Michael Batson

Asuncion is the capital and largest city of landlocked Paraguay, a country rarely on the radar and for most, off the beaten track. Steamy tropical heat, tin-pot dictators, violence, tragedy and cultural melting pot, Paraguay seemed to fulfil stereotypical views for many of Latin America. True, during its history, Paraguay has suffered cataclysmic wars and during one period over two dozen dictators came and went in almost as many years. It’s been the hangout for Nazi war criminals, arms merchants, drug traffickers, and deposed dictators. It’s a 250 kilometre ride by bus from Resistencia in northern Argentina along Route 11 through the wonderfully named Formosa, to the border with neighbouring Paraguay and Asuncion. Resistencia nestles the Parana River, South America’s second-longest waterway, and neighbours Corrientes, the setting for the Graham Greene thriller, The Honorary Consul, which has a Paraguayan sub-plot. In a bar in Resistencia the locals poured scorn on their northern neighbours, a backward country they said, where it’s not safe, “you should be careful there.” A caution reinforced with a knowing nod of the head, though they admitted none of them had actually been to Paraguay. I knew some history of Paraguay. I’d also seen the film of Greene’s book with Michael Caine in the title role supported by an unlikely Richard Gere. Anthony Hopkins’ first project after the acclaimed Silence of the Lambs was a film for television about a