Top police officer for Paraguayan dictator dies, carrying secrets of state terror to his grave

A death in Paraguay buries dictatorship’s secrets

ASUNCION, Paraguay — A top police official under Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner has died, carrying some big secrets with him.

Human rights activists say Alberto Cantero never revealed the location of bodies of political prisoners who were tortured and killed.

The 75-year-old Cantero was head of political affairs at the national police under Stroessner and spent a decade in prison for the disappearance of a political prisoner in the 1970s.

He told The Associated Press in an interview years ago he was aware of “many detentions” during a time when communists were seen as subversive.

Cantero’s family announced that he died Monday.