LIMA, PERU (AP) – The United States (US) issued sanctions against Paraguay’s former President Horacio Cartes Jara and current Vice President Hugo Velázquez yesterday, unveiling explosive accusations that they participated in widespread schemes of corruption and have ties to members of a terrorist organisation.
Cartes and Velázquez have been involved “in systemic corruption that has undermined democratic institutions in Paraguay” and have ties to members of Hezbollah, which the US designates as a terrorist organisation, the Treasury Department said.
As a result, “these two people are now blocked from using the US financial system”, US ambassador in Paraguay Marc Ostfield said at a news conference.
Both Cartes and Velázquez were included on a US corruption list last year, but now the accusations against them have been expanded.
Treasury also issued sanctions against four companies owned or controlled by Cartes: Tabacos USA, Bebidas USA, Dominicana Acquisition and Frigorifico Chajha. Velázquez said he was “surprised” by the allegations against him and “categorically” rejected the claims, adding that he was unaware of the details and has asked the US for more information.
“I don’t have ties to Hezbollah… or any other terrorist group,” the vice president told a local radio station yesterday. He added that he had no plans to resign.
“I was elected by the Paraguayan people,” he said.
Cartes, who was president from 2013 to 2018, did not immediately comment, but he rejected US claims of corruption last year.
“I deny and reject the content of the allegations,” Cartes wrote on Twitter in July 2022 and said he was “committed to offering all the support and primary-source information that the authorities need to clarify” anything.
The US has long said the porous tri-border region that connects Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is a hub for terrorism financing through money laundering of illicit activity.
