PARAGUAY POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC UPDATE, APRIL

UNCLAS ASUNCION 000432

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/BSC, INL, AND EB/IFD/OIA
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LAC/AA
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR LYANG
NSC FOR SUE CRONIN
TREASURY FOR OSIA MAUREEN WAFER
TREASURY FOR OTA WARFIELD, VAN KOCH, MILLAR
COMMERCE FOR ITA SARAH COOK
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD
NAIROBI FOR MICHAEL FITZPATRICK

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KCRM SNAR PA
SUBJECT: PARAGUAY POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC UPDATE, APRIL
15-21, 2006

REF: ASUNCION 0001


1. (U) SUMMARY:
-- Paraguayan ID Duplication Being Purged
-- Paraguay Confronts Child Pornography
-- Prosecutor Sentenced to Six Years


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Paraguayan ID Duplication Being Purged
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2. (U) On 4/18, the Superior Elections Tribunal (TSJE)
President, Alberto Ramirez Zambonini, held a meeting with
representatives of the major political parties to discuss the
duplication of identifications and political affiliations and
seek their assistance in purging the voters, lists. The
Department of Identifications discovered more than 62,000
cases of persons listed as belonging to two different
parties, and as many cases of two separate cedulas (national
IDs) having the same number. Zambonini also stated that
there are approximately 8,000 names with falsified addresses
(or one percent of the voting population) from various
parties. On 4/18, Felix Silva Monges, the vice minister of
Political Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, issued a
statement blaming the occurrence of duplicate affiliations on
the Paraguayan cedula registration system, and claimed that
the problem is structural.


3. (U) On 4/21, PolOff met with Zambonini concerning this
issue. Zambonini downplayed the incidence of ID duplication
describing it as "minimal" but said that the TSJE intended to
look over each case one by one to find a solution. (NOTE:
Paraguay does not have a law or regulation that grants the
TSJE the power to make the parties update their party member

SIPDIS
lists and purge them of duplicate voters and/or deceased and
phantom voters. Some of the complaints, in the aftermath of
the recent Colorado Party internal elections, were about
illegal voting activities which included deceased voters and
cedula buying for election day. In November, Paraguay will
hold its Municipal elections and the potential for voter
fraud will remain an issue as long as these duplicate
registrations and phantom voters appear in the system. End
Note.)

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Paraguay Confronts Child Pornography
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4. (U) On 4/18, the International Labor Organization (ILO)
and the Secretariat of Children and Adolescents (SNNA)
launched a national campaign to increase awareness of child
pornography and the sexual abuse of children in Paraguay.
This campaign is being promoted by the National Secretariat
of Tourism, which is particularly concerned with hotels that
offer sex services from minors to tourists. On 4/21, the
Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman held a conference on the
subject and representatives from SNNA, ILO, Global Infancia
and several other local NGOs attended. The participants
discussed the need to protect children and the methods of how
to combat the "assault on the innocence of children". (NOTE:
In January 2006, legislation protecting children and
adolescents from sexual exploitation became law. The law
speaks to the use, commercialization and exhibition of
children in pornography and issues penalties of 5 to 10
years. End Note) (ref. A)

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Prosecutor Sentenced to Six Years
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5. (U) On 4/20, former Antinarcotics Prosecutor Carlos
Calcena was sentenced to a six year prison term for stealing
gold coins from a vault belonging to Brazilian drug
trafficker Jaime Amato in December 2000 in a notorious case

that also involved and implicated corrupt police official
Aristides Cabral. In November 2000, Brazilian Federal Police
(DPF) requested aid from DEA and the Major Violators Unit
(MVU) in locating and arresting Brazilian drug trafficker
Jaime Amato. Amato,s residence was located and he was
arrested in December 2000. Approximately 140,000 USD in
valuables was found and seized from a safe in Amato,s
bedroom. Several months later, following a DEA request
concerning the disposition of Amato,s property, it was
discovered that public prosecutor Calcena had failed to
itemize the contents of the safe as required under Paraguayan
law. Several requests that the Attorney General investigate
the matter were ignored. In 2004, Calcena was finally
charged in relation to the case, after several failed
attempts to start a case against him. Calcena's conviction
represents a significant development given the fact that he
went on to be appointed Vice Minister of the Interior Minstry
after his crime in 2000 and that serious interests weighed in
on his behalf to prevent his conviction.
CASON