A major anti-drug police deployment in eastern Paraguay, involving hundreds of officers and nine prosecutors, resulted in only one person formally accused and raised strong questions about the deaths of two men in an indigenous community. The events occurred between Thursday and Friday in the regions of Canindeyú, Alto Paraná, and Caaguazú.
The so-called Operation Renacer, carried out early Thursday morning, mobilized around 400 police officers for 14 home searches. Despite the extensive apparatus, which included promotional videos and photos of officers posing amid plantations, the operational result was considered modest. The only person charged is Brazilian citizen Jimmy Dickson Rizo, 42, accused of links with the First Capital Command (PCC). Two other detained individuals were released. During the actions, plots of growing marijuana were found and destroyed, and drug seeds were seized.
Simultaneously, on Friday, a procedure by the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) in the Ava Guaraní Tekoha Yapo indigenous community in Canindeyú ended with the deaths of two men: Antonio Carrillo, a community leader, and Catalino Correa, a local teacher. Senad stated that the men were part of the criminal structure led by Felipe Santiago Acosta, known as "Macho," and that there was an armed confrontation.
This version was categorically rejected by the indigenous community and the victims' relatives. In a statement and accounts to the press, they deny that Carrillo and Correa had any links to organized crime or carried weapons. They assert that the two were summoned to a meeting about a land dispute involving Estância América and were then ambushed and executed. The community also alleges that the operation took place during Children's Day celebrations and without a court order. Relatives described scenes of torture and claimed that weapons were planted at the site.
An uncorroborated audio, attributed to a community member, even accused a lawyer from Salto del Guairá of setting up the alleged ambush. The community demands an independent investigation to clarify the circumstances of the deaths.
In a separate operation on Saturday, Senad destroyed nearly 14 tons of marijuana and three hectares of plantations in the Capitán Raúl Ocampo Rojas colony, in the municipality of Cerro Corá, Amambay department. The drugs, whose potential value in the Brazilian market was estimated at around $2 million, were incinerated on-site with oversight from the Public Ministry.