Word: paraguayans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Greene's goings-on in The Honorary Consul at first seem highly local and temporary. The scene is South America in the '70s, and the situation is even closer to the daily headlines than was the case with The Comedians or The Quiet American. Some hapless Paraguayan guerrillas, stirred by General Stroessner's repressions, cross the border into northern Argentina. They aim to kidnap a visiting American ambassador and hold him against the release of ten political prisoners. But, as one character remarks, "nothing happens as we intend." Acting as his customary farce majeure, Greene...
...holder of one of them is Dr. Eduardo Plarr. Plarr's British father has been held for years in a Paraguayan prison, and Plarr has not only become involved with the kidnapers but is the lover of Charley Fortnum's young wife. When Fortnum winds up a hostage, Plarr finds himself in one of those absurd and passionate plights that Greene is so skillful at convincing us are truthful metaphors for man's lot in life. "Let this comedy end as comedy," Plarr says in mock prayer. "None of us are suited for tragedy." But naturally, this...
There, under the protection of Dictator General Alfredo Stroessner, he holds Paraguayan citizenship in his own name and is reputed to live on a tightly guarded estate said to be a haunt for former Nazis near the Brazilian border. He frequently slips out of the country for rendezvous with his wealthy family, despite a $70,000 Israeli-German reward for his capture...
...months, Ricord has been sitting in an Asunción prison cell, at the center of a diplomatic tug of war between the Nixon Administration and Paraguayan President Alfredo Stroessner's military dictatorship. Since October 1970, when federal agents seized five couriers with a shipment of 97.5 lbs. of heroin (worth about $12 million on the street) in Miami and succeeded in tracing it back to Ricord, the U.S. has been seeking to extradite him on conspiracy charges, alleging that he is the kingpin of a syndicate that piped more than 11,000 lbs. of heroin ($1.2 billion) through...
...answered by closing down U.S. lines of credit to Paraguay amounting to some $5,000,000. Last week, ruling that Ricord's extradition would be "desirable" after all, a Paraguayan appeals court overturned the first court's decision. If there are no further snags, Ricord-who is one of the biggest drug traffickers ever snared by the U.S.-will soon face trial in New York...