Alto Paraná, Paraguay

Alto Paraná is home to some of Paraguay’s most dynamic criminal economies. Contraband goods continue to flood Brazil and Argentina via Ciudad del Este and surrounding river routes.

Misiones, Paraguay

Misiones does not play an important role in regional criminal dynamics, despite some marijuana trafficking in the department.

Asunción, Paraguay

Paraguay’s capital is a transit point for Bolivian cocaine shipped through the Tri-Border area, bound for Brazil. The Paraguay River, which passes through Asunción, also serves as a smuggling route…

Cooking Cocaine in Full View of Guards at Paraguay's Largest Prison

A drug kitchen was openly run by inmates inside Paraguay’s biggest prison, Tacumbú, in one of the clearest representations to date about how corruption has taken over the country’s penitentiary…

Rotela Clan

Rotela Clan is a criminal group run by the Rotela family in Paraguay. It was originally specialized in the microtrafficking of crack in poorer neighborhoods of Asunción and Concepción, but has…

Coronavirus Lays Bare Faultlines of Latin American Prisons

Fears of contagion amid the coronavirus pandemic have spurred deadly riots, mass breakouts, and crackdowns in several Latin American prisons, exposing how long-term issues of overcrowding and deteriorating conditions can…

Deploying Soldiers and Tanks Hasn't Helped Paraguay's Prison Crisis

Following the dramatic prison break on January 19 by members of the PCC, Paraguay’s president has once again sent military troops to the country’s penitentiaries, despite the initial military deployment…

Capture of Levi Felicio on the Brazil-Paraguay Border Raises Uncertainties

The recent arrest of a purported Brazilian criminal gang boss, as well as a number of collaborators, including police, along the Brazil-Paraguay border has revealed a complicated problem: nobody knows…

Prisons in Paraguay Struggle to Combat Violence from Crack Epidemic

A brutal clash between two clans in a prison in Paraguay this year has shined light on the country’s consumption of crack, the drug that spurred the birth of the…

Overcrowded, Too Few Guards and Easy Access to Drugs in Paraguay's Most Crowded Prison

The June 2019 massacre of 13 Rotela Clan members by PCC inmates at the San Pedro prison in Paraguay shed light on the critical situation in which the South American…

Deadly Riot Shows Paraguay Prisons Unprepared for PCC Onslaught

Ten inmates in a Paraguay prison were killed by PCC gang members, in a brutal assault that makes clear that the small country’s penitentiary system cannot…

Paraguay Police Cmdr Charged as Corruption Scandal Grows

The commander of Paraguay’s national police has been charged in connection with a corruption scandal involving money siphoned from the agency’s gasoline fund, a rare indictment in a country where…