The Vice President of Paraguay, Hugo Velázquez, resigns after being considered “significantly corrupt” by the United States

The Vice President of Paraguay, Hugo Velázquez (right), photographed in 2018 with the President, Mario Abdo.NORBERTO DUARTE (AFP)

Paraguayan Vice President Hugo Velázquez announced this Friday that he will resign from his position and from the presidential race minutes after the Joe Biden government prohibited his entry into the United States accusing him of participating “in significant acts of corruption, including the bribery of an official public".

The United States accuses Velázquez, of the conservative and ruling Paraguayan Colorado Party, of offering, through an accomplice, more than a million dollars to a public official to "obstruct an investigation that threatened the vice president and his financial interests."

This was stated in a press conference by the US ambassador in Asunción, Marc Ostfield.

A close personal and professional collaborator of Vice President Velázquez named Juan Carlos

Duarte offered the bribe to stop a money laundering investigation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

And not just any investigation, but for one of the largest money laundering schemes known to date.

Duarte is legal counsel at Yacyreta, the hydroelectric plant that Paraguay shares with Argentina.

He and Velázquez, as well as their families, will not be able to enter the US or obtain visas or bank accounts there.

"Corrupt acts such as these also contribute to the decline in trust in the government and the public perception of corruption and impunity within the office of the Vice President of Paraguay," says the United States Government.

The official statement also assures that Duarte "abused and exploited his powerful and privileged public position within the Yacyretá Binational Entity, putting public trust in one of Paraguay's most vital economic assets at risk."

“I feel or felt very close to the US, that's why the surprise.

I don't know what it is about,” Velázquez said live on the radio, just after the ambassador's announcement.

“If I stay as a candidate, it will affect the movement.

It is my obligation to step aside so that the flags we were defending can continue,” he declared.

television program

he said that he will resign from his institutional position and from the internal race of his party next December for the presidency of the country.

"We will continue working with Mario Abdo and his government, against corruption and impunity, while promoting economic growth in both countries," the US ambassador to Paraguay wrote on Twitter.

As part of this action, the Department of State also designates the same ban on members of Velázquez's immediate family, including Lourdes María Andrea Samaniego González, Dionicio Adalberto Velázquez Giménez, Sonya Rebeca Velázquez Escauriza, and Hugo José Velázquez Escauriza;

and Duarte's immediate family members, including Ninfa Concepción Vera Moreira and Tamara Duarte Martínez.

All of them are now included in what is known as the Engel List, approved in 2020 by the United States and which aims to punish the actors involved in acts of corruption and attacks on democracy.

Also included was former President Horacio Cartes, from the same Colorado Party as Velázquez and Mario Abdo, although from another faction, also considered "significantly corrupt" by the US government since July 22.

The United States pointed out that Horacio Cartes used the Presidency of Paraguay to obstruct a transnational crime investigation involving his partner, Dario Messer, considered by the Brazilian Justice to be one of the key players in Brazil's Lava Jato corruption scheme.

“Cartes' obstruction was designed to mitigate political and legal risk to himself.

This allowed him to continue participating in corrupt activities, including his links with terrorist organizations and other entities sanctioned by the United States, ”the ambassador said in an unusual press conference last month and which has been repeated today.

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