HomeNewsBriefParaguay Sends Troops onto Streets in State of Emergency
BRIEF

Paraguay Sends Troops onto Streets in State of Emergency

EPP / 12 OCT 2011 BY JEANNA CULLINAN EN

Paraguay’s military has been deployed in two northern provinces after the government declared a state of emergency in response to attacks attributed to the EPP rebel group.

President Fernando Lugo signed the measure on Monday, declaring a 60 day state of emergency in the northern departments of Concepcion and San Pedro. The move allows the government to mobilize the armed forces and suspend certain civil liberties for the duration of the period.

The emergency legislation was proposed in response to an attack by EPP rebels on a police checkpoint outside the city of Horqueta, a city in the northern province of Concepcion, which killed two officers on September 21. Congress indefinitely delayed the bill, with lawmakers opposing the declaration, but approved it hours after a soldier was wounded with a bullet at the same checkpoint on October 5. The incident is suspected to have been an attack by the rebel group.

The government has sent troops and armed vehicles to the streets of the cities of Concepcion and San Pedro.

The government’s move to declare a state of emergency has generated controversy in some circles. Retired General Carlos Liseras criticized the military response as being disproportionate to the threat posed by the EPP, which may have as few as 50 members. During an earlier state of emergency declaration, military forces mistakenly attacked local police headquarters, but the commanding general of the operation insisted that police-military relations have improved and their operations will be coordinated.

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

ARGENTINA / 10 AUG 2022

Uruguay has made Latin America's largest ever seizure of European methamphetamine, marking a new phase in drug trafficking dynamics.

COLOMBIA / 8 JUN 2022

New details have emerged about the assassination of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, including that the hit was methodically planned in…

BOLIVIA / 31 JUL 2023

Sebastián Marset, a drug trafficker from Uruguay, is on the run after he was found living under a false identity…

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…