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Paraguay investigates Canindeyú attack: What is known 24 hours later?
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Conflict & Security

Paraguay investigates Canindeyú attack: What is known 24 hours later?

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Paraguayan authorities are investigating an attack on a police post in Canindeyú that killed two officers and a civilian.
  • The attack, carried out by 20-30 armed individuals, is suspected to be the work of either the EPP guerrilla group or a drug trafficking organization led by 'Macho'.
  • Investigators are analyzing evidence, with the large number of attackers making the EPP a less likely suspect given their reduced operational capacity.

Paraguayan security forces are intensifying intelligence efforts to identify the perpetrators of a deadly attack on a police post in Ybyrarobaná, Canindeyú department. The assault, which claimed the lives of two National Police officers and a civilian official, was carried out by an estimated 20 to 30 armed individuals.

the indications left by the attack “lead to either” of those two groups, as both have the necessary knowledge and “are in a position to carry out that type of activity.”

— General Alberto GaonaGeneral Alberto Gaona, commander of the Internal Defense Operations Command (CODI), commented on the investigation into the attack.

The government and security forces are operating under the hypothesis that a well-organized criminal group, equipped with long firearms, was responsible. The strongest leads point to either the Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) guerrilla group or the criminal organization led by drug trafficker Felipe Santiago Acosta, known as 'Macho'. The attack occurred in an area considered to be under the influence of both groups.

General Alberto Gaona, commander of the Internal Defense Operations Command (CODI), stated that evidence from the scene is consistent with either group's capabilities. However, he noted that the large number of attackers, estimated between 20 and 30, makes the EPP a less probable suspect. Gaona suggested that the EPP's operational capacity has been significantly reduced in recent years, with current cells believed to consist of no more than 10 to 12 individuals.

The number of 20 or 30 is an important number to say that it is an activity carried out (by the EPP)

— General Alberto GaonaGeneral Alberto Gaona expressed skepticism about the EPP's capacity to mount such an attack.

Despite the EPP's presumed diminished strength, investigators are not ruling out any possibilities as they continue their search for the attackers and gather further intelligence. The investigation aims to definitively identify the specific organization behind the coordinated assault.

it is “complicated” for the EPP to have reached the “effective strength” for an attack like the one in Ybyrarobaná

— General Alberto GaonaGeneral Alberto Gaona discussed the chronological difficulties for the EPP to have regained such operational strength.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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