Has that critical moment finally arrived when the pressure cooker is at such a boiling point that a country must take a change of direction despite the harsh consequences? Are the ruling classes, the political and economic elites and society in general prepared to take that transcendental step before this becomes a failed state due to narco-politics and advanced Africanization due to poverty and inequality?
The events that are taking place in a vertiginous way these days show as starkly as never before that the institutional body is rotten. There are healthy areas, but are they enough to put up a fight?
In the middle of the month, Operation Turf had an impact on the exclusive Paraná Country Club of Hernandarias, which ended with a blooper since the most wanted drug trafficker in Brazil, Lindomar Reges Furtado, escaped thanks to the logistical support of the gated community guards and under the noses of the Police, while Marcos Vinicius Espíndola was arrested in Brazil. Society was shocked to see how these characters moved around the country thanks to their political relations and the corruption of the security institutions. In the context of the colorado political dispute, the data came and went and hit many of them with the same intensity. “Lindomar fled in a car belonging to an employee of Cartes’ tobacco company”, “Jussara Cabral, Marcos’ wife, is a shareholder of Tabesa”. The data cornered the cartismo, which then gave a lethal blow by showing photos of the Interior Minister, Arnaldo Giuzzio, with Marcos Vinicius, who was trying to become a supplier to the State. But the issue that knocked Giuzzio down was that he used the drug trafficker’s car when he returned from his vacation in Brazil. His stammering explanation did not convince anyone and he left the Government with the worst reputation: “Minister dismissed for his links with drug trafficking.” A precedent that vanishes any possibility of returning to public life.
A ULTRANZA. The biggest operation against organized crime and money laundering in the country started on Tuesday. The official summary indicates the execution of more than 100 raids still in progress, with the objective of arresting 43 people, out of which seven have already been arrested, and with around USD 100 million in assets seized. The operation by Senad and the Public Prosecutor’s Office continues at a dizzying pace with the collaboration of the DEA of the United States, Europol and the General Directorate for the Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking of Uruguay. The images of the seized assets are shocking: 4 million-dollar yachts, sports cars, sumptuous ranches, thousands of head of cattle, spectacular residences. The protagonists are quasi-comics, especially Pastor Insfrán and his relatives, including Pastor Édgar Cabral, who make vulgar and scandalous ostentation that surpasses any fiction.
Recibí las noticias en tu celular, unite al canal de ÚH en WhatsAppAnd once again the political links. There are photos of President Mario Abdo and Vice President Velázquez with Pastor Insfrán (one of the masterminds of money laundering, a fugitive from justice), of former President Cartes with Claudecir da Silveira, whose ranch was raided; Jon Von Zastrow, father-in-law of cartista senator Sergio Godoy; and the relationships woven by the alleged drug trafficker Alberto Koube Ayala, whose companies are suppliers of the State. This is the most delicate and compromising part of the story that caused the resounding fall of another minister: The Minister of National Emergency Secretariat (SEN). Joaquín Roa claims that he acquired a yacht valued at 400 thousand dollars from Koube thanks to a loan of 150 thousand dollars given to him by the Basa Bank, owned by the Cartes family. His last sworn affidavit of 2014 indicates an almost austere patrimony of 1,250 million Guaranies. Koube won the freight tender in the SEN and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back and plunged Roa into the deep waters of suspicion.
An important character in the machinery is the pro-government Deputy Juan Carlos Ozorio. He appears at all times with Pastor Insfrán, who would have promised to support his candidacy for the Senate. Apart from his showy fainting in church services, what is the role of the Deputy in this scenario?
Soccer, a suspected area for the world of laundering, also appears in this operation. Uruguayan Sebastián Marcet Cabrera, considered a key figure in the scheme, played for Deportivo Capiatá club. In this chapter appears the name of the colorado Deputy Erico Galeano. Businessman and former president of the club, he is Horacio Cartes’ pre-candidate for governor. In yesterday’s raid on luxurious residences in Altos city, linked to Miguel Insfrán, an ANDE invoice belonging to the “cartista” Deputy was found.
Christian D’Ecclesiis, brother of the pro-government Deputy, appears in the constitution document of Koube’s company Grupo Tapyracuai. He says that now he no longer belongs to the business group.
In other anti-drug operations that are carried out simultaneously, councilmen and colorado candidates appear as responsible. Narcopolitics has permeated everything.
The bombs of this international operation have fallen again in the courtyard of cartismo and the pro-government members to reinforce not only the suspicions, but the confirmation of the political links with the mafias.
Cynicism as a response is no longer enough. They can no longer feign insanity with the complicity with the mafias.
President Mario Abdo Benítez said that they are fighting the toughest battle in history against organized crime. “Why didn’t they fall before and are falling now? I am proud that my opponents are those who are destroying our country,” he said. But in the face of so much institutional putrefaction, the question is how far he will push and if these operations will reach the top to behead the political godfathers of drug trafficking and money laundering.
In a society that has normalized coexistence with corruption, drug traffickers and money launderers, it is hard to believe that those who benefit from the income of this despicable business will resign as a matter of honor.
This war will only be won with the explosion of the system that supports it.
It is an inevitable operation.
