Chilean Tied to 1980 Slaying of Somoza Is Freed by Paraguay
Chilean photographer Alejandro Mella Lattore, accused of taking part in the assassination of former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, was freed Friday after spending nearly nine years in jail.
“I’m free, it’s unbelievable, it looks as if at last a terrible nightmare is over,” Mella Latorre, 36, told reporters.
“I’m sure that if Alfredo Stroessner had not been overthrown I wasn’t going to be freed,” he said.
Stroessner, who ruled Paraguay for 34 years, was ousted in a coup two weeks ago by Gen. Andres Rodriguez.
Paraguayan police accused Mella Latorre of taking part in the assassination of Somoza in Asuncion in 1980, the year after the Nicaraguan dictator sought refuge in Paraguay following the fall of his government to the Sandinistas.
“I had no part in it. I was the scapegoat so that someone should be punished for the crime, but I’m innocent,” Mella Latorre said.
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