Paraguay prosecutors seek suspended proceedings for court ushers in 'promissory note mafia' case

Prosecutors in Paraguay have requested a conditional suspension of legal proceedings for two former court ushers implicated in the "mafia of the promissory notes" case. Audrey Jazmín Galeano Mora and Alfredo René Benítez Cabrera, who served as ushers at the La Encarnación Peace Court in Asunción, were initially charged alongside the then-Justice of the Peace, Carmen Analía Cibils Miñarro.

The case, reported by ABC Color, involves allegations of falsifying public documents and complicity in judicial prevarication. The prosecution, led by interim Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption Unit chief Gilda Villalba Tottil, presented a request to the specialized Guarantee Judge Rodrigo Estigarribia. This request follows an earlier opposition filed by anticorruption prosecutor Belinda Bobadilla.

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The ushers were fully aware of the real circumstances of the case, that the notifications (to the victims of the mafia of the promissory notes) were not made and they falsely stated in their reports that they had made the notifications.

According to the prosecution's filing, evidence suggests the ushers were aware that notifications to the victims of the "mafia of the promissory notes" were not actually made, yet they falsely reported that they had been. This action allegedly enabled the immediate production of false public documents. The former ushers are accused of acting as perpetrators in this falsification and as accomplices in the prevarication offense. The former Justice of the Peace, Cibils Miñarro, has resigned and faces a public trial.

If Judge Estigarribia approves the prosecution's request, Galeano and Benítez would benefit from a conditional suspension of proceedings, as outlined in Article 358 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court ushers were reportedly responsible for documenting that victims had been notified, a duty they allegedly failed to perform truthfully, thereby facilitating the alleged criminal scheme.

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The notification ushers of the Peace Court of La Encarnación had the capacity to materialize the criminal act of immediate production of public documents of false content; since they were the officials in charge of drafting the documents in which it was stated that the victims were supposedly notified.