Amnesty International (AI) warned that the case of the alleged torture of 35 people at a naval base in 2020 is not making any progress.
In its 2022 torture dossier, the agency alluded to an operation carried out by the military in July 2020 in the San Miguel neighborhood, where residents reported violence and torture, according to local media at the time.
“No progress was made in the investigations into the alleged torture of 35 people at the Ciudad del Este naval base in 2020,” the organization said in its report.
He warned that, “at the end of 2021, more than 18 months after the events, no charges had been filed against anyone.”
In July 2020, the Public Ministry requested reports on what happened in that neighborhood of Ciudad del Este, the second largest city in the country, separated by a bridge from the Brazilian town of Foz de Iguazú.
At that time, a military patrol approached to check a boat with contraband merchandise that would cross the Paraná River to the Brazilian coast.
The marines then said that they were attacked from the ground with automatic weapons, which triggered an intense firefight in which a 22-year-old non-commissioned officer was wounded, who later died from a gunshot wound to the head.
After the confrontation, according to the journalistic versions, the operation was launched in which 35 people were arrested, all residents of the neighborhood.
These people were taken to the naval base to be subjected to paraffin tests, in order to determine if they participated in the attack.
The Human Rights Coordinator of Paraguay (Codehupy) has denounced on its social networks that the sailors of the Paraguayan Navy “would have tortured more than 32 people” in that neighborhood.
According to the organization, the sailors cannot act more than 150 meters from the river coast, except in the case of flagrante delicto of punishable acts.
However, he indicated that the uniformed men, “without a court order, invaded houses and arbitrarily detained dozens of people more than a kilometer from the beach.”
Codehupy warned that they were “more angry” with the men who “tortured while being interrogated.”
For this case, the Navy replaced the then commander of the Eastern Naval Area, Captain Walter Díaz, on July 17, 2020, “while the investigation lasts” and the “clarification of the fact.” EFE
