Yecika Magle Bracho Atacho handed over a phone, conversations and audio recordings for examination after reaching a conciliation agreement with businessman Christian Chena in a case investigating the Despierta Paraguay page and an alleged network of digital attacks against journalists, opponents and critics of Santiago Peña’s government.
The agreement ended a defamation complaint filed against Bracho, the holder of the phone line used for Despierta Paraguay accounts on Facebook and Instagram. In exchange, she agreed to help identify possible people responsible and financiers. The examination is still under way, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
The materials handed over to Chena’s defense describe an operation to register SIM cards and advertising accounts in other people’s names. Messages from July 2022 show Sergio Omar Masero Ruiz and José Ignacio García, linked to the Argentine agency Azafrán S.A., pressing Bracho to buy four or five SIM cards “as soon as possible.” She allegedly received a US$50 incentive to register lines using her identification documents.
One of those lines, ending in 828, was later associated with Despierta Paraguay. Another, ending in 860, was allegedly used for the Paraguay Elige page. The chats also mention verification codes sent by Meta, the creation of Investing Group S.A. and the involvement of people identified as Diego and Julián. The Sucia Política page appears in matching dates and records, but those links still require confirmation by the authorities.
Azafrán is identified in the documents as one of the structure’s nodes. The agency maintained an association with Prana S.A., where Alejandra Duarte Albospino served as digital director before becoming deputy minister of Communications at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (Mitic). The functional connection is cited as an indication, but by itself does not show that Duarte took part in the attacks or authorized any operation.
According to material disclosed in the case, the network comprised 14 pages and invested 2,909,640,640 guaraníes in digital advertising to promote government actions and attack critics. The Paraguay Elige page remained active after Peña took office and, in 2024, published content about official programs such as Hambre Cero.
Two related investigations are under way at the Public Prosecutor’s Office: one initiated by Chena and another complaint filed by communicator Hugo Portillo, with the support of lawyers Ezequiel Santagada and Cecilia Pérez. The defense also requested protection for Bracho. Lawyer Alejandra Peralta Merlo said the phone could reveal the “true people responsible” for the structure and raised the possibility that public resources were used, a hypothesis that has not yet been proven.
Senator Eduardo Nakayama of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) called for the investigation to move forward and said that, “if this is proven,” the case could constitute “state terrorism.” The statement is a conditional political assessment, not a legal or official conclusion. So far, no court decision has established the participation of Peña’s government or its officials in the network.