Colombia offered its support to Paraguay on Thursday to prevent it from following a path like its own and becoming a victim of drug trafficking, after the recent murder in that country of Paraguayan anti-mafia prosecutor Marcelo Pecci.
Source: EFE
At the end of a visit of less than 24 hours, the Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister, Marta Lucía Ramírez, expressed condolences to the Paraguayan people for the death of Pecci, shot on May 10 by unknown assailants while he was enjoying his honeymoon.
“Colombia has suffered the death of prosecutors, magistrates, justice ministers, presidential candidates, because we have been the main victim of drug trafficking,” Ramírez said during a press conference.
“We want -added the official- to do all the work to prevent Paraguay from going down a path similar to that of Colombia.”
Ramírez, who landed in the country shortly after midnight on Wednesday after visiting Uruguay, met today with the President of the Republic, Mario Abdo Benítez, and several of his ministers.
“I have not come to talk about the investigation, nor to bring data, much less to interfere in what is a job of the judicial authorities,” settled the vice president by declining to refer to the case of the prosecutor, whose death has shaken the country.
At 45, Pecci had become one of the most respected prosecutors in the country, who was recently in charge of investigations against organized crime after passing through the Public Ministry unit that persecuted drug trafficking.
“The most important thing for me really, on behalf of President Iván Duque, and on behalf of all Colombians, was to express our condolences to the Paraguayan people, to the prosecutor’s family, his father, his family, his wife, Claudia” Ramirez reiterated.
COOPERATION IN DIFFERENT AREAS
In any case, he stressed that the leaders of both countries agreed last April in Cartagena de Indias to organize a meeting of a binational cabinet.
The appointment, he anticipated, could take place at the end of June or the beginning of July, with the aim of “deepening bilateral cooperation”.
Ramírez mentioned that this mechanism will address areas such as economic development, trade, investment; as well as cooperation on issues such as education, disaster prevention, sustainability and climate change.
In addition, it will focus on security and the fight against drug trafficking, which the official described as a “criminal network of the worst magnitude” with “tentacles in all the countries of the world.”
In this context, he highlighted the importance of working together to strengthen the State’s capacity to identify money laundering, the flow of resources from drug trafficking and associated crimes, such as arms, human or migrant trafficking.
He also expressed the interest of Paraguay and Colombia to deepen their commercial exchange, particularly the exports of grains, soybeans and Paraguayan yellow corn to the Colombian market.
According to Ramírez, there is currently a “trade surplus in favor of Paraguay”, although in figures that he considered “very low compared to the potential” that the common exchange has.
WIDE AGENDA
Hours before and after his meeting with his Colombian counterpart, Paraguayan Foreign Minister Julio César Arriola told reporters that the agenda between the two countries “is very broad.”
The foreign minister pointed out that Colombia is the eleventh direct investor in Paraguay, with an accumulated amount of 166 million dollars.
