He later became secretary-general of the Paraguayan Communist Party, and in the 2008 election he was a candidate for the senate for the Socialist Patriotic Alliance, the political coalition in which the PCP participated.

[citation needed] In 1947, after joining the Paraguayan Communist Youth, which was against the dictatorship of Higinio Moríñigo, he was captured, tortured and imprisoned in the Public Jail of Asunción, which was located in the property where the Catholic University now functions.

During the Cold War, the United States had enormous influence in Paraguay and generally supported harsh measures against communists and other members of the far left.

Maidana was freed in the late 1970s, but exiled, first to Sweden, and then to the Soviet Union, where he denounced the crimes perpetrated by Stroessner and promoted international solidarity through his work as a journalist and a politician.

[citation needed] Once Stroessner was ousted from government, through a "coup d'état" organized by General Rodríguez, Maidana returned to the country.

Maidana was the secretary-general of the Paraguayan Communist Party and decided to be a candidate in the 2008 election to the senate for the Socialist Patriotic Alliance, the political coalition in which the PCP participated.