The Paraguayan senator-elect who is in prison unleashes a debate

One of the curiosities left by the General Elections in Paraguay was the election of the senator of the plastic artist and activist Rafael Esquivel, known under the pseudonym of Mbururú, who presents a drawback to occupy his seat.

He is being held in the prison of Ciudad del Este, department of Alto Paraná, charged with the alleged rape of a minor.

The militant of the National Crusade party, a movement led by Paraguayo Payo Cubas – the electoral surprise of the elections when he came in third place – has been in preventive prison since March 31, 2023, by order of the Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Mbururú is accused of rape of a 15-year-old girl, a crime for which the victim’s mother has also been charged with pimping.

However, because he is awaiting trial and has no definitive conviction, Esquivel remained on the electoral ticket as a candidate for the Senate, even while in prison.

Mbururú was elected a senator after receiving 51,397 votes and placed fifth on the senatorial list of the National Crusade.

Now, the debate in the Congress of the Republic falls on whether to enable or disqualify Esquivel, given the inauguration of the elected members of Congress on July 1.

Congresswoman Kattya González, elected senator with 100,083 votes in the representation of the Alianza Encuentro Nacional, warned of her opposition to Esquivel’s swearing-in.

“The Chamber of Senators, once constituted, has a margin of discretion that was always used.”

“That is why (Horacio) Cartes or Nicanor (Duarte Frutos) were not sworn in, despite having been proclaimed.”

“We have to be prudent and work on that. If he is deprived of his freedom, it is an insuperable inability”, said González in declarations to Última Hora.

Basilio Bachi Núñez, also elected senator, although for the ruling Colorado Party, warned that Esquivel should not assume the senatorial seat “due to all the antecedents”.

“We are not only talking about a fact of abuse, which the prosecutor’s office has the concrete evidence, but we have other cases of family violence, of everything.”

“So, until this is not clarified, he should not take office; it is a direct attack against the family.”

“It will be historical that a prisoner accused of rape of minors assumes a seat in the Senate. My vote is against it,” said Núñez.

However, the most voted senator in the last elections, the Colorado Silvio Ovelar, argued that Esquivel could not be prevented from being sworn in as senator given that he remains unconvicted.

“He is not convicted, and the National Constitution says that he must be convicted”, he underlined while clarifying that the legislator should resign or not take office in case he is convicted.

The Coordinator for the Rights of the Child and Adolescents of Paraguay (CDIA) demanded that the authorities “take measures to prevent them from occupying a place in the Legislative Branch.”

Esquivel could spend up to 15 years in prison, explained prosecutor Viviana Coronel to local media, recalling that the case is still investigative.

“The diligences carried out so far are already enough to consider elements of conviction that we are already going to use as grounds to present an accusatory document”, she said in a conversation with Radio Monumental de Asunción.

At the same time, the prosecutor said she did not know the regulations of the Paraguayan Senate regarding whether or not Esquivel could be sworn in as senator from prison in a scenario that she described as “an atypical issue” because he was charged before being elected senator.

With information from Sputnik