rose and Alejandro Romeral Jara, respectively. On September 21, 1976, there was an attack in Washington, where the former Chilean Chancellor Orlando Letelier and his American Secretary Ronnie Moffin were killed. After a while, the news was that the American Justice accused Michael Townley and Captain Armando Fernández Larios of being guilty for the attack. Nobody knows for certain how Conrado Pappalardo escaped from the “Letelier Case”. Nevertheless, now that the lawyer Buffone, the judge Garzón and Human Rights organizations press to de-classify secret documents of the American State Department, said documents may involve a greater number of people in the attack, and pressumably also to the Representative (without parliamentary rights) Pappalardo. Consequently, the anger at Yegros street for the arrest of Pinochet in London is fully justified; whilst the “Embarrasing International Hypocrisy” of Zuccolillo, placed in this context, seems to be inspired in a premonitory feeling: it may happen that the eternal Head of the State Ceremonial of Stroessner may take the opposite journey of Christophorus Columbus, travelling to the “Mother Homeland”, “invited” by judge Baltazar Garzón.