Martin Almada is a Paraguayan scholar who was a victim of Operation Condor in the 1970s. He was born in Puerto Sastre, Paraguay in 1937. He became a writer and schoolteacher, and founded and directed the progressive school Juan Bautista Alberdi in San Lorenzo with the help of his wife Celestina Perez.
In 1974 he completed his doctorate at the National University of La Plata in Argentina. His thesis, titled Paraguay: Educación y Dependencia (Paraguay: Education and Dependency), criticized the Paraguayan educational system, resulted in his imprisonment and torture by an international group of military officers during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. He was eventually freed in 1977 after a 30-day hunger strike and action by Amnesty International. "I underwent a month of torture such as pulling out my nails, burning my eyes, and they submerged me in a bath full of human waste and would shock me 'til I signed a document incriminating myself."
After moving to Paris, he was appointed Latin American and Caribbean consultant for UNESCO. After searching for the identity of his torturers, he discovered diaries and documents providing evidence of Operation Condor. This evidence was used by the Spanish court in the indictment of General Augusto Pinochet on charges of genocide, torture, terrorism, and abduction. These documents, along with others also suggest that then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other US officials knew about Operation Condor.
Almada has received awards from France, Brazil, and Argentina for his work on human rights, and he is a candidate for the Alternative Nobel Prize.