The president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitezdismissed his Minister of Justice and the director of the women’s prison on Tuesday for having allowed a coffin containing the body of a guerrilla leader to enter a prison shot down on Sunday, to be fired by his doomed sister.
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“The Minister of Justice (Edgar Taboada) and the director of the Buen Pastor prison were dismissed. This is a forceful decision by the President. It is a very negative precedent if we do not make determinations of this type,” said the chief of staff, Hernán Huttemann, to journalists.
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The coffin with the remains of the guerrilla leader Osvaldo Villalbakilled on Sunday in northern Paraguay, was admitted to the women’s prison by his relatives so that a sentenced sister can fire him, AFP found.
The relatives “arrived unexpectedly at the women’s prison, (the coffin) came as a surprise,” said the Minister of Justice a couple of hours before being removed.
The official explained that the remains of Villalba (39 years old), leader of the self-styled Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP), had already been deposited in a pantheon of the La Recoleta cemetery -located next to the penitentiary- and that his relatives extracted him from the niche again to bring him closer to the prison.
Under the control of several dozen heavily armed riot police, the body was taken to the jail to be seen by his sister, Carmen Villalba, for five minutes.
The 50-year-old woman is a founder of the EPP. She has been imprisoned and sentenced for 18 years for the kidnapping and crime in 2004 of a daughter of former President Raúl Cubas (1998-99). She has another 17 years left on her sentence.
The relatives did not carry out previous procedures and the Ministry of Justice finally authorized the entry “for humanitarian reasons,” said Taboada.
The minister recalled that in 2010, the remains of a deceased son of the prisoner were also taken to jail before burial.
The measure aroused the indignation of political and social sectors. “It’s an act of submission to terrorism. I don’t know who authorized this offense,” said Beatriz Denis, daughter of former Paraguayan Vice President Oscar Denis, who was kidnapped two years ago by the EPP and is still missing.
The security forces attribute to the killed leader of the EPP about 80 murders of civilians, police and military since the group began operating in 2008.
Villalba was killed along with two other members of this gang in a confrontation with the Army in the department of Amambay.
The EPP, which is influenced by liberation theology, is a split from the Patria Libre party, founded in 1990, which defines itself as Marxist and anti-imperialist and which participated in elections 20 years ago.
AFP
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