Jair Bolsonaro paid tribute to the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner during an event in Itaipu

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro paid tribute on Tuesday to the former Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) during a demonstration at the Itaipú hydroelectric plant in the presence of his Paraguayan counterpart, Mario Abdo Benítez, son of Stroessner's personal secretary.

Bolsonaro wanted to "celebrate those who were really responsible" for the construction of the Itaipu Dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay, and alludes to the former Brazilian dictator Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco like Stroessner, that he called "a man of state who knew perfectly" what I wanted for Paraguay.

"My homage to General Alfredo Stroessner"said the Brazilian to the applause of the public.

Bolsonaro also referred to the turn right on the American continent with the latest electoral processes.

"Left never again", shouted in front of the Itaipu audience at the meeting on the occasion of the inauguration of the new director of the Brazilian part of Itaipu, Joaquim Silva e Luna.

Bolsonaro is reminded that will meet Abdo Benítez on March 12 in Brasilia, in the extension of the meeting of half an hour which they had this Tuesday before the event.

The Brazilian president, unlike the Paraguayan president, gave a press conference at the end of the event, in which he reported that they had talked about the fight organized crime, especially in the Triple Border and in the energy management modes, in relation with Itaipu.

For the Brazilian, "Any problem of the past will be solved" in future negotiations on the dam, while referring to his peer as "a conservative who loves his country".

Paraguay and Brazil have pending renegotiate the Itaipu Treaty in 2023 and, in particular, Annex C of this document to decide what it will do with 50% of the energy produced for the dam that corresponds to Paraguay and whose surplus, until this year, must sell them to neighboring country at cost price.

Itaipu Binacional was created on May 17, 1974, to manage its construction and commissioning 10 years later, in 1984.

Human rights organizations estimate that about 500 people were killed under the dictatorship in Paraguay, 3,000 missing and about 20,000 exiles. After his overthrow in February 1989, Alfredo Stroessner was a refugee in Brazil, where he died on August 16, 2006.