José Fernando Duarte Penayo, president of the National Agency for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (Aneaes), said during the trial of Hernán David Rivas Román that the law degree from Universidad Sudamericana did not appear in the registry of the National Council of Higher Education (Cones) and also had not been accredited by the agency.
For Duarte, the absence of that registration means there was no formal evidence that the degree program had been implemented. “A degree program that was not registered by Cones is a degree program that never showed evidence of implementation,” he said. The Aneaes president described the Education Ministry’s registration of Rivas’s diploma as “a serious failure,” rather than an administrative error that could be corrected.
The testimony came after the resumption of the oral trial of the former senator from the Colorado Party linked to the Honor Colorado movement, led by former President Horacio Cartes. Rivas is accused of using an alleged fake diploma to register as a lawyer and later hold prominent positions in the justice system. The defense rejects the accusations.
Duarte also said the case exposes a broader problem in Paraguay’s higher education system. He said there are institutions and degree programs that operate informally and issue diplomas without technical or academic backing, a practice he described as part of a “large collective fraud.” He added that law is among the degree programs whose evaluation and accreditation are mandatory under the law.
Before the Aneaes president testified, lawyer Aurelio Marecos, a former coordinator of academic activities at the branches in Asunción and Luque, said he had met Rivas when Rivas was studying at the Ciudad del Este branch. Marecos said he traveled to administer assessments and that, in 2016, he maintained telephone contact with the then-student after students expressed concern about the possible closure of the degree program.
Lawyer Mario Antonio Antúnez, who was a law professor at the institution, also testified. He said he recognized Rivas because Rivas sat at the back of the classroom and participated little in classes. Antúnez described a system in which subjects were concentrated into intensive sessions and attendance lists were handled by class representatives.
Prosecutors questioned the dates on the academic documents, especially the record for the Constitutional Law subject, and compared that information with the period when Antúnez said he had administered examinations. The former professor acknowledged difficulties in pinpointing dates and said health complications after COVID-19 had partially affected his memory of the years from 2009 to 2014.