RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian journalist Léo Veras was shot dead on Wednesday night, February 12th, at his home in Pedro Juan Caballero, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. According to the local police, his home was invaded by two armed men who shot him.
Veras owned, and conducted investigations for, the Porã News website, which covered the police and investigated trafficking on the border between Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Porã, in Mato Grosso do Sul. On Tuesday, February 11th, in his latest story he reported the action of the Paraguayan police, who destroyed a camp and seized drugs in the region.
In an interview with the Paraguayan website ABC Color, police chief Ignacio Rodríguez Villalba told local authorities he has information on the suspects of the crime. “The crime was reportedly caused by his stories on organized crime. He has published a lot on the border lately,” he said.
According to the Mato Grosso do Sul Journalists Union, the journalist had already reported death threats received for his work investigating and reporting trafficking. Recently, he reported to TV Record about the violence at the border, said the organization.
In a statement, the Paraguayan Journalists Union expressed “indignation and pain” over the murder. “Pain and anger once again engulf us, faced with the nineteenth colleague murdered in our country. We see that once again criminal groups are trying to silence the voice of journalists through bullets and violence, with the complicity of a state that is entirely ruled by the mafia and narco-politics,” he said.
According to the union, nowadays professionals work “with no minimum guarantees of security”. The organization also demanded immediate action from Paraguayan authorities to “guarantee the lives and safety of colleagues in the area, in addition to clarifying this terrible crime and properly prosecuting the culprits, preventing impunity from settling again”.