Memory Excerises (still).The Stroessner dictatorship in Paraguay was the longest in all of Latin America, lasting from 1954-89. His regime, like many in the region over a similar period, was characterised by the systematic torture and disappearance of dissenters. In his film Memory Exercises, Paz Encina hones in on the life of Doctor Agustín Goiburú, one of the many desaparecidos (‘disappeared people’), telling the medic’s story through memories recounted by his family.
Goiburú’s persecution and murder will be a tragic but familiar tale to those acquainted with modern Latin American history.
Leader of the movement MOPOCO (El Movimiento Popular Colorado), Goiburú was perhaps the most prominent opponent of the Stroessner government. Even when forced into exile in Argentina, Goiburú was unfaltering in his opposition to El Gringo (a derogatory term by which Stroessner was known, meaning ‘the westerner’), plotting one attempt after another on his life. A terrorist in the eyes of the regime, Goiburú’s ensuing persecution, kidnapping and murder, will be a tragic but familiar tale to those acquainted with modern Latin American history.
