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News > Latin America

Paraguay: 2 Ex-Senators, ex-Minister Indicted over Corruption

  • Paraguay's President Cartes attends an event. The charged officials are either part of the ruling Colorado Party or allies of it.

    Paraguay's President Cartes attends an event. The charged officials are either part of the ruling Colorado Party or allies of it. | Photo: Reuters

Published 29 December 2017
Opinion

The country’s top prosecutor charged the conservative politicians and allies of the ruling party with influence peddling and bribery.

Paraguay’s prosecutor's office charged and requested the house arrest for former senators Jorge Oviedo and Oscar Gonzalez Daher as well as former Interior Minister Carmelo Caballero, implicated in an alleged Influence peddling.

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The measures were announced Thursday night in which the two former senators were charged with criminal association, bribery and influence peddling. Caballero, lawyer and former minister of the interior in 2012, also received the same charges.

The investigation into the powerful politicians began after local media disclosed a series of audios which implicated them in cases of influence peddling and pressure and extortion of  judges to obtain economic benefits for them or third parties.

The accused were part of Jury of Prosecution of Magistrature, JEM for short, a body in charge of prosecuting legal government officials like judges and prosecutors, and the audios show them abusing their position to influence certain judges and prosecutors in the country.

The same charges were also delivered to Raul Fernandez, the former secretary in general of the JEM as well as attorney Ruben Dario Silva.

Former senators González Daher of the ruling Colorado Party was removed from his seat earlier this month by the country’s senate over his involvement in the scandal.

Meanwhile Jorge Oviedo, of the conservative party UNACE, resigned from his seat last week. The two were the two required members of the senate on the JEM.

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Their resignation amid the canadal is sending shock waves across the small South American country as media outlets reports that González Daher becomes the first senator in the country’s history to be removed by the senate.  

Also Paraguay's Attorney General Javier Díaz Veron himself has been implicated in one of the audios and could face impeachment proceedings for abuse of power following a request made by opposition lawmakers in the senate last week.

In the recording Carmelo Caballero and Fernandez can be heard discussing "negotiations" to insert Veron into the new three-people, pre-candidate list for the position of attorney general.

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