The Court of Appeal rejected on Monday, the 15th, another challenge filed in the case against the mayor of Quyquyhó, Patricia Corvalán (ANR-HC), and 13 others accused of embezzlement, money laundering, and criminal association. The court confirmed Judge Humberto Otazú, from the economic crimes guarantees court, as responsible for the case and urged the judge to impose disciplinary sanctions on the defendants who have been using purely dilatory tactics to delay the proceedings.
The challenge was filed by the accused Damián de Jesús Galarza Dárdano. According to the panel judges Camilo Torres, Arnulfo Arias, and Gustavo Amarilla, the claim lacks sufficient legal basis and was made solely to suspend the hearing scheduled for June 3, preventing the case from moving to oral trial. The court noted that Galarza’s lawyer intervened in the process exclusively to file the challenge.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the accused were involved in a scheme to divert funds from the Municipality of Quyquyhó during the administration of then-mayor Esteban Samaniego (ANR-HC), now a deputy, between 2011 and 2017. The estimated financial loss amounts to G. 1,108,599,918. According to the indictment, part of this money was used to build a two-story, 306 m² family home in the San Vicente neighborhood of Asunción, on property owned by Blanca Álvarez, the deputy’s mother.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office also claims that Samaniego directly paid salaries to family members and a personal bodyguard with municipal funds, through checks that resulted in undue benefits totaling G. 338,595,000. Other accused include Manuel Olazar, Andrés Alfredo Arrúa Brítez — a construction businessman and friend of the deputy who currently oversees municipal projects under Corvalán’s administration — as well as Enrique Lovera Lezcano, Guido Vargas Gaete, Carlos Bareiro Bogarín, Ruth Medina Yegros, Líder Ramírez Ramírez, Pedro Ettiene Villanueva, Benigno Villasboa Cáceres, Óscar Samuel Fanego Otazú, and Christian Daniel Domínguez.
Although Esteban Samaniego has been charged since December 2023, he has not yet been formally indicted because his fellow parliamentarians have blocked his removal of immunity. Most defendants alternate between various procedural maneuvers to delay the preliminary hearing, preventing the case from advancing to oral trial for about a year and a half.