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One of the most relevant events in the democratic transition of Paraguay took place on December 23 and 24, 1991. On those dates, judges Dr José Agustín Fernández and Dr Luis María Benítez Riera proceeded to search and seize the files of the production department of the Police in Asunción and the technical section of the Ministry of the Interior. This was possible due to the exhaustive investigation conducted by human rights defender, Mr. Martín Almada, to locate the files and present the data to the judges. The search obtained documentation –dating from 1927 to February 1989– that provided (1) evidence for ongoing lawsuits and investigations of human rights violations (torture, forced disappearance of persons, exchange of persons under arrest with foreign countries without a court order); and (2) evidence of the public property status of the documents, which allows preserving the living collective memory to defend the values of democracy, freedom and human rights.

Since their discovery, they have been designated as the Archives of Terror, as they document police repression and patent violation of human rights during the 35 years of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship. The files provide evidence of Operation Condor; how Stroessner's authoritarian regime fractured social values, culture, human behaviour and human relations; and how individuals were arbitrarily imprisoned, justice was paralyzed and Paraguayan citizens were forced to mass migrate. They provide evidence of how physical and mental torture became a systematic procedure to repress people with politically incompatible ideas.
The creation in 1993 of the Documentation and Archives Centre for the defence of human rights was an important step to systematize the preservation of the Archives of Terror. UNESCO provided technical support for the creation of the Centre's portal and the digitization of documents. The Truth and Justice Commission established by law ten years after with the participation of notable non-governmental organizations, relies on the Archives of Terror as a key resource for its work. Both state institutions and non-governmental organizations in Paraguay collaborate to safeguard documents from this painful period in the country's contemporary history. The Judicial and Executive powers of the Paraguayan government act to raise awareness among citizens regarding democratic values as well as the promotion and defence of human rights as mutually dependent concepts. The government’s Judicial and Executive powers have acknowledged the brutal injustices perpetrated by Stroessner’s dictatorship and have enabled public access to the documentation. 

The Archives of Terror were Inscribed on the Memory of the World International Register in 2009 and on the Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2011.