A disinformation network linked to the government of Santiago Peña operated for several years, moving around half a million dollars of dubious origin, according to local reports. The scheme used a dozen fake news pages and digital influencers to spread pro-government content, promote government policies such as Che Róga Porã and Hambre Cero, and attack political opponents and journalists.
The operation was centered on the digital agency Comunik, led by Juan "Jimmy" Villaverde — former director of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (Mitic) — and Honor Colorado politician Fabio Morales. The agency was responsible for recruiting influencers and producing content for fake outlets such as Central Noticias, Chaco Hoy, Norte Digital, and Sur Noticias. Records from Meta's Ad Library show that nearly G. 1.7 billion was spent on digital advertising to promote these pages.
The first page in the scheme was Click Digital, created in 2017 and previously called El Observador Digital, which had Villaverde himself as editor for years. Two Comunik staff members, communications professionals Alexis López and Verena Cabañas, were the faces of the videos. After Peña took office, starting in December 2023, the agency expanded the operation nationwide, creating local fake outlets funded with millions of guaraníes in digital ad spending.
In this phase, Comunik members took on the role of influencers. Alexis López was the face of Norte Digital, while video producer Diego González, also from the agency, worked on Chaco Hoy. González's wife, Gabriela Aquino, produced videos for Sur Noticias, a page that allocated millions in ad spending in an attempt to influence the internal elections in the department of Itapúa.
Other pages brought in outside collaborators. Television host Viviana Insfrán participated in Central Noticias and was the one who revealed Villaverde's identity and his operation. Jazmín Chamorro Montiel, a student from the East, was brought on to Alto Paraná Hoy. Communications professional Yanina Domínguez produced short videos for El Punto Ciego Ok, which were later deleted. Architect Verena Velázquez was hired for the page Centrados.
The page Somos Paraguay, dedicated to promoting government actions and figures close to Peña, mainly used television clips and videos from pro-government influencers, such as Italian businessman Alessandro Calvo, who is based in the country. The page used an AI-generated voice in its audiovisual segments, with one exception: a video from September 17, 2025, about the Bioceanic Road Corridor revealed the use of a human voice, identified as that of Carli Narváez, an influencer with over 160,000 followers on TikTok and close to the presidential circle.
Another page, Paraguay Elige, saw heavy activity during the 2023 presidential campaign and, after Peña took office, began promoting government projects and interviews with then-state spokesperson Paula Carro. Pages used for dirty campaigns, such as Despierta Paraguay, Sucia Política, and En La Tecla, were taken down without their operators being identified.
When contacted by the report, those involved gave evasive responses. Alexis López denied any connection to the pages for which he recorded videos and stated he was paid in cash, with ready-made scripts. He said he had been a Comunik employee only until 2023, although videos of him from mid-2025 exist. Verena Velázquez stated she was only hired and refused to provide details about those in charge. Yanina Domínguez said she stopped working on the page in March but still has not revealed who ran it. Viviana Insfrán confirmed that Villaverde was the person responsible for Central Noticias. It was not possible to obtain responses from Verena Cabañas, Diego González, Jazmín Chamorro, and Carli Narváez.