US embassy cable - 05ASUNCION308

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASUNCION 000308 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/PPC, EB/IFD/OIA, AND G/TIP 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR LAC/AA 
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR SCRONIN AND LYANG 
NSC FOR KIM BREIER 
TREASURY FOR OSIA MAUREEN WAFER 
TREASURY FOR OTA WARFIELD, VAN KOCH, MILLAR 
COMMERCE FOR ITA SARAH COOK 
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD DAN JOHNSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SMIG, PHUM, KCRM, KWMN, PINR, PA 
SUBJECT: PARAGUAY POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC UPDATE, FEBRUARY 
26-MARCH 4 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
1. (U) Summary: 
-------------- 
--President Duarte and Chilean President Lagos talk security 
--Supreme Court rejects Barakat appeal 
--Prosecutors defeat teen prostitution ring 
--German national arrested for role in TIP ring 
--Colombian nationals arrested with false Bolivian passports 
--Fire in natural reserve burning out of control 
 
President Duarte and Chilean President Lagos talk security 
----------------------------------------- 
2. (U) During a Montevideo bilateral meeting coinciding with 
the inauguration of Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez, 
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos offered President Nicanor 
Duarte his government's assistance with the implementation of 
a security plan in Paraguay.  The offer coincides with a 
broad-based outcry in Paraguay for the GOP to improve law 
enforcement and public security.  Lagos offered training 
courses to Paraguayan police officers and technical 
assistance to improve the response of Paraguayan police to 
citizen complaints.  As part of the offer, Chile will also 
send experts to Paraguay to participate in attempts to create 
"neighborhood watch" programs. 
 
Supreme Court rejects Barakat appeal 
------------------------------------ 
3. (U) On March 2, the Supreme Court rejected Assad Barakat's 
appeal to have his conviction overturned.  Barakat, suspected 
of financial connections with the Lebanese terrorist 
organization Hizbollah, was convicted in 2003 of tax evasion, 
and had appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss the case 
against him or recognize him as a political prisoner, a claim 
the Court denied.  The rejection of the appeal confirms 
Barakat's conviction and means that Barakat will serve his 
full six-year sentence, which will expire in July 2008. 
 
Prosecutors defeat teen prostitution ring 
----------------------------------------- 
4. (U) On February 27, prosecutors broke up a ring 
trafficking adolescent girls into prostitution.  An 
"employment agency" in the Asuncion suburb of Lambare 
recruited girls aged 14 to 16 for work as domestic servants 
in Asuncion, and sent them to work in a brothel.  The girls 
were never permitted to leave the premises.  Police rescued 
several adolescents from the brothel and arrested three 
Paraguayan women for forcing minors into prostitution. 
Teresa Martinez, lead prosecutor for TIP cases in the 
Attorney General's Office, told PolOff that several South 
Korean nationals are under investigation for their potential 
role in the ring.  She added that the Attorney General is 
considering a larger investigation into the activities of 
employment agencies for domestics. 
 
German national arrested for role in TIP ring 
----------------------------------------- 
5. (U) Gunther Merz, a German national who had already been 
arrested in Paraguay and Brazil on multiple occasions, was 
arrested by Interpol in an Asuncion suburb on March 1, 
charged with organizing a trafficking ring sending 
adolescents from the Paraguayan interior into prostitution in 
Spain.  Merz was arrested in 1997 and 2001 on charges of 
distributing child pornography.  He will be held in prison 
here while the GOP processes extradition requests from Brazil 
and Germany. 
 
Colombian nationals arrested with false Bolivian passports 
----------------------------------------- 
6. (SBU) On February 27, police arrested five Colombian 
nationals found to have false Bolivian passports taped to 
their bodies.  The individuals had cleared immigration with 
their Colombian passports.  In their deposition to Paraguayan 
police, the Colombians stated they intended to use the 
Bolivian passports to attempt to enter the United Kingdom. 
(Comment: Many South Americans obtain illegitimate passports 
from neighboring countries to attempt to evade the visa 
requirements of European countries.  However, Bolivians 
require visas to enter the U.K., and the false passports 
lacked British visas, real or forged (Bolivian nationals, 
unlike Colombians, do not need passports to enter other 
European Union (Shengen) countries).  Colombian Ambassador 
Bernal reported that the names of the five do not appear in 
any Colombian database and that he had drawn the initial 
conclusion they were in fact traveling for economic motives 
and not/not in connection to international crime or 
terrorism.  He agreed to provide us names to check against 
U.S. lists. End comment.) 
 
Fire in natural reserve burning out of control 
----------------------------------------- 
7. (U) On March 1, a fire erupted in the San Rafael natural 
reserve, burning in several locations spanning the 
departments of Caaguazu and Itapua.  As of the March 4, 800 
hectares and 17 homes had been consumed, and 200 firefighters 
are engaged in efforts to put out the fire.  The GOP has 
asked for assistance from neighboring countries, and both 
Argentine and Brazilian firefighters and water bombers are 
already en route to the region.  The fire began in an area 
that squatters have held for the last four years, and local 
authorities told a member of the USAID office they suspect 
that the fire began when squatters burned their soy crops, 
fearing that the police were about to evict them. 
JOHNSON