The US sanctions the vice president of Paraguay and former president Horacio Cartes for corruption

The United States Department of the Treasury reported this Thursday that it has sanctioned the former president of Paraguay Horace Cartes and the current vice president Hugo Velazquez for corruption, in addition to designating four companies for being under the control of the former ruler.

The entity, from its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), took action against Cartes and Velázquez for their involvement in “rampant corruption that undermines democratic institutions in Paraguay,” it said in a statement.

Cartes, 66, who ruled the country between 2013 and 2018, is the current leader of the Colorado Partyin power, and important support for his candidate in this year’s presidential elections.

In a separate statement, the US embassy in Asunción, the Paraguayan capital, said that Cartes and Velázquez “have ties” to members of Hezbollah, an organization that was designated by Washington as an entity that has committed acts of terrorism.

Neither the former president nor the current vice president could be immediately reached by Reuters, but Velázquez told local radio station ABC Cardinal that the accusations were false and that he was not resigning.

“As long as they don’t really present me with something that has content (…) then I’m going to resign. But (due to) these volatile complaints, which are also false, I’m not going to resign,” he said.

That is an invention, a falsehood,” he added about the alleged links with Hezbollah.

The Party ruled Paraguay uninterruptedly for the past seven decades with the exception of the period 2008-2013, in which the opposition occupied the Government. Cartes was unknown in politics before winning the 2013 election to return his group to power.

For his part, Velázquez came to announce his resignation last August after the initial accusations against him by the United States of having offered a bribe of more than one million dollars to an official, but for the moment he continues in office. .

“I cannot speculate now about other actions against these people,” said the US ambassador in Asunción, Mark Ostfield, at a press conference in Asunción, when asked about the possibility of an extradition request against Cartes or Velázquez.

He added that the sanctions were the result of a multidisciplinary process, which involved various US institutions.

“This is the mafia that we always denounce and we set out to confront (…) Horacio Cartes (…) is the face of money laundering, bribery and the entry of terrorism into Paraguay,” Efraín Alegre said in a tweet. opposition candidate for the April elections, in which he will face Santiago Peña, the ex-governor’s former finance minister.