Six Inmates Who Escaped from Paraguayan Prison Have Been Recaptured

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Only six inmates were recaptured 48 hours after 76 inmates escaped from the Pedro Juan Caballero Regional Penitentiary in Paraguay. One of them was arrested yesterday, January 20th, already in Brazilian territory, by the Mato Grosso do Sul State Police.

The last three arrests recorded until this morning, January 21st, occurred on Monday night, January 20th, in the city of Arroyito, about 150 km from Pedro Juan Caballero. The three fugitives captured are José Enrique Ullon Duarte, Ronald Francisco Britez López, and Orlando Manuel Torres Vera, Paraguayans who, according to the Interior Ministry’s suspicion, are part of the First Command of the Capital (PCC) gang.

The three were arrested while walking along the side of a highway, according to the Joint Task Force, a unit of the Paraguayan Armed Forces that also includes members of the National Police and the National Anti-Drug Secretariat. The “precarious” clothing and suspicious attitude caught the attention of the Task Force’s agents, who set up barriers in the region to try to recapture the 76 fugitives.

The Brazilian inmate detained yesterday morning was also approached in a similar situation. He was walking barefoot along Highway BR-463, near Ponta Porã in Mato Grosso do Sul State when he caught the attention of agents of the Department of Border Operations (DOF), of the Mato Grosso do Sul State Police. Initially, the detainee introduced himself as Eduardo Alves da Cunha – against whom there were no criminal charges or warrants in Brazil – but, according to the Interior Ministry, his real name is Luis Alves Cruz.

The other two fugitives already in custody are Sabio Darío Gonzáles Figueredo, who was found in a residence near the regional penitentiary from which he escaped, and Charli Antonio Giménez Martínez, who, according to the Paraguayan daily ABC Color, did not reach the street, having been caught inside the tunnel that the inmates supposedly dug to escape from the regional penitentiary. Supposedly because Paraguayan authorities themselves suspect that part of the group that escaped left the prison through the front door, with the consent of prison officers.

“Already in the previous days, several of the fugitives seem to have left the prison through the front door. This implies that, in fact, the whole penitentiary is involved,” said yesterday the Paraguayan Interior Minister, Euclides Acevedo.

As soon as the escape became public, the head of Security, Matías Vargas, and the director of the penitentiary, Cristian González, were fired, and five prison guards were arrested. Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez said that the possibility of involvement of corrupt prison guards is high and that most of the escaped prisoners are members of the First Command of the Capital (PCC) criminal gang.

Source: Agencia IP, Agência Brasil