HomeNewsBriefDoes Leader's Death Mark Demise of Paraguay Guerrilla Group?
BRIEF

Does Leader's Death Mark Demise of Paraguay Guerrilla Group?

EPP / 7 JAN 2015 BY JAMES BARGENT EN

The killing of one of the founding members of the ACA guerrillas could spell the end for Paraguay's breakaway rebels and their alleged plan to tap into the country's drug trade wealth.

On the night of January 5, members of Paraguay's anti-guerrilla Joint Task Force (FTC) opened fire on a group of Armed Peasant Association (ACA) guerrillas, killing leader and founder Albino Jara Larrea along with a teenage girl.

Police sources told ABC they had been patrolling the region for several days before finding the rebels -- who are a splinter group of the larger Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) -- in a rural area to the east of the city of Concepcion.

Authorities told ABC Jara had been armed with an AK-47 at the time of the shooting, while a local prosecutor told Ultima Hora he was also carrying over $10,000 in Paraguayan guaranies and a number of cell phones and memory cards.

With an estimated five or six guerrillas accompanying Jara, some of whom security forces say may have been injured in the attack, the FTC has announced that it will continue to hunt down the remaining ACA members, reported Ultima Hora.

InSight Crime Analysis

The ACA is a new armed group believed to have been founded last year by Jara and his brother Alfredo, both of whom are former EPP fighters. FTC sources told InSight Crime the pair had been a disruptive influence in the EPP due to their lack of discipline and predilections for drinking and womanizing. They likely set up their own dissident group after securing over $230,000 in ransom money from the kidnapping of a businessman.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of the EPP

Initially the group was believed to number fewer than 15 fighters, and Paraguay's anti-drug agency said they had set their sights on growing by funding themselves through the local drug trade -- Paraguay is South America's largest marijuana producer and a major cocaine transit country.

However, even before the killing of Jara, the ACA had suffered a major setback when security forces killed five fighters in September last year.

The group is now likely to amount to little more a handful of fighters -- some of whom may be wounded -- led by Jara's brother Alfredo and is unlikely to pose a serious security threat in the future. Short of a miraculous turnaround, their options now appear limited to pleading to reintegrate into the EPP, turning themselves in, or fighting to the bitter end.

Meanwhile, the FTC has been unable to take down the EPP, thanks in part to the guerrilla group's network of local collaborators, which provides intelligence information and support. The EPP managed to keep kidnapping victim Arlan Fick hostage for close to nine months while the FTC unsuccessfully searched for the teenager, who was released in December

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CONTRABAND / 6 JAN 2022

A string of contraband meat seizures in Paraguay is indicative of the way smuggling has undercut the country’s flagging domestic…

COCAINE / 15 AUG 2023

Paraguay’s new president, Santiago Peña, will face entrenched organized criminal interests, some of which appear to have close ties to…

HOMICIDES / 16 FEB 2022

Brazen killings by hired gunmen have not only shaken Paraguay recently but shined a light on the growing use of…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…