“If a Peaceful Protest Deserves a Cell, We Have Lost Our Freedom,” Detained Council Candidate Says

A peaceful protest with stuffed toys outside Horacio Cartes’s residence ended with two opposition figures in a police cell and the toys taken to the station. Sebastián Garay, a council candidate and president of the Patria Querida party’s youth wing, described the arrest after his release from Asunción’s 10th Police Station.

Garay and councilor Pablo Callizo had joined a demonstration aimed at showing solidarity with doctors. Garay said an earlier protest by two people had drawn no serious response, encouraging organizers to bring a larger group the following time.

“We went for the first time last week to hold a protest with two people,” Garay said. They carried toys with small signs in response to what they saw as the repression of medical workers during demonstrations.

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An act of clumsiness and authoritarian abuse.

The second protest brought together between 10 and 15 people, including mothers, older adults and young people. Each carried a stuffed toy. Police assigned to guard the residence of Colorado Party leader and former president Horacio Cartes responded immediately, according to the article.

Garay condemned the arrest as “an act of clumsiness and authoritarian abuse.” He said the incident had caused public outrage and raised concerns about the rule of law under President Santiago Peña’s government.

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We went for the first time last week to hold a protest with two people. We brought some dolls and toys with small signs in response to what we saw as something ridiculous: doctors were protesting and in many places they were met with repression.