Lawmakers Condemn Democratic Backsliding After Protest Crackdown

Paraguayan lawmakers Raúl Benítez and Rocío Vallejo have condemned the detention of two opposition figures during a peaceful protest outside the residence of former president and Colorado Party leader Horacio Cartes.

Police detained Asunción councilor Pablo Callizo, from the Partido Patria Querida, and Sebastián Garay, a council candidate for an opposition alliance. The demonstrators had used stuffed toys while calling for salary demands and improvements for the medical sector. Police agents moved against the protest.

Benítez called the arrests shameful and said they showed democratic backsliding on several fronts. He alleged that the National Police had delivered a political message under a direct order from Cartes, and said authorities were minimizing the case because the detainees were opposition figures.

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We have been experiencing democratic backsliding on too many fronts for quite some time. What happened yesterday, the detentions, was shameful.

“We have been experiencing democratic backsliding on too many fronts for quite some time. What happened yesterday, the detentions, was shameful,” Benítez said. He also cited concerns involving the Office of the Comptroller General, rumors about removing two Supreme Court ministers who were not aligned with Cartismo, the expulsion of opponents and the use of justice as a weapon.

Vallejo said it was deeply regrettable that the two politicians had been detained. She said the force used against a protest involving stuffed toys had no justification and compared the police intervention with the era of Alfredo Stroessner, when people could not demonstrate. “The intervention by the police was completely excessive, which shows a total setback,” she said.

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The intervention by the police was completely excessive, which shows a total setback.