Behind an ordinary downtown façade, the National Directorate of Technical Affairs — "La Técnica" — operated for decades; thousands of opponents of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship (1954–1989) were detained and tortured here. The museum has reconstructed the cells based on the testimony of former political prisoners and displays documents, photographs and objects from both the repression and the resistance. It's a hard but essential visit for understanding contemporary Paraguay.

In 1956, US Colonel Robert K. Thierry set up his office here, sent to train regime officials in counterinsurgency techniques. The center was shut down by court order on December 23, 1992, one day after the discovery of the "Archives of Terror." Nearly ten years later, the Celestina Pérez de Almada Foundation reclaimed the building to create the museum.