The former president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, was denounced by the Minister of the Interior, Arnaldo Giuzzo, for the “excessive growth in assets” during his government. In the complaint, filed with the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money or Property Laundering (Seprelad), the minister specifies that a sum of $300 million was found in the Cartes estate.
millionaire growth
The Paraguayan Minister of the Interior, Arnaldo Giuzzo, denounced the former president of the Colorado party, Horacio Cartes, because between 2013 and 2018, the period in which he held the country’s first magistracy, the former president had a millionaire growth in his assets. “A sum of 300 million dollars more or less was found, which at the change of the time would be about two billion guaranies”, explained the minister.
In this sense, Giuzzo specified that the complaint refers to false statement of assets by Cartes who made several rectifications to his affidavits. According to the local morning Last Houra is also under investigation companies that have links with the former Colorado president, such as Tabacalera del Este (Tabesa), which is currently being investigated internationally. Giuzzo stated that countries like Colombia, Brazil, and even Mexico are investigating Tabesa.
Macri’s friend
cards too would share business with former Argentine president Mauricio Macri, whom he received in January of last year, in the midst of a pandemic, after putting a private plane at his disposal, entering with a special permit since the Paraguayan borders were closed at the time. At the Asunción airport, Cartes received him without a mask and with a hug, violating the minimum protocols of security. It was never officially known what they talked about.
Minister Guizzo explained that the decision to file the complaint with Seprelad and not the public ministry of Paraguay has to do with the intention that the investigation move quickly. Giuzzo assured that Seprelad has the financial intelligence to carry out verifications inside and outside the country.
international research
Meanwhile, Carlos Arregui, director of Seprelad, supported Giuzzo’s decision to file the complaint with that secretariat. “He asks for a series of things that have to do with international bodies. Seprelad is in charge of that”, he told the local press. Arregui was also consulted about the decision of the Minister of the Interior not to file the complaint with the prosecution, led by Sandra Quiñónez since the mandate of the former president. Arregui stressed that it has to do with the speed that the money laundering prevention secretariat can offer in the investigation.
“We are part of a secure international network. There are proceedings that must be exhausted, we work with the Prosecutor’s Office. We have already had a record and faster results than the prosecutors”said Arregui, who also referred to the investigations into Cartes that are ongoing outside of Paraguay. “We are authorized to make a number of orders, especially in the international context. We work with secure couriers and an international network. There is information collected (about Cartes) from other similar units in other countries,” he added.
Regarding a subsequent collaboration with the Prosecutor’s Office, Arregui stated that once his office has carried out the necessary investigations, they will analyze sending it to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “The prosecutors have used intelligence reports from Seprelad. We are going to carry out a series of procedures that are our responsibility, then we are going to see if we send them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.”, he indicated.
The complaint against Cartes for enrichment during his term had been announced last week by Giuzzo. “Regarding debts, Cartes’ millionaire loans to people around him are striking”, He wrote days ago on his Twitter account. This week Giuzzo, who is part of the cabinet of the current president, the Colorado Mario Abdo Benitez He filed the complaint in a personal capacity, outside of his position in the Executive. After the minister filed the complaint, Edward Gonzalez, representative of the Honor Colorado movement, the Cartes group, accused that “Giuzzio makes this complaint to this administrative body because he has no proof of anything,” he told the Paraguayan media The nation.
red division
The political scene in Paraguay in the last 70 years has been led by the Colorado party, with the exception of the leftist government of the former president Fernando Lugo who ruled from 2008 to 2012 when he was deposed in a coup. At that time, the then vice president of Lugo, Frederick Franco, assumed the presidency and a year later, defeated at the polls, handed over power to the colorado Horacio Cartes.
Despite this hegemony, within the Colorado party there are divisions. On the one hand, the vice president Hugo Velazquezassured that “the enemy to defeat is Cartes’ money” in reference to the internal elections in the ruling National Republican Association-Colorado Party that will take place in December.
“The economic power that he has is limitless. Many regional leaders are commenting that they are receiving offers of extraordinary economic resources where they are offered a bonus, first, a large determined amount and a monthly payment for the purposes, in quotes, of the political campaign,” Velázquez told local media. For the next inmates, the vice president formed an anti-Cartist movement called Fuerza República, which also has the support of Abdo Benitez.
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