PARAGUAYAN CONGRESS PASSES NEW PENAL CODE

UNCLAS ASUNCION 001069

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

WHA/BSC MDRUCKER, KREAD, CCROFT; INL/P DGRAHAM; INL/CCJ
JSHOWELL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SNAR PREL PA
SUBJECT: PARAGUAYAN CONGRESS PASSES NEW PENAL CODE


1.(U) Following more than a year of political wrangling,
Paraguay's Congress approved a new penal code December 20.
Amending approximately 70 criminal statutes, the bill will
soon go to President Duarte for signature. The president
will have 20 business days upon receipt to sign or veto the
law; if he does nothing, it will automatically enter into
force in late January.

2.(U) One of the new penal code's most significant assets is
its improved money laundering statute. Before now, money
laundering charges were only possible after the defendant had
a predicate offense. Now there are modern statutes that
allow for independent investigation, prosecution and,
incarceration (up to a maximum of five years) for money
laundering offenses. The new money laundering statutes also
penalize violations of fiduciary duties, thus allowing the
state to bring negligence charges against bank officials who
permit money laundering. Another area of significant
improvement in the new bill is the protection of intellectual
property rights; offenders now face stiffer penalties (two to
eight years jail time and/or fines) and, a fraudulent
imitation of a product is separately recognized as an
offense. Finally, the bill contains two new provisions
penalizing trafficking in persons--one for the purpose of
sexual exploitation and the other for forced labor/slavery.
In both cases, the penalty is eight years in prison and up to
12 years if the victim is under 14 years of age or if threats
are used to induce the activity.


3. (SBU) COMMENT: As the final chamber to approve the bill,
the Senate rejected the Lower House's attempts to water down
its original (stronger) version. Beloved Fatherland Party
Senator Marcelo Duarte and Colorado Party Senator Bader
Rachid pushed hard to gain the Senate's (and therefore the
Congress') final approval of this bill. The Embassy's past
and current Regional Legal Advisors (RLA) played critical
roles in drafting the legislation. Under Paraguayan law,
implementation of the new criminal code will be delayed for
one year to allow for training of judges and prosecutors.
During that time, RLA's efforts to teach the Paraguayans how
to effectively use their new law will be critical to this
law's eventual success. END COMMENT.

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