Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 25 August 1972
Paraguay: two for the pot
The death of General Patricio Colman should ease President Stroessner's problems in dealing with the United States, but may well weaken his position inside the country, where Colman had served his master's interests well.
A first consequence of the death in Washington last week of General Patricio Colman Martinez seems certain to be the speedy extradition to the United States of the international drug smuggler Auguste-Joseph Ricord (see Vol. V, No. 42). With his chief military protector (Colman) in the hands of United States doctors at the Walter Reed military hospital, Ricord lost his battle to remain in Paraguay in the appeal court, which gave its adverse decision the day after Colman's death. Although that may have been a coincidence, there is no doubt that the peremptory dismissal of a subsequent appeal to the Paraguayan supreme court reflected a new era in relations between the United States and Paraguay. Ricord's departure for the United States under guard now seems imminent.
Colman was head of the crack RI 14 -- the Cerro Cora anti-guerrilla division -- and also President Alfredo Stroessner's most devoted henchman. He died from the after effects of stomach wounds sustained during a typical Colman incident in May 1970.He was personally directing the search for Arturo Lopez (alias Comandante Agapito Valiente), a leading member of Oscar Credyt's pro-Peking Communist guerrilla movement, who had been detected in the boot of a car and surrounded. Colman himself opened the door and received two bullets in the abdomen before Lopez was almost shot to pieces by Colman's loyal troops. He had seemed to be quite recovered, but about three months ago the wounds began to trouble him again, and he was returning for further treatment.
A fanatical anti-communist, and a brutal torturer who preserved the genitals of captured guerrillas in bottles of formalin to show visiting United States military missions, Colman was a living legend among the campesinos and Stroessner's top internal security chief throughout the past decade. His personal rule extended over vast tracts of Paraguay and he operated private airstrips for smuggling on his private cattle ranches in strategic spots such as Pilar and Santa Helena. The esteem in which even Stroessner held him may be gauged from the fact that the President, most uncharacteristically, was at Asuncion airport on 31 July to see the general off to Washington, only two hours after returning himself from an official visit to Argentina.
From the point of view of Stroessner's iron control over Paraguay, Colman's death may well have an adverse effect. The highly effective counter-espionage service which Colman had built up on a basis of fear, machismo , charismatic appeal, and extraordinary loyalty to his person, and which was largely responsible for Paraguay's unique if sinister reputation for internal tranquillity, is likely to suffer. The release of pent-up grievances among persecuted peasant communities, long subject to his arbitrary rule, and the 'unemployment' of hundreds of people who relied on Colman for a living, bode ill for his successor.
Washington may well mourn the passing of Colman, the anti-guerrilla fighter, but will nevertheless be quite pleased to see the back of Colman, the heroin smuggler (see Vol. V, No. 47). Stroessner originally granted Colman his smuggling franchise (restricted to cigarettes and whisky in those days) in 1960 after the general had led a successful campaign of repression against the FULNA guerrillas, who had entered Paraguay from Argentina and were operating in the department of Caazapa. He later expanded his activities to channel heroin through from Europe to its destination in North America. This has been a source of friction between Washington and Asuncion for a long time now (see Vol. VI, No. 21), and Stroessner may well have an easier time on the diplomatic front now that the foreign smugglers' principal institutional support has been eliminated.
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