On a sultry late-summer evening in Asunción, Paraguay’s sleepy capital, a band plays a slow waltz on a stage carpeted in crimson. Behind them hangs a series of photographs, headshots of people murdered by the secret police during the dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner. In front, beyond a row of bathtubs – the regime’s most infamous torture device – couples dance solemnly.
Among the dancers is Asunción’s newly elected Mayor, an opposition-party politician who supports the legalization of abortion and gay marriage. His presence suggests Paraguayan democracy has come a long way since Stroessner was deposed in 1989, ending 35 years of terror.
