Unicanal

Sami Pajari won Rally del Paraguay 2026 for his third consecutive victory of the WRC season. Diego Domínguez Bejarano won WRC2 at home, while Santiago Peña said he would work to bring more competitions to Paraguay; Pedro Alliana presented Andrea Lafarja as the first Paraguayan woman to reach a World Rally Championship podium.

The National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) seized 5,967 kilograms of marijuana, destroyed eight camps and five hectares of cultivation in Capitán Bado, where it detained a 16-year-old, and separately seized 13 kilograms of the drug in a package at Silvio Pettirossi Airport.

Paraguay’s attorney general and the Association of Prosecutors asked for preventive protection for Verónica Valdez and Jorge Arce after an exchange with Arnaldo Giuzzio during his trial. Giuzzio denies that he threatened them, describing the exchange as a forceful complaint about the handling of allegations involving former president Horacio Cartes.

A truck carrying 283 boxes of inputs without health registration, reportedly from Bolivia, was seized in Mariscal Estigarribia in Paraguay’s Chaco region. The driver was charged with smuggling, and authorities suspect the material could be used to counterfeit or market alleged injectable weight-loss medicines.

Paraguay’s Ministry of Education and Sciences restricted the registration of diplomas without accreditation and launched RUE-ES as the trial of Hernán Rivas revealed that his law degree was registered in six minutes after an alleged “higher-up order,” despite irregularities—an allegation denied by former minister Eduardo Petta.

Paraguayan doctors began a five-day national strike, suspending consultations and elective surgeries, to demand a salary adjustment, an end to precarious contracts, and the replenishment of supplies, while the government claims a lack of resources to meet the demands.

Paraguay's Food Bank holds its annual dinner on Wednesday, August 26, at 8 p.m. in Asunción to raise funds that will finance the distribution of 76,500 meals to people in vulnerable situations.

Paraguay celebrates National Folklore Day with a cultural agenda of free events and a sociological debate on national identity, which is seen as plural and constantly transforming.

Paraguay has received its fifth A-29 Super Tucano aircraft, with the sixth and final one to be delivered in September, in an investment of 100 to 150 million dollars that the government considers crucial to combat clandestine flights and strengthen air sovereignty.

Former IPS president Vicente Bataglia received house arrest for irregular entry into the country, while another former president Jorge Brítez faces a second criminal case for elevator bidding and his lawyer alleges political persecution, and a third, Andrés Gubetich, returned to EBY with high salary and is investigated for fraud, amid a billion-dollar loss case at the institute.

The Paraguayan national team will face Bolivia, led by Óscar Villegas, and Colombia, managed by Néstor Lorenzo, in friendlies in the U.S. in September, while working on renewing coach Gustavo Alfaro's contract.

Paraguay's National Police arrested two Brazilian citizens suspected of belonging to the First Capital Command (PCC) criminal faction in Ciudad del Este. One was using a false identity and had an international arrest warrant for drug trafficking. They entered the country from Argentina clandestinely and were presumed to be planning to cross illegally into Argentina.

Five people died and seven were injured after a truck with brake failure collided with vehicles at the Pedrozo intersection in Ypacaraí on the PY02 highway, exposing mechanical failures, poor infrastructure, and delays in promised works for the site, while the driver is charged with negligent homicide and the opposition demands accountability from the Public Works Minister.

On its 489th anniversary, Asunción is experiencing a real estate boom that contrasts with the neglect of its historic center and overwhelms the infrastructure of the Paraguayan capital.

Police operations in Paraguay resulted in the death of a PCC inmate in a prison, the arrest of suspects linked to the faction and drug trafficking in several cities, the seizure of drugs and luxury goods, and the interception in Bolivia of a bus carrying marijuana that displayed the name of São Paulo.

Paraguay's Public Prosecutor's Office has charged nine people, including two former presidents of the IPS, for an alleged embezzlement of 61 billion guaranis related to a never-completed modular operating room project, amid a crisis at the institution where the Comptroller General's Office points to much larger losses and beneficiaries demand broad investigations.

Paraguay's Prosecutor's Office charged nine former IPS employees, including former presidents, for embezzlement of G. 61 billion in a contract for modular operating rooms never installed.

A court ordered parents in Presidente Franco to vaccinate their three children after months of refusal, and the children were immunized in compliance with the judicial order.

Paraguayan courts have definitively acquitted former Lambaré mayor Guido González of charges related to the deaths of two soldiers swept away by a flash flood in 2023, after the Public Ministry requested dismissal due to lack of evidence to hold him criminally responsible.

Paraguay's Public Ministry has requested the preventive detention of two former presidents of the Social Security Institute (IPS) and seven other former officials for an alleged diversion of 61 billion guaranis in unfinished works. In separate cases, former mayor Miguel Prieto will stand trial for a simulated purchase during the pandemic, and three people are accused of fraud against Mennonite settlers.

A three-day operation in northern Paraguay combined seizures with the eradication of crops whose potential yield was estimated at nearly 160 tons; in separate developments, three people were arrested in Ypané and a court conditionally granted former footballer Julio César Manzur house arrest.

Paraguay delivered a protest note to Brazil over President Lula's statements about the War of the Triple Alliance, reiterating the request for return of war trophies, while the Brazilian ambassador stated the remarks were taken out of context.

The president of Paraguay's Social Security Institute (IPS), Isaías Fretes, warns of an irreversible crisis at the institution after 100 days of management, marked by severe financial challenges, medicine shortages, and a "perfect storm" caused by reduced working hours for health professionals.

After the first reactions to Lula’s remarks, Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies preliminarily approved a joint declaration calling for a formal request to return the Cristiano artillery piece, archives and other war relics. The final text is still pending.