The five are members of the left-wing party Movimiento Patria Libre (Free Homeland Movement-MPL). Juan Arrom and Anuncio Martí were kidnapped by police on January 17 and found 13 days later in a house owned by police subcommissioner Francisco Flores on the outskirts of Asunción, the capital. The whereabouts of Victor Colman and Ana and Jorge Samudio, who disappeared several days after their comrades were kidnapped, is still unknown. Two are known as leaders of peasants’ struggles.

Other political parties in the country and human rights groups have joined the MPL’s campaign against the kidnappings, organized under the slogan, "Against state terrorism."

Arrom and Martí were found at the police official’s house by family members and supporters of the Paraguayan Human Rights Coordinator, accompanied by local media. The two came out of the residence shirtless, their bodies marked by bruises. They explained that they had been seized by police officers, and that their abductors had tried to make them sign a document stating they were responsible for the kidnapping of Maria Edith de Debernardi, the wife of a businessman. Debernardi was released soon after she was abducted, in exchange for a ransom of $1 million.

"The abductors showed a lot of interest in our political activities and people that we worked with," Martí said in an interview with the newspaper Diario Ultima Hora. "It seemed they were looking to establish a reason to justify the criminalization of the organization. They inquired about our relations with the [Colombian rebel army] FARC and the Túpac Amaru movement" in Peru, he said.

Arrom and Martí said that Silvio Ferreira, Minister of Justice and Labor; Julio Cesar Fanego, Minister of the Interior; Oscar Germán Latorre, State Attorney General; Blas Chamoro, Police Chief; and Roberto González Cuquejo, Chief of Crime Investigation, had all been involved in visiting, calling about, or overseeing their abduction.

Ferreira and Fanego are among those who have resigned their posts. The Paraguayan Congress says it has launched an investigation into the involvement of the government officials named by the MPL leaders.

On February 1, two days after the rescue of Arrom and Martí, 2,000 people gathered in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral to celebrate their release and to demand the resignation of the Minister of Interior Julio César Fanego and President Luis González Macchi. Protesters have carried signs that say, "Torture never again," a reference to the brutal military dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner that terrorized the Paraguayan working class for 34 years until 1989.

Mass sentiment against any return to military rule was reflected in mobilizations in 1996. Under the pressure of those street protests, President Juan Carlos Wasmosy was forced to dismiss General Lino Oviedo for conducting illegal political activity. In response to his firing, Oviedo threatened to bomb Congress and the presidential residence. Wasmosy announced that he would reappoint Oviedo, and then went into hiding.

Working people and students mobilized against the reappointment and the threat of a coup d’etat. Demonstrators shouted, "Wasmosy, Oviedo: send them both to the garbage heap." Oviedo was subsequently arrested and charged with insurrection.  
 
 
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