The US government, led by Joe Biden, accused former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes of “corruption” on Friday and banned him from entering the country because of his “involvement in significant acts of corruption,” Washington’s ambassador to Paraguay, Marc Ostfield, said .
“During his tenure, Horacio Cartes used the Paraguayan presidency to obstruct a cross-border crime investigation involving his associates,” Ostfield added.
With this manoeuvre, according to the diplomat, the now former president was able to continue to “participate in corrupt activities”; including his ties to terrorist organizations and other organizations sanctioned by the United States. He also warned: “This will not have been our last appointment in Paraguay.”
YOU CAN SEE: Russia and Ukraine will resume grain exports amid food crisis
“Today’s appointment reaffirms the US commitment to fight corruption and impunity, which undermine the Paraguayan people’s confidence in their democratic institutions,” he added.
Last January, Cartes was reported to the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money and Asset Laundering (Seprelad) for “money laundering, illicit enrichment and false declaration,” the then Paraguayan Interior Minister reported. Arnold Guzziosigning the indictment.
According to the indictment, Giuzzio “found the existence of a number of facts and circumstances which could constitute evidence of the commission of criminal money laundering from smuggling and illicit enrichment in public office and other related offences”.
YOU CAN SEE: Joe Biden tests positive for COVID-19 and will isolate at the presidential residence
The complaint, signed by Giuzzio himself in a private capacity and not as a member of Mario Abdo Benítez’s cabinet, adds that these facts “must be deepened, analyzed and, where appropriate, in accordance with the legal powers granted to Seprelad. timely notification to the public prosecutor’s office”.
Cartes’ group of companies includes Tabacalera del Este (Tabesa), which last May sent a shipment of cigarettes to Aruba on a Venezuelan-Iranian plane under investigation in Argentina over alleged international terrorism charges.