Former Colombian President Iván Duque (2018-2022) said Wednesday that drug trafficking organizations are "behind" the murder of Paraguayan anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who was shot dead on May 10, 2022, during his honeymoon on a beach on the island of Barú in the Colombian Caribbean.
"We know, clearly, that behind this homicide, this assassination, are the dark hands of drug trafficking," Duque said in an interview with Paraguayan radio station Monumental 1080 AM.
The former president highlighted that the capture in Bolivia and extradition to the United States in March of alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset — accused by Paraguayan authorities of leading a network that sent cocaine to Europe — will be decisive in obtaining "more evidence" about the crime. "The capture of this drug trafficker Marset will allow us to get to the bottom of everything behind the murder of prosecutor Pecci," he insisted.
Pecci was killed by hitmen in front of his wife, Paraguayan journalist Claudia Aguilera. Colombian courts have convicted seven people in the case, which also led to arrests in Venezuela and El Salvador. However, four years later, the masterminds of the crime that shook Paraguayan society have not yet been prosecuted.
Duque, who was president of Colombia at the time of the attack, said he provided Paraguay with "all necessary support" to "reach the intellectual authors." "We hope that now the justice system of Paraguay can bring to prison the intellectual authors of this crime, where very surely we will encounter links between drug trafficking, smuggling, and transnational crime," added the right-wing opposition leader.
In March, Paraguay's Interior Minister Enrique Riera expressed his "personal conviction" that Marset is "involved" in Pecci's murder, although he presented no evidence. In an interview with radio Ñandutí, Riera noted that Pecci led the team investigating Marset and other drug traffickers as part of the mega-drug case "A Ultranza PY," the largest in Paraguay's history, and that his death sought to send "a message" to other officials involved in the investigation.