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 -------------- Paraguayan ID Duplication Being Purged -------------- ¶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.) -------------- Paraguay Confronts Child Pornography -------------- ¶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) -------------- Prosecutor Sentenced to Six Years -------------- ¶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