Interview With a Paraguayan Exile ‘They Threw Me, Bleeding, Into a Dungeon’ By Carol Weston licemen in civilian clothes began Liberación Nacional w ere and me. She is a well-known literary was one of eleven political prison­ to strike me with pistols. They where they lived. figure in Latin America and that ers. Among us were professors MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The fired two shots at my head, Q. How was your wife treated? is why they did not dare kill her. Antonio Maidana and Julio Rojas following is an interview with a wounding me on the eyebrow and A. My wife was also arrested In the meantime — taking ad­ — leaders of the teachers union. lawyer from Asunción, Paraguay, on the head. Then they took me and jailed in another part of the vantage of a moment when the There also were accountants, now living in exile. to a police station where I was police station. She immediately police became careless— I was able workers and students. Many of Question. Why were you ex­ beaten with fists and kicked. In began a hunger strike and she to send my bloodstained clothes them were suffering from dy­ pelled from Paraguay? the police station they threw me, also refused to drink any water to my family. My family present­ sentery and asthma. A ll of us ate Answer. I was arrested, tortured bleeding, into a dungeon and then in order to save my life and to ed my clothes to a court. Then and slept on the floor. We were and, after seven months of im­ threw two shovelsful of excre­ secure my freedom. Three days the court ordered an investigation kept incommunicado in a dark prisonment, I was expelled to A r­ ment on me. Later they tied my later, when she was very weak, of the forceful entering of my and narrow dungeon and we could gentina because I formed part of hands and beat me with sabers. the chief investigator, Erasmo home, of my unlawful arrest and not go out into the fresh air or the Frente Unido de Liberación After that I was thrown into a Candía, beat her with his fists. of the mistreatment of my per­ sunlight. The two professors are N acional [United Front of Nation­ dungeon of the secret police which This same Candía was a dealer son. The police arrested the de­ still in jail. They have been there al Liberation], which is fighting was crawling w ith roaches, spiders in narcotics. My wife, badly fense lawyer and paid no atten­ four years now despite a court for the overthrow of the Stroess- and rats. The dungeon was so wounded, was thrown into the tion to the investigation. They ruling ordering their release. Law ner dictatorship and for the es­ narrow that it was impossible to Argentine Chaco. threatened to arrest the judge. 294 authorizes sentences of up to tablishment of a democratic gov­ stand up. I was continuously Q. And didn’t she know how Q. How long were you in the ten years for political crimes. The ernm ent. questioned and threatened with you were faring? jail? judge, who ordered the release of Q. How were you tortured? tortures. I was asked who the A. She knew they were tortur­ A. I Was in jail seven months Antonio Maidana and Julio Rojas, A. I resisted arrest and two po- leaders of the Frente Unido de ing me and that they could kill in all. In one of the prisons I (Continued on Page 2) Strike Wave Spurs N.Y. Hospital Union THE Political Opposition In New Walkout for To Franco Regime Bargaining Rights By Hedda Grant By Fred Halstead Both left and right-wing op­ N E W Y O R K , June 20 — W h ile MILITANT ponents of the Franco regime in the wealthy businessmen and poli­ Published in the Interests of the Working People Spain have been spurred to in­ ticians who sit on the board of creased activity by the strike trustees of the Beth-El Hospital wave of the last nine weeks. The Vol. 26 - No. 26 Monday, June 25, 1962 Price 10c in Brooklyn are still trying to June 21 issue of R e po rte r m aga­ break the strike of their non-pro- zine claim s th a t 17,000 s trik e rs are fessional employees, workers at s till h o ld in g out w h ile 100,000 another hospital in the city have have returned to work. However, struck on the same issue — union the lingering quality of the strikes recognition. Publishers Invite to Worthy has caused serious disagreements Picketing began June 18 at the on tactics among Franco’s min­ Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat isters and has led Franco into a hospital for recognition of Local Sharp Slap at Att’y General new tough policy, aimed at curb­ 1199 o f the D ru g and H o sp ita l ing possible opposition leaders. Em ployes U nion. T he 150 nurse’s Wendell Phillips In a direct and unmistakable A right-wing group of Spanish aides, porters, dietary and clean­ slap at Attorney General Robert oppositionists met in Munich dur­ ing workers there — almost all of F. Kennedy, the Negro Newspaper ing the first week of June. Over them Negroes and Puerto Ricans 100 attended, including G il Robles, Publishers Association (NNPA) Phillips Case Wins — now average $47.00 a week in has invited foreign correspondent head of the Christian Democratic wages. Movement, a former minister of William Worthy to addresss its “The money is little enough,” war, Franco supporter, monarch­ annual meeting on Saturday said one picket on the line today, ist, fascist and conservative; right- Support of Leading m orn ing , June 23, in B altim ore. “but the real issue is just plain wing Socialist Party leader Ru­ union recognition. We work hard The President’s brother will dolfo Llopis, who created quite a and don’t get any rest and get speak at the same conference on Academic Figures stir by shaking hands with Robles; pushed around and we don’t have the previous evening, Friday, Joaquin Satrustegui, leader of the LOS ANGELES, June 14 — any rights or dignity at all in June 22. Spanish Union, a group dedicated Over 75 academic figures from 17 there. That’s why we voted to The Attorney General is re­ to the restoration of Don Juan to Southern California colleges and s trik e .” sponsible for the criminal indict­ the throne; Dr. Jesus Prados universities have become spon­ Representatives of the city’s ment of Worthy for returning to Arrarte, a Republican with mon­ sors of the Wendell Phillips Aca­ labor movement and the manage­ his country of birth last October archist leanings, who heads demic Freedom Committee in the ment of the city’s 45 non-profit 10 “without a valid passport.” Spain’s leading private bank; and past ten days in response to a let­ hospitals met June 19 to discuss When Robert Kennedy appears at also representatives of the Basque ter signed by Dr. Linus Pauling, the strike at Manhattan Eye as the conference to speak, he will and Catalan separatist movements. Attorneys A. L. W irin and Robert well as the three-week-old walk­ be “greeted” by Negro and white They reportedly agreed on joining W. Kenny, and Professors John out at Beth-El. So far, the city’s pickets protesting the novel in­ forces to oppose the Franco re­ Caughey, Kurt Bergel and Alfred top labor officials have been si­ dictment as an attempted inter­ William Worthy gime. Nicols. lent on the Beth-El strike, but ference with freedom of the press On their return to Spain on New supporters in California of pressure for action is building up. and as an act of racial discrimina­ June 9, Robles, Satrustegui and the civil-liberties case, which in­ Twenty-four young persons, aboard a regular daily flight of tion against a Negro newsman. Arrarte were arrested and offered volves the’ right of a welding in­ mostly college students, were ar­ Pan American World Airways. None of the numerous white cit­ the choice of forced residence structor at Fullerton Junior Col­ rested June 5 for a sitdown in the izens who have come home “ w ith­ Judge Dyer reserved decision (banishment to a remote section lege to hold minority political (Continued on Pago 3) out a valid passport” has ever in order to study the laws and of Spain and constant surveil­ views and not to be an informer, been indicted. ascertain if he has the legal au­ lance) or self-exile. Robles and include Hallock Hoffman, Arthur W illiam Worthy, correspondent thority to transfer the case out of Arrarte chose exile. At the same Carstens and Irving Howe. First for the Baltimore Afro-American, (Continued on Page 2) (Continued on Page 2) responses supporting the case Baltimore Law Bars pleaded “not guilty” in Miami on from outside California include F rid a y , June 15, in U n ite d States Dr. Edward U. Condon, past presi­ Restaurant Jim Crow jiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiii 8-Page Militant Fund im iiiiitiiiim m iiiiiim iim m m iiiim iiiiiim iiiim iim iiiiiiiiiiiiii dent of the American Association District Court. On April 24 Worthy BALTIMORE — On June 8 the had been indicted in Miami for for the Advancement of Science, mayor signed a measure making re-entering his native land from and Harvard Professor Reginald this the first Southern city to bar Isaacs.