Paraguay’s ex-president and present vp are below investigation for alleged corruption – fees they deny.
Paraguay’s legal professional normal has launched a felony investigation into the US authorities’s allegations that the nation’s former president and the present vp had been concerned in corruption and had ties to a violent group.
Lawyer Normal Emiliano Rolón Fernández mentioned on Thursday {that a} group would look into the allegations that former President Horacio Cartes and Vice President Hugo Velázquez engaged “in systemic corruption that has undermined democratic establishments in Paraguay”.
Cartes and Velázquez have beforehand denied the allegations.
The US, in the meantime, added three folks to a listing of Paraguayan officers it suspects of “important corruption” and who can be barred from entry into the US, together with their members of the family. That record, began in 2019, now numbers 9 officers.
In January, the US issued explosive allegations that Cartes and Velázquez had ties to the group Hezbollah, which Washington has designated a “terrorist” organisation.
The US has lengthy mentioned the porous tri-border area that connects Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is a hub for financing “terrorism” by means of cash laundering and illicit exercise. The US has recognized what it has described as members of Hezbollah who use entrance firms within the area to finance violence within the Center East.
The US additionally accused Cartes, who it has described as considered one of Paraguay’s wealthiest males, of widespread bribery of presidency officers and legislators.
The newest officers added to the US corruption record had been courtroom clerk Vicente Ferreira and Edgar Melgarejo — the previous director of the Paraguayan Civil Aviation Authority — in addition to Jorge Bogarín, a member of a panel that disciplines judges and prosecutors.
The designations got here after the US State Division “obtained credible info” that Melgarejo “misappropriated public funds for private acquire throughout his tenure”, in keeping with US Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield.
He additionally mentioned there was proof Bogarín and Ferreira “interfered in judicial proceedings for their very own private profit”.
“Acts of corruption like these undermine the establishments, processes and folks’s religion within the skill of the Paraguayan authorities to serve its folks,” Ostfield mentioned on Thursday.
Melgarejo informed native media he was “stunned” by the designation and mentioned he was unaware of the explanations behind his inclusion on the US corruption record.
The investigation by Paraguay’s chief prosecutor may also look into claims of corruption involving Juan Carlos Duarte, a authorized adviser for the entity that runs the bi-national Yacyretá Dam, which is collectively owned by Paraguay and Argentina.
