Paraguayan prosecutors have filed formal charges against two couples from the Mennonite community in San Pedro department, suspected of attempting to forcibly separate a young couple. The victims, David Wiebe Martens, 20, and Sara Loewen Fehr, 19, fled Bolivia in January this year after her family opposed their relationship. The case exposes a cross-border legal conflict: while Sara's uncles face prosecution for coercion and deprivation of liberty on Paraguayan soil, David is imprisoned awaiting extradition to Bolivia, where his parents-in-law accused him of human trafficking.
The story began in the Neuland Tunas colony in the Bolivian municipality of Pailón, where David and Sara grew up and started dating. Facing refusal from Sara's parents, who had allegedly already decided to marry her off to another man, the couple migrated to the Río Verde colony in Santa Rosa del Aguaray, Paraguay, on Jan. 18, 2026. A few days after their arrival, Sara's parents went there to try to convince her to return. When she refused, her paternal uncles — Johann Loewen Reimer and his wife María Friesen Dyck, as well as Isak Loewen Reimer and his wife Aganetha Klassen de Loewen — reportedly tricked the young woman into going to the border and handed her over to her parents.
Sara was admitted on Jan. 31 to Centro Médico Sinapsis, a psychiatric clinic in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. After weeks, she managed to return to Paraguay with help from David, who rescued her even without personal documents. The couple officially married on April 26, 2026. In response, Sara's parents turned to the Bolivian justice system, obtaining an international arrest warrant against their son-in-law for alleged "abduction by deception" and labor exploitation. In Paraguay, Judge José Agustín Delmás Aguiar ordered David's detention, which was carried out by Interpol and the San Pedro investigation police.
In parallel, prosecutor Juan Daniel Benítez Miranda of Santa Rosa del Aguaray charged the four uncles with coercion, deprivation of liberty, and extrañamiento (forced displacement) of persons. The situation creates a legal paradox: David could be extradited and imprisoned in Bolivia due to his parents-in-law's opposition, while the uncles who actually carried out the forced transfer could be convicted in Paraguay. Sara told Paraguayan authorities that she was with her husband of her own free will and that the accusations were fabricated by her family to separate them. David remains detained at the Police Judicial Department in Asunción, awaiting transfer to the National Center for Detainees.