Paraguayan Senator Erico Galeano Resigns Following 13-Year Drug Trafficking Conviction
Colorado Party senator Erico Galeano resigned on Tuesday after being sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering and links to the drug trafficking network of Sebastián Marset.
Senator Galeano Steps Down After Court Confirms Conviction for Money Laundering
Paraguayan senator Erico Galeano, of the Colorado Party, submitted his resignation on Tuesday from his legislative post following a Court of Appeals upholding his conviction to 13 years in prison for money laundering and criminal association linked to drug trafficking, according to larazon.bo.
The Senate Chamber accepted the resignation in an extraordinary session convened to address the legislator's loss of office. Until that Tuesday, Galeano had remained at liberty under the protection of his parliamentary immunity.
The trial court had sentenced him in March of this year, and the ruling was upheld on 4 May by the appeals court. The Public Prosecution Service immediately requested preventive detention of the former senator.
Links to Marset's Network
Judicial investigation determined that Galeano, 59 years old, maintained ties with a criminal organisation attributed to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset. Marset was extradited on 13 March from Bolivia to the United States to face federal charges. Along with Miguel Ángel "Tío Rico" Insfrán—currently imprisoned in Paraguay—he is identified as a ringleader of a transnational network engaged in cocaine trafficking.
Among the evidence presented by the Public Prosecution Service were the rental of aircraft owned by the legislator for Marset's transfers and the sale in Paraguay of a luxury property acquired for 200,000 dollars and sold for one million, an operation that judges classified as a money laundering instrument. In the sentence, the magistrates confirmed that Galeano "received money from illicit activities," which he used "for economic and commercial benefit."
The case was initiated three years ago and advanced the following year with formal charges and oral trial. Galeano had argued before his peers that the charges were the result of political persecution, an argument that the president of Congress publicly rejected.
The Colorado Party Distances Itself
President of the Senate Chamber Basilio Núñez used the session to dissociate himself from the convicted politician. "We distance ourselves from people who ultimately do not follow the party's standard of honour," Núñez declared, in reference to a politician aligned with the government movement that controls both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
Galeano's connection to Marset was also evident in the sporting sphere: the drug trafficker appeared on the roster of the Capiatá football club in 2021, an institution that was then run by the now former senator.
Pattern of Links Between Politics and Drug Trafficking
The case is not isolated in the Paraguayan political landscape. Deputy Eulalio Gomes died in 2024 during an anti-drug police raid. Another legislator, Juan Carlos Ozorio, is serving preventive detention for his alleged connections to Marset and Insfrán. The accumulation of cases keeps pressure on the Colorado Party, which has dominated the country's institutions for decades.
Source: Google News PY — Crime