Paraguay: Police reinforced security around Congress after attack on mayor Acevedo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Paraguayan police reinforced security around the country’s Congress on May 18 after the shooting attack that kept the mayor of Pedro Juan Caballero (bordering Brazil), José Carlos Acevedo, in critical condition.

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, the ruling party’s Pedro Alliana, told journalists that they would redouble controls and the presence of police in the parking lot and the areas adjacent to the Legislative, located in the center of Asunción.

He indicated that the measure was adopted at the request of several legislators and on the recommendation of the National Police.

Asked about the attack, Alliana, of the ruling Colorado Party, although of a faction contrary to that of Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez, described as “inadmissible all that is happening” in the country.

“We are losing the battle. This government is losing the battle by a landslide, just as it has lost several battles,” he said.

Acevedo, of the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), was attacked by unknown assailants in a car who intercepted him in front of the municipality headquarters when he was apparently on his way, unescorted, to his car.

According to medical reports, the official received seven gunshot wounds – four of them in the neck.

On Wednesday, one of the doctors revealed to the press that the mayor is in an induced coma and “remains in serious condition”.

After the attack, the commander of the National Police in the department of Amambay – of which Pedro Juan Caballero is the capital – was removed, and commissioner Rubén Darío Paredes was appointed in his place.

Interior Minister Federico González, who went to the area, told Monumental radio that Paraguayan authorities are working in “direct coordination” with the Brazilian Federal Police in the investigations.

The attack occurred a week after anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, one of the country’s most respected prosecutors, was shot dead on an island in Colombia, where he had traveled with his wife, journalist Claudia Aguilera, on their honeymoon.

The mayor’s niece, Haylee Acevedo, daughter of the governor of Amambay, brother of the official, Ronald Acevedo, was killed in an attack in October 2021, in which three other people also lost their lives.

Local media have recalled that this attack is the fifth suffered since 2010 by the Acevedo family, traditionally linked to politics in the department of Amambay.

With information from EFE