“Meeting with friends from the Central Department, confirming the candidacy of leader Tadeo Rojas as governor and Erico Galeano, future senator of the nation,” reads his publication.
José Casañas Levi, a lawyer, an expert in criminal law, pointed out that the investigations that affect politicians linked to Chartism never progress, or are cases that progress slowly.
“In my opinion, there are important errors from the point of view of proactivity. In the sense that raids, constitutions, in search of evidence are not carried out. The investigations are focused at cabinet level and that is not good in an investigation. It gives the impression that there is always a different criterion, depending on who is being investigated. In some cases the investigations move quickly and in others they don’t,” he said.
Despite the investigations, Chartism made Galeano’s candidacy official for the Chamber of Senators. In this regard, the lawyer stated that these are political strategies to send messages to the system.
He points out that this is intended to demonstrate that Galeano may have more power than he currently has, so as to discourage all kinds of investigations against him.
“On the other hand, as has already been seen in both Chambers, several of the people who access these positions do so to seek protection, through the privileges. So it is the constant line in people who have suspicions about their actions. Politics is the area where they find protection in general, ”she sentenced.
FERRARA
Marta Ferrara, executive director of the organization “Seeds for Democracy”, affirms that article 197 of the National Constitution states that people who are sentenced with a final sentence and a custodial sentence, will not be able to run for Congress. That is to say, Galeano is qualified to be able to run as a candidate from the legal point of view. Even if he is charged, he can run.
However, another question is what citizens see with the acts of corruption that are permeating the institutions.
“Corruption and organized crime are permeating institutions. They infiltrate electoral processes, both in the private and public sectors. These are the signals given to us by the political class, and they are very worrying signals because these suspicions alert us to possible dirty money entering politics. They weaken the democratic system, and the plutocracy prevails, that is, the power of money”, he pointed out.
BACKGROUND
The Operation “A Ultranza Py” revealed that deputy Erico Galeano (Chartist ANR), has 12 bank accounts that were not declared before the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) as required by law when he assumed his mandate as legislator in 2018.
These are Suspicious Operations Reports (STRs), sent by the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad) to the Public Ministry.
According to the documents, Galeano bought a property in the Aqua Village complex, in the city of Altos (Cordillera) in 2013 for US$211,000 (G. 1,500 million at current exchange rates). And that he sold it in 2020 for US $ 1 million to Hugo González, involved in the aforementioned operation.
This set off Seprelad’s alarms since part of the transaction was made in cash (G. 450 thousand equivalent to G. 3.2 billion at the current exchange rate) with bundles of money belonging to Fe Cambios, an exchange house investigated by another operation called “Patrón” (Paraguayan nexus of the Lava Jato case).
Another operation that set off alarms was the transfer of Erico to Horacio Cartes, former President of the Republic for US$2.5 million (G. 17,500 million).
