Paraguay Finds Its Anti-Corruption Hero

An army colonel whose report on a massive car-smuggling ring led to the downfall of four generals and a shake-up in the upper echelon of the armed forces has become a hero in corruption-ridden Paraguay.

“For the first time in our history military officers will be tried by civilian courts. This was unthinkable a few years ago,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Mario Melanio Medina, a fervent human rights activist.

The report by Col. Luis Gonzalez Rojas confirmed what had been one of Paraguay’s worst-kept secrets--that senior military and police officers were involved in widespread smuggling.

The army’s first reaction was a clumsy attempt to hush up the matter, jailing Gonzalez Rojas for breach of regulations in releasing military documents to the local media.

But President Andres Rodriguez, a cavalry general who ended the 34-year dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in a 1989 coup, finally capitulated to a series of anti-corruption street demonstrations and a virulent press campaign, promising the full weight of the law would be applied to those involved.

Legal proceedings were started against four generals, including the army commander-in-chief, Humberto Garcete, and in late October Rodriguez appointed new men to key posts in the armed forces.

Gonzalez Rojas’ release from a military prison in mid-October brought a jubilant response from thousands of supporters who packed the street outside his home to give him a hero’s welcome. Political leaders, facing general elections next year, are trying to woo him to their camps.

In a much-publicized ceremony the colonel officially quit the ruling conservative Colorado Party, membership in which was obligatory for all public employees during the Stroessner regime.

The 51-year-old Gonzalez Rojas said he had simply done his duty. “I did what I had to do. I thought Rodriguez wanted to clean things up,” he said.

The colonel submitted his findings after being stationed in barren western Paraguay. There he had discovered an estimated 400 stolen vehicles a year passed through the area en route to neighboring Bolivia with the connivance of military and police authorities.

As civilian judges pursued the case the extent of the network became clear, ranging from frontier guards to the upper reaches of the army hierarchy.

Politicians and human rights activists said the investigation could mark a turning point in Paraguay’s history of corruption.

“Never before has the judicial system carried out its duties. Never before have (the authorities) taken notice of such accusations,” said opposition politician Domingo Laino, leader of the Radical Liberal Party. “I hope this leads to a re-evaluation of (the country’s) ethical and moral values.”

In a country considered the contraband haven of South America, Gonzalez Rojas’ report is only the tip of the iceberg. While government figures suggest over $400 million in goods, around half the level of official exports, are smuggled out of Paraguay annually, private economists say this figure is extremely conservative.

Apart from smuggled cars, cattle, cigarettes, liquor and electronic goods, Paraguay is a transit point for cocaine flown in from Bolivia en route to the United States and Europe.

After over three decades of Stroessner’s institutionalized corruption, many ask where the investigations will end.

“Everybody is involved, from the president of the republic to the most humble,” said Bishop Medina. “There is a lot of dirty linen and I don’t know where it is going to end.”

Rodriguez has repeatedly denied that his fortune--consisting of cattle ranches, real estate, a currency exchange office and a brewery--accumulated under Stroessner, is the fruit of corruption.

But well-placed political sources say the president himself could be investigated after he steps down next August. There is open enmity between Rodriguez and Luis Maria Argana, the likely presidential candidate of the Colorado Party.

“While most of the country is prepared to be generous to Rodriguez for bringing down Stroessner, Argana is likely to start a witch hunt,” said one of the sources.