Paraguay: Controversy Over Troop Deployment
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By Natalia Ruiz Díaz
Presente/IPS
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Military troops and extra police are being deployed in northern Paraguay after a
state of emergency was declared to crack down on an armed rebel group that calls
itself the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP).
As part of Operation Py’a
Guapy -- "tranquility" in the Guaraní indigenous language -- 3,300 Paraguayan
army, navy and air force troops along with 300 national police officers have
been sent to the northern provinces of Concepción, San Pedro, Amambay,
Presidente Hayes and Alto Paraguay. On Sunday, Apr. 25, President Fernando Lugo
signed into law a bill declaring a state of emergency in the conflict zone,
which encompasses five of the country’s 17 provinces.
According to
government security agencies, these are the provinces where the EPP is active.
Its roughly 100 members operate in remote, inaccessible forested areas, with the
support of high technology equipment, where there is little or no police
protection.
The emergency measures have been condemned by civil society
organisations and met with reticence by the political opposition, but Lugo
insists that they are needed to restore peace and security to the area of the
country affected.
While the police and troops deployed have yet to
undertake a major offensive into the mountainous forest areas, they have stepped
up their presence in the towns of Arroyito, Belén, Paso Barreto and Puentesiño,
in the province of Concepción, where the latest attacks attributed to the EPP
took place.
Lugo called for the emergency measures after a police officer
and three civilians were killed in an EPP attack in Arroyito, when they
discovered a rebel camp while investigating cattle theft.
Under the state
of emergency, suspected EPP members can be arrested without warrants. The
measures adopted also include a ban on public gatherings and protests and
tighter controls on the circulation of vehicles on highways and local roads in
the provinces affected.
The EPP leapt into the public spotlight when it
claimed responsibility for the September 2004 kidnapping of Cecilia Cubas,
daughter of former president Raúl Cubas (1998-1999). Cecilia died in captivity
and her body was recovered in February 2005.
At the time, Paraguay was
governed by Nicanor Duarte (2003-2008) of the Colorado Party, which dominated
Paraguayan politics throughout the 20th century and now heads up the right-wing
opposition that holds a majority of seats in Congress.
Since 2006, the
government has attributed a number of crimes committed in the northern region of
the country to the EPP. Several EPP members are currently in prison on
kidnapping charges.
Minister of the Interior Rafael Filizzola announced
that the troops and police deployed have been fully equipped with all of the
necessary weapons and ammunition.
Under Operation Py’a Guapy, army troops
will patrol the forested areas that form a triangle between the provinces of
Amambay, Concepción and San Pedro, while navy patrol boats will monitor the
Paraguay, Aquidabán and Ypané Rivers and their tributaries, with the support of
an additional 50 members of the navy.
For its part, the air force will
conduct aerial reconnaissance and will be in charge of the transportation of
troops and logistical support.
The entire operation is to be coordinated
by General Bartolomé Pineda, the commander-in-chief of the army, while
information will be handled by the Joint Operations Command.
While
Operation Py'a Guapy got underway, controversy began heating up in the political
arena after Vice President Federico Franco declared that the real objective of
the state of emergency was not the elimination of the EPP.
Since taking
office in August 2008, the left-leaning Lugo has frequently clashed with Franco,
his second in command.
Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, denied Franco’s
allegations and said that the military and police deployment proved the vice
president’s claims to be false.
The president, whose work with the
dispossessed earned him the nickname "bishop of the poor", was elected at the
head of the Patriotic Alliance for Change, a coalition of opposition parties and
social movements. Franco, his running-mate, belongs to the centre-right
Authentic Radical Liberal Party, which was the largest opposition party at the
time.
Established for a period of 30 days, the state of emergency affects
800,000 of Paraguay's 6.2 million people, and can be called off earlier if its
objectives are not met.
Under the Paraguayan Constitution, a state of
emergency can be declared in the event of an international armed conflict or a
serious internal upheaval that poses an imminent threat to the Constitution or
the functioning of state institutions.
In a press release, the Paraguayan
Human Rights Coordinating Group (CODEHUPY) highlighted the fact that at this
point in time, Paraguay is neither involved in an international armed conflict
nor facing a situation that could endanger the state institutions of the five
provinces in question.
The current situation, according to the press
release, is a matter of "criminals acting outside the law who should be
apprehended, charged and sentenced under the regular legal
system."
CODEHUPY believes that "to claim that an armed group of
approximately ten individuals is producing an internal upheaval and justifies a
state of emergency is to acknowledge the incapacity of the country’s security
agencies."
A similar view was expressed by the trade union federation
Central Nacional de Trabajadores, which stated that it will remain vigilant in
the event of any violation of the public freedoms established by the
constitution.
The declaration of the state of emergency in the five
northern provinces coincided with an attack by armed gunmen on Senator Robert
Acevedo, of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, in the capital of the province
of Amambray.
Acevedo’s driver and bodyguard were killed in the attack,
which has been attributed to organised crime organisations involved in drug
trafficking operations around Paraguay’s northern border with Brazil.
Presente/IPS
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