Colorado Party candidate survives attack days before elections in Ypané
Gerardo Fariña, aspiring Intendant of Ypané, reported a shooting attack on his pickup truck during the early hours of the morning. The incident occurs days before municipal elections on 4 October in Paraguay.
Two shots fired at windscreen of ruling-party candidate in Ypané days before voting
Gerardo Fariña, candidate for the Intendancy of Ypané—a town located in central Paraguay—reported on Wednesday a shooting attack on his life, less than a week before municipal elections scheduled for 4 October. The report was covered by El Deber, which gathered statements from the aspiring candidate.
Images of the incident show Fariña's red Mitsubishi pickup truck stranded in a ditch beside the dirt road leading to his home. Two shots struck the vehicle's windscreen, with one hitting near the driver's seat area.
"I wanted to believe it was intimidation, but in reality, after speaking with people, with specialists, it is clear that it was not: they attempted directly against my life," Fariña said in a statement to Radio Ñandutí.
The candidate specified that the attack occurred during the early morning hours and noted that the absence of any attempted robbery reinforces the hypothesis that it was a deliberate assassination attempt. "I expected the worst, many things went through my mind (…), but if this is the path to free my people, to be able to give my people dignity, to improve their way of life, I accept it with great dignity," he affirmed.
Fariña is a member of the Honor Colorado faction of the National Republican Association (ANR), known as the Colorado Party, which has governed Paraguay almost continuously for approximately 80 years.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Raúl Latorre, demanded that "the full weight of the law" fall upon those responsible for the incident and described the episode as "an attack against democracy". "There is no greater damage to a republican or democratic system than wanting to end someone's life or win elections through murder," Latorre stated.
Ruling-party senator Juan Carlos Galaverna, also a member of Honor Colorado, noted that Ypané is experiencing a "highly polarised environment". The city has been controlled for the past 16 years by the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA), although Galaverna believed that the ruling party has "real chances" in these elections of recovering the Intendancy. The legislator also indicated that Fariña has received "telephone threats and threats via social media" in recent weeks and expressed his "solidarity, support and backing" for the candidate.
Source: El Deber