Paraguayan public officials responsible for state cybersecurity are turning down valuable training scholarships donated by the United States due to the English language barrier. The situation was revealed by the Director of Cybersecurity at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (Mitic), Pedro Martínez, during a hearing at the Senate's Technology Committee.
The U.S. government donated 170 vouchers, with a total value of 150 thousand dollars, so that technicians in the public sector could take courses and obtain international certifications. However, some of the beneficiaries dropped out because the classes, the materials, and, most importantly, the certification exams are conducted exclusively in English. There are no official Spanish-language versions of these programs.
Senator Patrick Kemper, who participated in the meeting alongside his colleague Luis Pettengill, explained that the core problem is that English proficiency is not a mandatory requirement for holding technical positions in the public administration. The refusal, therefore, is not due to a lack of interest, but to the practical impossibility of following the training and passing an assessment in a language they do not master.
The context for this training is the growing wave of cyberattacks against state institutions, attributed to both hackers and non-allied nations seeking economic benefit or sensitive information. Strengthening the expertise of the team responsible for digital defense is considered a strategic priority.
The senators will summon Mitic authorities again in December to evaluate the progress in implementing security measures and to check if the actions taken have succeeded in reducing the state's vulnerability to these attacks.