Journalist Humberto Coronel shot dead in Pedro Juan Caballero
The Radio Amambay reporter was attacked by a motorcyclist as he left the station. He is the eighth journalist killed in the department since 1991.
Journalist Humberto Coronel shot dead outside Radio Amambay
Journalist Humberto Coronel, 33, was shot dead on Tuesday in Pedro Juan Caballero, capital of Amambay department, on the border with Brazil. According to bbc.com, the attacker intercepted him on a motorcycle as Coronel was leaving Radio Amambay station, where he worked as a reporter specialising in corruption and organised crime.
Authorities confirmed that Coronel was shot eight times in the back as he was heading towards his car. Police found ten spent cartridges at the crime scene. The attacker was wearing a helmet and dark jacket, was travelling alone on a black motorcycle and fled after the attack.
Previous threats and police investigation
Rubén Paredes, head of regional police, revealed that Coronel had received death threats three months before the crime, but refused to accept police protection. Prosecutor Katia Uemara, who travelled to the scene of the attack and inspected security cameras, said that the attack is presumed to be linked to those threats and that, according to some information, they are believed to have been made by organised crime.
The General Prosecutor's Office also reported that the two police officers guarding the scene of the murder will be investigated. "The police agents responsible for security were not near the journalist at the time of the attack," the official statement indicates. Prosecutor Sandra Díaz had previously requested permanent police custody for both Coronel and his colleague Gustavo Báez, who also received death threats around the same time.
The eighth journalist killed in Amambay since 1991
Coronel is the eighth member of the press killed in Amambay department since reporter Santiago Leguizamón was shot in Pedro Juan Caballero on 26 October 1991, according to data from the Press Safety Desk in Paraguay.
Radio Amambay station, for which Coronel worked, belongs to the family of murdered mayor José Carlos Acevedo, who was killed in May. Acevedo was also noted for investigating the role of organised crime in the region. The year before, the former mayor's niece, Haylee Carolina Acevedo, was also murdered.
Condemnations and reactions from civil organisations
Amnesty International Paraguay expressed its solidarity with the journalist's family and joined calls for justice. "We join the call for justice and an end to impunity in crimes against journalists in Paraguay," the organisation stated.
The United States Embassy in Paraguay condemned the murder and declared its support for local authorities in their efforts to bring those responsible to justice. The Union of Journalists of Paraguay (SPP) and the Coordinator for Human Rights in Paraguay (Codehupy) denounced in a joint statement "state inaction that resulted today in the murder of journalist Humberto Coronel". Organisations of Paraguayan civil society considered the crime to show "the advance of organised crime over all of Paraguayan society".
Pedro Juan Caballero: drug trafficking epicentre on the Brazilian border
Pedro Juan Caballero is considered the most violent city in Paraguay. Brazilian gangs operate there, controlling much of the drug trafficking in South America, amongst them the First Command of the Capital (PCC) and the Red Command. According to reports from specialised media outlet Insight Crime, Amambay is the epicentre of marijuana distribution and production in the country.
The PCC, which emerged in São Paulo prisons in the 1990s, has made Pedro Juan Caballero one of its main headquarters in the region. In January 2020, 75 prisoners escaped from a prison in that city, and dozens of them belonged to the PCC. The then Interior Minister, Euclides Acevedo, noted at the time that officials from the prison itself collaborated in the escape.
Several recent crimes in Paraguay have been linked to possible PCC activities, including the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci on 10 May in Colombia, although the investigation remains open. In this border city, murders of politicians, seizures of tonnes of drugs and clashes between rival gangs occur frequently.
Source: Google News PY — Crime