Torture therapies in Paraguay:
attempts to convert LGBTI+ to heterosexuality

What can we do to cure my son, doctor?

Héctor was 18 years old when his brother outed him. It was 2016, and he was studying to get into engineering at the National University of Asunción. At the time, he was dating a boy from Coronel Oviedo, with whom he exchanged private messages on Facebook. One day, when he returned from university, his brother accessed his personal account, read their private conversations, and told their mother. Upon hearing this, she thought only one thing: her son couldn't possibly be gay.

After spending several days locked up and incommunicado, his mother decided to take him on a series of medical visits to try to "cure" his homosexuality. She told the first doctor they visited, "I've brought my son because he's not well; I don't know what's wrong with him." The doctor performed various tests for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), assuming that was what Héctor's mother wanted. But it wasn't enough. At one point, she asked, "Is that all? Aren't you going to do anything to cure him?" The doctor said he couldn't do anything else and recommended she consult a psychologist.

Finding no answers during the first consultation, his mother took Héctor to a homeopath. “What can we do to cure my son, doctor?” The doctor replied, “Madam, the problem isn’t with him, the problem is with you. If you want, we can work with you, but he doesn’t have a problem.” The doctors’ comments further outraged Héctor’s mother, but the worst chapter in the young man’s life was just beginning.

When his father found out, he grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wardrobe. “You’re my son, you’re a man, damn it!” he yelled. Héctor wept as he listened to his father blame his mother for his son’s sexual orientation. “She should never have taught him to cook,” he shouted.

Hector hadn't slept for days. He started failing his classes after several days of going from hospital to hospital. In a moment of vulnerability, he told them: “Here's my body and mind. You can do whatever you want with them. Psychological conversion therapy, electric shock, pill therapy. We'll do whatever you want.”

A week later, at the university, a professor asked Héctor to leave because his father was looking for him. As he got into the car, he realized his mother was there too. “Where are we going?” he asked them. “I have four children, and all four of my children are boys. If they aren’t boys, they aren’t my children. I don’t have any other kind of children, and this is what they did to you,” his father said.

They took him to the office of a renowned sexologist and psychologist named Óscar Sapena Pastor. Once they arrived, Dr. Sapena Pastor explained that the sexual reorientation treatment would take time. “It’s not like pressing a button,” he said. Therefore, Héctor would need to see him for at least an hour, five days a week. The parents agreed.

“I was 18 years old. I don’t know if you can imagine being in that situation. Being surrounded by three people, and having to explain to your mom how to open your leg, in what position.”

During these encounters, Sapena Pastor asked Héctor to talk about his sexual relationship with his boyfriend, what gave him pleasure, and his intimate life. Sometimes, the meetings took place in front of his parents, and Sapena Pastor made him describe, step by step, how he had sex with another man.

While these sessions were taking place, Héctor was living a nightmare at home. They argued almost every night at dinner, and his siblings blamed him for their mother's low moods. This "therapy" with Dr. Sapena Pastor not only left him in a constant state of alert, anxiety, and depression, but also led to suicidal thoughts and, eventually, a breakup with his boyfriend.

The only solution he found was to flee. He went to live in Moscow through an academic opportunity that offered scholarships to Paraguayans in Russia. “I didn’t even know where Russia was. I applied, threw away all my documents, and took the first plane that would get me out of this country. Only when I was awarded the scholarship did I tell my dad. And he said to me: 'Russia! Vladimir Putin! Beautiful Russian women! But where do I sign?' Today, basically, I'm publicly admitting that I left the country fleeing this situation ,” Héctor says in an interview with Presentes.

Óscar Sapena Pastor holds the title of clinical sexologist and offers psychological therapy in his private practice, where he treated Héctor. Thus, through medical discourses that lack any control or supervision by state institutions, these pseudotherapies are reproduced and legitimized.

Guilt as a driving force

The therapies of torture never left Paraguay. They are deeply embedded in the hegemonic medical, psychiatric, and religious discourse. Those who practice them use different names: psychological counseling, spiritual accompaniment, reparative therapy, addiction therapy; and they are presented in various ways, in spaces such as schools, churches, and psychological clinics.

Brune Comas is an activist, performer, and coordinator of Vena Rota. On May 17, 2018, the Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office charged him with alleged "exhibitionist acts" at an LGBTQ+ festival in Asunción, held to commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. Years earlier, he had studied Theology at university. It was during this time that he realized he was gay. He met a young man at a congress of the Ibero-American Confederation of Christian Communicators and Mass Media ( COICOM ).

“Christian journalists came from all over the Americas; the Mennonites brought them. We met up somewhere, we glanced at each other, and then we went to take a nap on a rug on the third floor. I remember all that tension you feel when you like something so much and people tell you it’s wrong, but that it has to happen, but they keep telling you it’s wrong,” Brune recounted. When his family found out he was in a relationship, they kicked him out of the house. For four years, there were long periods of silence from his family.

Coming from a conservative evangelical background, Brune listens attentively to the topic. For him, in Paraguay, difference is rejected. “When I was 20 and realized I was gay, I said, 'I'm going to be free,' because I had the opportunity and I fought with all my strength to achieve it, but it didn't guarantee me anything either. It helped me go through a stage in a more loving way. To discover yourself, to feel desired. Having to learn to constantly bring the living out of the dead. It's something, but it leads me to a very difficult and agonizing task that I wouldn't wish on anyone,” he continued.

According to psychologist Montserrat Vera, a member of the PsicoFem collective, a feminist organization that seeks to promote diversity and a gender perspective in mental health in Paraguay, no type of conversion therapy has a scientific basis and there is no study that demonstrates its effectiveness. “What has been proven is that it generates problems, pain, and trauma.”

Montserrat identified that several patients who came to her office were victims of these so-called “therapies,” which in turn confirms the parents' desperation to “cure” or change their children. “They tell me they were sent to church, to priests, to religious groups, to the military barracks. It's like they're trying to convert them on all fronts,” she explained.

“It has effects on daily life that are difficult to name and pinpoint if you don't have the opportunity to talk to people who are activists, community members, healthcare professionals, or colleagues in general, because there are many people who are indeed very lonely. What all this ultimately shapes is the isolation of the individual,” explained the clinical psychologist.

Violation of national and international laws

The practitioners of so-called “conversion therapies” define the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities as illnesses. Vera explains that if these are considered pathologies, sexual orientation is being interpreted from a mental institution perspective. And from that perspective, people are deprived of their fundamental rights.

On November 17, the Executive Branch enacted a mental health law in Paraguay . Among other things, it prohibits psychologists and psychiatrists from making diagnoses based on religious prejudices or on a person's sexual orientation and gender identity. It also seeks to regulate non-consensual hospitalizations and, from an anti-psychiatric perspective, to convert the Psychiatric Hospital into an emergency center.

Inclusive Christians of Paraguay posted a photo on their social media of a couple wrapped in an LGBT flag. “This Mental Health Law confirms what we always knew: that LGBTI people don't need a cure because there is nothing about us that needs curing,” they emphasized.

In 2011, Aireana , a lesbian rights group, with the support of the LGBTI Coalition, launched the regional campaign " Cures That Kill ." They sought to raise awareness about the dangers of "conversion therapy" practices among the general public and psychology and psychiatry organizations. That same year, the Paraguayan Society for the Study of Human Sexuality published a statement denouncing the sexual orientation change efforts being carried out in the country. The Paraguayan Society of Psychiatry also released its position.

Paraguay ranks fourth in Latin America in the number of patients diagnosed with depression , according to a report by the Pan American Health Organization. Less than 1% of the Ministry of Public Health's budget is allocated to the Directorate of Mental Health. It is impossible to know how many of the diagnosed depression patients belong to the LGBTQ+ community because no data exists on this group.

“By not recognizing LGBTQ+ categories, the State generally fails to produce data. We have general data, but we can't see the incidence of depression or suicide among LGBTQ+ adolescents. This lack of recognition leads to invisibility,” adds lawyer and researcher Erwing Szokol. This happened again on November 9, when LGBTQ+ people, Afro-Paraguayans, and people with disabilities from the 2022 Census

To violate in order to correct

Carolina Robledo, president of the lesbian organization Aireana, explains that, generally, domestic violence is normalized in the accounts of those reporting it. “Within their narratives, we sometimes find something that stands out, and we discover that a girl was taken to a place that could have been a church, where she was told it was going to be a retreat,” Carolina stated.

According to her, these events often occur in an authoritarian situation, where she was locked up and isolated, and everything that happened there affected her so deeply that, on many occasions, she even attempted suicide. It doesn't always happen to girls under 17; often it happens to girls in their 20s or 23s.

“There’s a deeply ingrained idea that a family’s honor depends on a woman’s sexuality. We have a case of a 16-year-old girl with an 18-year-old partner. When her parents found out, they took her to the Child and Adolescent Protection Agency (Codeni), and the agency told them it was a hormonal problem, so they gave her pills. Many people subscribe to a magical thinking that pathologizes people’s reality,” reflects Rosa Posa, an activist with Aireana .

In the case of lesbians, rape is used to "convert" or "modify" their sexuality; it's a form of discipline. Aireana receives reports of "commissioned rapes," that is, corrective rapes of lesbians at the request of their own families. These acts are carried out through a secret, patriarchal, and sexist pact with the goal of changing a lesbian's sexual orientation through rape. Sometimes, the agreement is made among family members, and sometimes it's even recommended by a mental health professional. An uncle, a brother, or a cousin is asked to "do this favor."

“They said there was a homosexual demon inside me”

Daniel Ortellado was 16 years old when he realized he was attracted to men. He decided to share this with someone he trusted, thinking it would be a secret. However, he told a homophobic aunt. She then spread the information to almost the entire family. When he told his father, his father flew into a rage and beat him so badly that he still bears scars to this day.

One day, his aunt dragged him to a psychologist. The professional asked him questions about his sexual orientation, his feelings, sexual relationships, and contraception. Then, she asked the aunt to come in and assured her that the young man had no problem, that he was simply discovering his sexuality and didn't need to be cured of anything. "You're the one with the problem, and you're the one who needs to solve it," she told her. The aunt got angry and left the office with her nephew.

In a small amphitheater, they made Dani sit between his dad and his aunt, while a pastor read passages from the Bible and placed her hand on Dani's head.

Besides the woman leading the ceremony, there were two other women surrounding Dani, walking in circles, one to the right and the other to the left. They both prayed as they continued moving. The ritual lasted about an hour, and at the end, Dani was forced to promise his family that he would no longer engage in homosexual practices.

Dani attended three of these torture rituals in January 2010. During that time, he stopped eating, was incommunicado and isolated from his friends, didn't speak, and was very sad. Years later, Dani became aware of what he had experienced: “It's a torture process that many boys, girls, and young people go through. I wouldn't wish it on anyone because, although it may seem like a simple ritual or a simple meeting where they're going to pray for you, the impact on your mental health can be devastating.”

The organizations behind LGBTphobia

In Paraguay, Miguel Ortigoza, the evangelical pastor of the Family Worship Center (CFA), is a leading advocate of religious fundamentalism. He is president of the National Pro-Life Front and a representative of the Somos Muchos, Muchos Más Movement , Parents in Action Paraguay , and Don't Mess With My Children . Currently, in addition to preaching against the sexual and reproductive rights of women and LGBTQ+ people, he is a prominent voice against the "Educational Transformation .

The Educational Transformation project, promoted by the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC), the Ministry of Finance, and the Technical Secretariat for Economic and Social Development Planning, aims for inclusive, equitable, and quality education. Ortigoza, representing the parents' sector, has been a member of the Inter-institutional Strategic Committee since June 23, 2022, and maintains that the project is supported by organizations that promote LGBT inclusion .

Ortigoza supported the administration of the former Minister of Education, the evangelical Eduardo Petta. On one occasion, during the presidency of former Colorado Party President Horacio Cartes, Ortigoza, from the National Pro-Life Front, demanded that an executive decree be modified so that the Ministry of Women would "no longer have any authority" to promote a gender perspective within its purview.

On another occasion, December 10, 2020, Cartes preached about the family at an evangelical conference in the auditorium of the Colorado Party . Miguel Ortigoza and fellow evangelical pastor Emilio Agüero Esgaib also spoke there. “I thought I had seen it all. Many people are asking me for the ANR (National Republican Association) to take a stand on this issue. Let those with the rainbow flag come and tell us: 'We want your children.' They hide behind lies, they hide behind flags, but rest assured, we are many more, we are better, and they will not defeat us. Let us not remain silent any longer. I invite you to go out and fight, and I assure you of victory,” said Horacio Cartes, the ANR presidential candidate who was recently declared significantly corrupt by the United States government .

Evangelists

When José Silvera, a founding member of Inclusive Christians of Paraguay , was offered the leadership of a cell group in the Assemblies of God Church , he was 20 years old and confessed to the pastor that he was gay. “I really liked being a leader, but it was going to cause a big conflict, and I didn't want to lead a double life. I was already in the process of accepting myself. He told me that all gay men had been raped by a man at some point and that it was very likely I had also been raped as a baby. That really affected me because I know I wasn't raped, but to fit into his category of gay, he made me believe it,” he recalls.

For José, religious violence occurs when members of churches, usually evangelical, present a completely bleak future and make their followers understand that they are not welcome if they accept their sexual orientation. “That doesn't allow you to develop as some want, to find a space, an environment where they can express their spirituality,” Silvera says.

One emblematic case mentioned in the research, "Challenging the Future: Co-inspiring Transformations. Attacks on Democracy in Europe and Latin America. Voices from Feminisms," is that of the Misión Vida church, founded by the Argentinian Jorge Márquez, a media "apostle" who defends the innocence of colleagues accused of links to drug trafficking and money laundering . Along with his brother, Hugo Márquez, he leads the church and is known for his fundamentalist positions and his ability to influence the political power structures of Uruguay and Paraguay.

Another prominent evangelical figure is Juan Vera, a leading advocate of religious fundamentalism. He heads the Paraguayan Consumers Association (Asucop) and in 2013 was a candidate for senator for the Independent Constitutionalist Movement in Alliance (MICA) . At that time, he was already leading a hate and discrimination campaign against LGBTQ+ people through his Facebook account and that of Asucop . He also urged young people to enroll in the Army's Military Training Institute Command (CIMEFOR).

Although it's not easy to identify the funding sources of fundamentalist groups, some activists believe there are supportive relationships between political and religious power. "The main breeding ground for conversion therapies in Paraguay is within Christian communities," emphasized Juan Manuel Talavera , a member of Inclusive Christians of Paraguay. "Just look at Emilio Aguero's speeches; he speaks about many people. He was the one who unleashed the witch hunt during the time of (former Minister of Education Enrique) Riera," he said.

The CFA Evangelical Church, the same church led by Ortigoza, is frequently visited by political figures. “Politicians need to understand that we are here to work with them, not against them. Lugo’s mistake was being exclusionary , said Pastor Emilio Abreu when he publicly offered his support to Federico Franco in 2012 after the parliamentary coup against former President Fernando Lugo.

The prominent presence of evangelical members in the government was also seen during Nicanor Duarte Frutos's presidency, with the participation of Mennonite leaders such as Ernst Bergen (first in Industry and then in Finance), Carlos Walde (economic advisor), and Andreas Neufeld, in the Tax Administration. In the cabinet of current President Mario Abdo Benítez, two evangelicals have taken office: Arnoldo Wiens, Minister of Public Works and current presidential candidate, and Eduardo Petta, former Minister of Education.

Another example demonstrating the financial support between evangelical churches and political power was the medical treatment of the late Emilio Abreu . In January 2022, the Ministry of Health requested that the Social Security Institute (IPS) cover the cost of surgery for Abreu, even though he was not insured by the social security system. The procedure's costs ranged from 20 million to 800 million guaraníes. This was heavily criticized by the public on social media.

Bad manners

José Silvera attended a group for gay men called the Love, Acceptance, and Forgiveness Group (GAAP). This group was led by the same psychologist responsible for writing and producing the content for the magazine "Decisions," Joel Cirian Rodríguez. "Decisions" is a magazine containing false information about sexual health that was produced and distributed with state funds to thousands of students in Paraguay for at least seven years.

The members of GAAP met once a week at the Botanical Garden of Asunción, discussed the sins of homosexuality, and tried to "acquire masculine manners" through soccer. They also had to confess if they masturbated, watched pornography, or thought about men.

An investigation by El Surti revealed that Exodus International operated in Paraguay. Exodus is a US organization that for over thirty years promoted the supposed effectiveness of conversion therapies. In 2012, its president, Alan Chambers, admitted that they were ineffective and decided to close the organization the following year. However, some of its ministries continue to operate to this day.

One of the coordinators of the Ministry of Reparative Therapies was César Yamandú, from Uruguay. He would invite young people to his home next to his bookstore, Oasis, in the city of Villa Elisa. He would receive them on Saturday mornings, and they would talk and pray. Presentes tried to contact Yamandú but received no response.

Paraguay, a laboratory of anti-rights discourse in Latin America

The stigmatization of the LGBTIQ+ population in Paraguay has its origins in the Stroessner dictatorship, the longest in Latin America. In the 1970s and 80s, a violent persecution of gay men by the security forces began, under the pretext of solving the murder of radio announcer Bernardo Aranda . These men, considered homosexual by the government, were labeled "immoral," repressed, and ostracized from society.

At that time, the national press promoted a hypothesis that supported the existence of a “sect of immoral people.” A newspaper clipping collected in the book 108, One Hundred Eight , by lawyer and researcher Erwing Szokol, explains that “the organization is a whole movement expanding into centers where depravity has not yet taken hold.” Supposedly, they used various means to attract unsuspecting young people and corrupt them.

Forty years later, in 2012, Paraguay was the scene of a parliamentary coup that deposed then-President Fernando Lugo and paved the way for the return of the Colorado Party, whose candidate and later president, Horacio Cartes, repeatedly spoke out against the rights of LGBTTIQ+ people and the decriminalization of abortion. But Paraguay's far-right shift is widespread throughout the rest of Latin America.

Since then came a succession of racist, homophobic, and neoliberal governments, such as that of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil; the 2019 coup in Bolivia by the far-right Christian Janine Áñez; the establishment of the far right in Colombia in 2019, with the presidency of Iván Duque Márquez and in El Salvador, with Nayib Bukele, as well as the continuation of neoliberalism under Sebastián Piñera in Chile.

“The fact that Paraguay is a breeding ground for anti-rights rhetoric generally creates a hostile climate toward LGBT people and reinforces, in many ways, the stigma that exists against them. It is a harmful discourse that hinders the growth of society and public debate, and the recognition of the contributions of LGBT people to society,” Moragas explains.

The research "Challenging the Future" demonstrates that this context of far-right shift in a large part of the countries of both regions reveals strong currents of human rights violations and delegitimized, corrupt, tutelary democracies with a high military, business and religious influence on political decisions.

The setbacks in human rights began in 2017, when the Ministry of Education and Science prohibited references to “gender ideology” in educational materials and threatened to burn books containing the word “gender .” Moragas published an article in the CDIA journal Observa titled “What is the Ministry of Education Denying by Prohibiting Gender Theory and/or ‘Ideology’?” In it, he demonstrates that the effect of the “Riera Resolution,” as Resolution 29.664 of the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) is known, is not about modifying the materials but rather about reinforcing the taboo surrounding the word “gender” in education.

In 2019, the Senate approved a declaration stating its pro-life and pro-family stance. The declaration was introduced by Senator María Eugenia Bajac (PLRA), a member of the Liberal Party, to "defend what the National Constitution expresses regarding life and family, in Articles 4 and 49, respectively."

Bajac is a pastor at an evangelical church and was charged with using congressional travel allowances and per diems, as well as the Foreign Ministry's infrastructure and resources, to travel to Peru and Guatemala during the height of the coronavirus pandemic to attend evangelical religious events. In 2020, the Senate impeached her for misuse of public funds.

Hate influencers

In 2018, Agustín Laje and Nicolás Márquez, far-right theorists and authors of the book *The Black Book of the New Left *, visited Paraguay at the recommendation of the then Archbishop of the Catholic Church, Edmundo Valenzuela, as part of the meeting “Republican Principles, Proposals and Challenges ,” organized by the ANR (National Republican Association). The talk took place at the Colorado Party's headquarters and was attended by the President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez, former President Horacio Cartes, and other party officials.

Sara Winter, a self-proclaimed "ex-feminist" from Brazil, visited Paraguay twice to give free talks "Feminism and the Moral and Ethical Destruction of Women" at the public university in Ciudad del Este.

The event was organized by the Circle of Liberal Studies with the support of the National Pro-Life Front and Pro-Family Paraguay and the Movement for Life and Family. They also held the talk “Gender Ideology and Family Destruction” at the Mauro Céspedes Municipal Hall in Ciudad del Este and at the Hernandarias Municipal Theater.

In May 2022, the libertarian economist and Argentine National Deputy for the La Libertad Avanza party gave a keynote address in Paraguay at Tower 1 of Paseo La Galería, organized by the Paraguayan National Chamber of Commerce and Services (CNCSP) and produced by Grupo SG. The event cost G. 440,000 for chamber members and G. 650,000 for non-members. The objective of the talk was “to create a space to share ideas, rethink the country, and build new paths toward economic and social progress and development .

To a large extent, says the research Challenging the Future , this deployment is related to the successful construction of international and cross-border alliances between fundamentalist actors, for example, the influence of figures such as Agustín Laje and Nicolás Márquez in various countries of the region and in international events on family and rights.

Healing the wounds

There were three rituals during January 2010. Dani Ortellado remembers each one. The last one was different. At the end of the ritual, he was incorporated into a mass that was taking place in a place full of young people and teenagers. His process of withdrawal and recovery was not easy. “I went through two suicide attempts, and still being here, standing strong, is an achievement, not only for me but for all the people around me who gave me so much support and love,” he reflects.

Dani feels that those "dehomosexualization" sessions at the evangelical church damaged her self-esteem to this day. She says she spent a lot of time depressed and is still healing her wounds through therapy and self-care. But of all the consequences, there's one she clearly identifies: "I think the conversion therapies made me completely distance myself from the church and any other religious institution."

He still feels there's a lot he can't demand from his parents because his childhood was marked by taboo and misinformation, especially regarding sexual orientation. However, his relationship with his family has changed. Thanks to his father no longer living with him, they maintain a code of mutual respect. With his mother, it's different. With her, he can talk about life, death, friendships, and affection. But he prefers never to know more about his aunt, who was the one who tried to "convert" Dani.

“I think about my teenage self back in 2011 and what coming out meant from that moment on, and the rift it created with my family, and I compare it to the relationship I have with them today. It was the result of many conversations, honest exchanges, disagreements too, but ultimately there is an acceptance of our differences, respect, and lessons learned,” he explains.

“I think I’ve managed to heal most of my wounds. In fact, in July, after three years of therapy, my psychologist gave me the 'discharge' for the first time. She told me she sees me as having a great deal of autonomy and tools for conflict resolution. It’s something I’m very proud of. But I can go back whenever I need that space.”

Her biggest challenge is to continue strengthening her self-esteem, to connect with herself and her body, and to keep affirming herself positively. “I am a very privileged person in many ways. I think healing is a process, but it's not linear at all. There are days when I feel great, and then I seek out time with my therapist. I believe healing is possible, but there needs to be a lot of support. Mine was, and continues to be, my fellow women activists for rights and therapeutic spaces.”

Juan Manuel Talavera, of Inclusive Christians, explained that the healing process depends on the type of therapy someone has received, the duration of exposure, and the impact it has had on the person. There are violent therapies, ranging from psychological and emotional manipulation, with the complicity of families, to isolation in "specialized" centers where, in some cases, "patients" are even subjected to electroshock therapy.

"In other words, believers end up not only distancing themselves from their Christian faith, but even developing a rejection and even hatred towards religion, and with good reason," reflects Juan Manuel.

But he also identifies other fairly common consequences: self-rejection and the guilt that many people continue to experience even after escaping this type of torture. For Juan Manuel, misunderstood and misused Christianity has caused a great deal of harm to the LGBT community, and this continues to happen through the hate speech of anti-rights groups with a fundamentalist Christian base. That is why, starting this year, they created a space for listening, support, and guidance for LGBT people who have been victims of religious abuse.