Lawyer Ezequiel Santagada asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to advance an investigation into the possible use of public funds to finance disinformation campaigns against journalists and media outlets in Paraguay. The request gained momentum after the disclosure of a conciliation agreement between businessman Christian Chena and Yecika Magle Bracho Atacho, the holder of the telephone line linked to the Despierta Paraguay page.
Santagada, who represents Hugo Portillo alongside lawyer Cecilia Pérez, said the agreement signed by Chena concerns a private defamation action, while the criminal investigation seeks to clarify a broader suspicion: the possible improper use of state money to fund campaigns targeting dissenting voices.
The inquiry was assigned to a special team made up of agents from the Economic Crimes and Cybercrime units. According to Santagada, the central issue is to establish whether public funds were diverted and identify who may have organized, financed or carried out the campaigns.
Bracho Atacho is considered a potentially relevant witness because she would have knowledge of the structure’s internal operations, contacts and payments for advertising on social media. Santagada argued that the Public Prosecutor’s Office should formally summon her and provide protection measures, given the sensitivity of the information she could provide.
If prosecutors do not act after the new information is disclosed, the complainants’ representatives intend to file a formal request to demand that the witness be questioned.
The lawyer also called for Alejandra Saldivar to be summoned. She is the current deputy minister of Communications at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (Mitic), the government body responsible for public technology and communications policies in the country. She is mentioned because of reported previous professional connections to agencies involved in the case.
Santagada stressed that a prior professional relationship, by itself, does not prove a crime. In his view, however, it could indicate a possible conflict of interest and should be examined by investigators. Confirmation of state financing would turn the case from an individual defamation dispute into an investigation into the use of public structures to target journalists and opponents.