RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The attack against Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci occurred on Tuesday, May 10, on the island of Baru, located about 40 minutes by boat from the city of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.
The prosecutor and his wife, Claudia Aguilera, were spending their honeymoon there, and a few hours before the crime, they had announced that they were expecting a baby.
According to local Colombian media, two men who arrived by sea at the beach approached the prosecutor, who was resting with his wife and shot him twice, killing him.
Pecci, 45 years old, was a prosecutor specializing in the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, and terrorism financing.
Authorities already have two hypotheses surrounding the case. Both theories assume that the official was a direct attack target and that his death was not due to a fortuitous event.
The first theory suggests that Pecci was followed by the criminals from Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, and they decided to kill him in Cartagena. This hypothesis even contemplates that the assassins could have arrived in Colombia on the same flight as Pecci. With this in mind, the Colombian National Police asked Copa Airlines for the list of passengers and their boarding and disembarkation images.
The second hypothesis indicates that the assassins were hired in Colombia by an emissary of one of the groups that Pecci was investigating. However, there has been no mention of which illegal group the assassins or the intellectual authors might be associated with.
Colombian and Paraguayan authorities are working together to shed light on the case. On the Colombian side, plans are already being deployed to capture those responsible. They are even requesting the United States to provide support. The North American country would be interested in finding Pecci’s murderers since he was in charge of important investigations.
The Paraguayan Prosecutor’s Office also announced that it had formed a team of three prosecutors to investigate the attack in which its colleague was killed. Manuel Doldán, Paraguay’s International Affairs Prosecutor, said that the prosecutors accompanying him in the case will be Lorenzo Lezcano and Federico Delfino.
Paraguay is handling the information very cautiously. Sofía López, Paraguayan ambassador in Colombia, assured Pecci was in charge of controversial processes but did not reveal which ones.
Pecci’s resume highlights that he worked in the investigation of the murder of the daughter of the governor of Amambay and three other people in Pedro Juan Caballero in October 2021; and in the highly publicized case of the provision of false Paraguayan documents to former Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho, who was arrested in Paraguay in March 2020.
Similarly, according to the agency, the prosecutor worked in the mega-operation “A Ultranza Py”, “the largest operation against organized crime and money laundering” in the country. More than 100 raids were carried out during this operation, and more than US$100 million in assets were seized. In addition, 30 arrest warrants were issued.
Lopez added that Pecci did not notify them of this trip, so it was not possible to provide him with a security scheme.
Although these joint efforts are underway, nothing has been confirmed regarding the case. The most important material revealed so far is the photo of one of Pecci’s alleged killers.