Senators said the explanations given by National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) Minister Jalil Rachid about Operation Redención were insufficient after it ended with two deaths on August 14 in Canindeyú. Following a closed-door meeting with the Senate’s leadership, lawmakers called for a broader investigation to clarify how the operation unfolded and what role the two men played.
Authorities identified Antonio Carrillo as the leader of an Indigenous community linked to the structure of fugitive drug trafficker Felipe Santiago Acosta Riveros, known as “Macho.” Catalino Correa, however, was a teacher, and relatives and residents said he was in the area for an activity related to Children’s Day.
The official account says the two men were carrying military-use weapons and fired at Senad agents. Senator Yolanda Paredes of the National Crusade Party said Rachid’s explanation did not clarify how the team entered a rural road on the basis of a search-and-seizure warrant or what Correa’s exact role was.
“This story doesn’t add up for me,” Paredes said. She also questioned whether the possibility of an information leak about the operation could be ruled out. According to the senator, the existence of weapons allegedly found in a vehicle does not, by itself, prove that the teacher possessed them. Paredes added that lawmakers heard references to phone interceptions related to Carrillo but did not have access to the recordings or documents supporting them.
Senator Rafael Filizzola of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) described another account presented by residents of Corpus Christi: Carrillo and Correa were allegedly on their way to a meeting with a farm administrator when civilians allegedly detained and tortured them before Senad agents arrived. He mentioned alleged marks from restraints on the bodies’ wrists and ankles and questioned the position in which Correa was found inside the vehicle.
Filizzola said Rachid had relied mainly on intelligence information without presenting senators with documentary evidence proving that the men killed were linked to a criminal organization. In the lawmaker’s view, residents’ accounts and statements by institutions and religious leaders make the official version “quite fragile.” These allegations have not been independently established.
In addition to an investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the senators support an internal inquiry by Senad. The aim would be to determine whether there were irregularities or excessive use of force, while also confirming that the operation was lawful and protecting the agents if the use of lethal force was justified. Whether there was an ambush and an exchange of gunfire will depend on the evidence gathered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office; no independent conclusion has yet established which account is correct.