Manuel Velázquez Marín, former mayor of Zanja Pytã in the department of Amambay, was sentenced to five years in prison for possession of dangerous drugs. The decision followed an oral trial related to the seizure of more than 70 kilograms of marijuana at a rural property.
The case began in April 2022 in the Santa Clara settlement, where agents from the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), Paraguay’s agency responsible for combating drug trafficking, found the drugs. Prosecutor Rossana Coronel, from the Specialized Anti-Drug Prosecution Unit of Amambay, represented the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the case.
The Trial Court was presided over by Mario Peralta and included judges Librada Peralta and Marcelina Quintana de Acosta. The judges found Velázquez Marín’s responsibility proven and ordered him to serve the custodial sentence.
The former mayor had already been detained in March 2022 with six other people during a stop involving a pearl-colored Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck. The vehicle used Mercosur license plate AACA877, which corresponded to another vehicle. A .45-caliber Sig Sauer rifle was also found at the time. Velázquez Marín denied that the weapon belonged to him and faced charges of receiving stolen property and resisting authority, but was granted alternatives to detention in that case.
A member of the Colorado Party (ANR), Velázquez Marín was a departmental councilor for Amambay from 2003 to 2008, a municipal councilor for Pedro Juan Caballero from 2010 to 2014, and mayor of Zanja Pytã from 2015 to 2021. The municipality was created as a district in 2011.
The conviction for possession of dangerous drugs is separate from the accusations related to the rifle and the vehicle, which were mentioned in the case background. The information released so far does not indicate the definitive outcome of that second case.