Feb 03, 2005
Truth Finaly Reaches Isolated Indians
ASUNCION, Paraguay (New Tribes
Mission) - A once isolated group of Ayore Indians are beginning to hear about God from their own people.
This group came out of the jungle for the first time on March 3, 2004. They weren’t seeking to make contact but saw where some men were working. In the middle of the night they approached their tent with the idea of killing the workers and taking whatever they might find useful.
But the workers weren’t there. They ransacked the tent and took a shovel. The next day they encountered the workers and two Ayore men working together on building a new Ayore village.
When the Ayores realized some of their people were still living in the jungle they approached them and established contact. The man in charge of the building immediately contacted government groups and anthropologists.
This new Ayore group was placed under a special medical quarantine that lasted from March through October.
When the quarantine was lifted, missionaries made plans to begin a systematic teaching program that will assist these Ayores in making an intelligent decision about God’s Word.
Missionaries John Keefe and Bruce Higham, with Carodi, Ojoi, and Ajitai, Ayore church leaders from Campo Loro, explained to this group their desire to begin a teaching program.
"We videotaped their responses," wrote Bruce. "They very whole-heartedly invited us to come to do this teaching and expressed their desire to have us teach them."
John has visited the group twice and reports that the interest remains very high.
Today John is traveling with Carodi and David, a promising new Ayore teacher, to visit this group. This begins their weekly trip to teach them from God’s Word.
Pray that nothing will hinder these Ayores in their hunger for truth. Pray also for the missionaries and Ayore Bible teachers as they approach their task with wisdom and sensitivity.
[Editor's Note: New Tribes Missionaries John Keefe and Bruce Higham are friends of ours. We have visited Campo Loro where they work with the Ayores. When this last group of Ayores came out of the bush last year the anthropologists isolated them under the "special medical quarantine." Yet it seems only the missionaries were forbidden contact with these people. The anthropologists allowed them to be exposed to the news media. In addition, they gave the Indians western clothes and provided them with candy and other "modern" foods. Thankfully, the "quarantine" has been lifted and now the Truth may be shared with these people. Pray that this group of Ayores will continue to be receptive to hearing the Gospel from John, Bruce, and the other Ayore believers.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today
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Oct 14, 2004
Crime Wave Rattles Paraguayans
By PEDRO SERVIN
Associated Press Writer
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) - Gunmen abduct the daughter of a former Paraguayan president in a blaze of gunfire. The body of a kidnapped 10-year-old boy is found mutilated. A well-known businesswoman is still missing, long after her family paid a ransom for her release.
Paraguayans have been gripped by a string of high-profile kidnappings that have many worried a crime wave sweeping much of Latin America may now be reaching into this landlocked country of 6 million people. The kidnappings have dominated headlines and provoked a climate of insecurity in this impoverished South American country.
"There is a sense that robberies, assaults and kidnappings are quickly becoming everyday occurrences,'' said Antonio Lopez, a 30-year-old pharmaceutical salesman.
Paraguay is battling a protracted recession brought on in part by financial troubles in neighboring Argentina. And events in Paraguay mirror similar kidnapping waves experienced by Mexico and Argentina when they suffered economic meltdowns in the mid-1990s and 2002, respectively.
Paraguay has also been wracked by sporadic upheaval and many consider corruption even more of a scourge than the poverty that afflicts over 60 percent of the population.
Paraguayans have followed in detail the story of Cecilia Cubas, the 31-year-old daughter of former President Raul Cubas. She was kidnapped Sept. 21 on the outskirts of Asuncion in a commando-style ambush.
Police and her family say the younger Cubas was grabbed from her car as she was driving near her home, her car pocked with bullets by gunmen who blocked her path.
The operation took seconds, but the shock has continued to ripple through this country. Authorities have reported no leads in the case, and her family said they had one contact with the captors but no ransom request.
Police, meanwhile, have reported no motive in the abduction of the daughter of Cubas, who served as president from August 1998 until March 1999. Cubas was forced to resign when the assassination of his vice president triggered rioting and political turmoil.
On Wednesday, Paraguayans were stunned by the discovery of the body of the 10-year-old son of a tobacco magnate. The boy was taken captive two days ago as he left the Asuncion elementary school he attended.
Local reports quoted authorities as saying they found the body of Armin Anibal Riquelme Seif disfigured and severely bruised on the outskirts of the Asuncion, the third recent high-profile kidnapping.
"We are totally unprotected, we're at the mercy of bandits,'' cried Armin's mother, Yamili Seif.
In August of 2003, gunmen abducted Gilda Vargas, an Asuncion businesswoman. Local reports say her family eventually paid a hefty ransom, but she remains missing.
The kidnappings have put the 14-month-old government of President Nicanor Duarte in motion.
Forced to act while traveling in Europe, Duarte ordered 1,000 more police out onto the streets. On Wednesday he also fired his interior minister, Orlando Fiorotto, and a top police chief while ordering his aides to draw up a new national security plan.
Security experts say the surge in kidnappings in Paraguay also reflects a larger regional trend. Latin America accounts for 75 percent of the world's abductions, according to London-based business risk consultancy Control Risks Group.
The insurance industry estimates more than 7,500 kidnappings a year in Latin America, but analysts say those statistics and governments' counts aren't reliable because so few kidnappings are reported - only 1 in 10 by some estimates.
"What's happening in Paraguay is not out of step with what's happening in the rest of Latin America. It's spiraling everywhere,'' said Frank Holder, a New York-based consultant with security firm Kroll Inc.
Holder, who previously headed the firm's Latin American division, said kidnappings can prompt others to follow suit.
"Once someone is successful a couple of times at this, you have copycats and it tends to grow'' if not fought aggressively, he cautioned.
Several government officials and at least one former president were taking no chances.
"I've got my own bodyguards and I'm avoiding standing out,'' said former President Juan Carlos Wasmosy, who served from 1993 to 1998.
[Editor's Note: Poverty & desperation breed crime. Corruption in the ranks of the National Police helps ensure that criminal action goes unpunished. Criminal activity increases as it becomes obvious that the chance for success far outweighs any potential consequences. This is the situation we are facing now in Paraguay. Please pray for President Duarte (a believer) as he works to lead Paraguay out of this crisis. He ordered his staff to create a new national security plan today in order to try to put a stop to rampant crime. Also pray that the insecurity here will cause people to turn to the Lord.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Oct 03, 2004
Paraguay Tri-Border Area Is Terror Haven
AP Finds Tri-Border Area in Paraguay Serves As Meeting Point for Islamic Terrorist Fund Raising
The Associated Press
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay Oct. 3, 2004 — In this gritty border town known as a haven for drug smugglers, arms dealers and counterfeiters, stacks of money change hands in the open on every corner and thousands of people each day stream across Friendship Bridge into Ciudad del Este. They carry packages on their backs, in wheelbarrows or on carts, and border police stop few.
Such chaotic scenes give life to the city's reputation of lawlessness and U.S. officials' description of the tri-border area where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet as a key South American point for Islamic terrorist fund raising to the tune of $100 million a year. Yet few arrests have been made or assets frozen, and local officials told The Associated Press they are ill-prepared to fully track financial movements and they discount terror links.
"We need more resources and greater controls," said Juan Carlos Duarte, a district attorney in Ciudad del Este who recently carried out several raids on currency exchange houses. "Frequently, it's difficult for even the Paraguayan Central Bank to track these movements. To get to bottom of this we need more staff. We won't be able to solve anything without more help."
Paraguay, Latin America's second-poorest country after Bolivia, is in the throes of a financial crisis that has left basics like computers for government offices hard to come by.
The raids carried out this spring are aimed, in part, at snuffing out illegal transactions and helping investigators piece together a money trail used by drug runners and counterfeiters and other purported businesses operating in Ciudad del Este, Duarte said.
Dozens of exchange houses some little more than one-room offices crowd alleyways offering to send money as far away as Asia and the Middle East. On street corners, money changers' fanny packs bulge with U.S. dollars, euros, Brazilian reals, Paraguayan guaranis and Argentina pesos. Store owners open cash tills brimming with bills.
Coming off Friendship Bridge, which connects Ciudad del Este with sister city Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, people load and unload boxes, carts, even trash bags filled with knockoff brands of televisions, underwear, diapers, leather jackets, and watches.
Meanwhile, street vendors and middlemen shout into cell phones and walkie-talkies. Private security officers, some clutching rifles, stand alongside armored trucks. It all is testament to this region's reputation as South America's contraband and smuggling capital a place where anything from drugs to arms to pirated software reputedly can be had.
That reputation brought U.S. scrutiny in the post-Sept. 11 era. Much of the focus has fallen on the 25,000-strong Muslim community in the area built up by former Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner during the 1970s as a trading hub for his iron-fisted regime.
Yet after more than three years under U.S. watch, American and some regional officials remain divided over the potential for terrorist links, and unregulated trade flourishes.
U.S. officials suspect as much as $100 million a year flows out of the region, much of it diverted to Islamic militants linked to Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Authorities in Ciudad del Este say many among the Middle Eastern immigrant community send money home, but it is difficult to determine where the funds end up. Contributions to religious groups are even harder to trace.
U.S. officials say much of the money is sent back through an assortment of difficult-to-trace means via couriers, complex wire transfers, some hand-carried.
"We are concerned about material support emanating from the area and its weaknesses: the ability to move people, goods, and money in a way that goes largely untracked," said Juan Zarate, the U.S. Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes.
In June, the Bush administration ordered U.S. banks to freeze any assets found belonging to a Ciudad del Este-based businessman. The Treasury Department accused Assad Ahmad Barakat of using his electronics store as a cover for Hezbollah fund raising, saying he mortgaged his import-export business to borrow from a bank in a fraud scheme and "coerced" other Arab merchants into making Hezbollah contributions.
However, some regional officials question assertions of terrorism links and maintain that fund raising for Hezbollah is legal here since it is recognized as a political party.
Paraguayan Foreign Minister Leila Rachid recently told the Argentine newspaper, La Nacion, that the fact that Hezbollah supporters send part of their salaries to the political party in Lebanon "does not mean there are terrorist cells" in the tri-border area.
Many in the Arab community have expressed outrage over increased scrutiny of the community, saying most are traders and small business owners from Syria and Lebanon.
At the Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad, the main mosque in Ciudad del Este, several people gathering for Friday prayers recently complained of unfair treatment.
"They say there are terrorists here or terrorist support only because they think there must be with so many Arabs living in one place," said Hassan Ali, an electronic salesman. "But where is the proof? Not one person has been convicted of terrorism here."
Yet, U.S. and Argentine officials point to arrests, including Barakat's, that they say prove the area has been a base for several people with alleged links to Hezbollah and other groups.
Another arrest involved Mohammed Ali Hassan Mokhlis, an Egyptian who reportedly spent time in the tri-border area, according to regional intelligence officials.
A suspected planner of the 1997 Luxor massacre of 58 foreign tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut in southern Egypt, he was extradited to Egypt from Uruguay last year after he tried to cross into Brazil using a false Malaysian passport. Four Muslim militants also were killed.
Still, Brazilian and Paraguayan law enforcement see the main problems as drug and contraband trafficking. U.S. officials, who believe the terrorist risk is real, say they are helping train Paraguayan authorities to better monitor financial transfers and bolster border controls.
Meantime, the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu across the river from Ciudad del Este is fighting to improve the tri-border image. Last year, the city launched an advertising campaign in Latin American newspapers trying a lighthearted touch to play down claims of terror links.
Hoping to attract more tourists to a region that includes the world-famous Iguazu waterfalls, the city ran full-page ads featuring a photograph of fugitive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the caption: "If bin Laden would ever risk a visit to Foz do Iguazu, it's only because it's worth it."
[Editor's Note: We hear many rumors about terrorist activity in the Tri-Border Region around Ciudad del Este. Whether or not they turn out to be accurate or not, one thing is certain. That city is definatly riddled with crime. The top of which is smuggling and money laundering. Never the less, it is a tremendous mission field in which may be reached not only Paraguayans, but also Lebanese & Koreans. Pray that those working in that city will have God's grace and boldness to reach these people so in need of the Gospel.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Aug 22, 2004
Paraguay Chips Away at Empire of Corruption
By Mary Milliken
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (Reuters) - They are a new breed of public servants in Paraguay, plucked from the private sector by a president who needs to crack down on the endemic corruption that has emptied his state's coffers.
They do not mince words when they talk about corruption and they don't stoop to political pressure. They do need bodyguards around the clock.
And they do appear to be making progress as President Nicanor Duarte Frutos marks his first year in government. The opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, diplomats and watchdog groups all agree, although they do have their reservations.
“We are seeing the foundations for change, but we are not yet seeing change,” said Bishop Oscar Paez Garcete, who heads the Church's social and political arm. “Corruption is really in our bones.”
The watchdog group Transparency International ranks Paraguay as the fourth-most corrupt country of the 133 nations it tracks. In Latin America, it is only surpassed by Haiti and is a regional center for smuggling, from cars to weapons.
At the helm of the anti-corruption crusade is Finance Minister Dionisio Borda, a U.S.-trained economist who vows to get “every Paraguayan on the computer and cross reference them” in a database.
His achievements go from the simple -- making government employees wear identification badges -- to the complex, like a complete overhaul in the tax code so Paraguay's 5.6 million people pay income tax for the first time.
Borda said he has “carte blanche from the president.” He appointed his own team and his office buzzes with young economists educated abroad who pull out their Power Point presentations to show how Paraguay has improved this year.
Down the street in colonial Asunción is his customs director, Margarita Diaz de Vivar, who claims to run “the biggest nest of corruption in Paraguay.”
“Corruption destroyed everything here, from the economic, ethic and moral point of view,” said Diaz de Vivar, a lively 61-year-old with a long career in the private sector.
In customs, one of the most significant moves was to tell a corp of inspectors to stay home from work. The “middlemen” were suspected of skimming money at every turn in the customs labyrinth.
HALF A CENTURY OF CORRUPTION
Duarte Frutos took over a state in August 2003 that could not pay salaries and pensions, never mind its debts. Its citizens had the same per capita income as 25 years ago.
That was the result of a half-century of government by his own brethren. The Colorado Party has ruled Paraguay for the last 57 years -- longer than any party in the world -- amid the rise of a notorious empire of corruption.
Many blame the 1954-89 military rule of Alfredo Stroessner, who “ruled the state like a ranch foreman, granting favors to the mid-level guys in turn for their loyalty,” in the words of opposition senator Jose Morinigo.
Paraguay is a place where the last president was caught driving a BMW stolen in Brazil, a driver's license can be bought on the street and smuggling is the biggest industry.
Not surprisingly, corruption is believed to have played a part in the tragic supermarket fire on Aug. 1 that killed at least 400 people.
“Instead of establishing safety mechanisms, there are bribes, those who bribe and those who are bribed, and both are so disastrous for this country,” Duarte Frutos said.
But not only are Paraguayans seeking an end to corruption's hold on this landlocked nation. The United States has fingered Paraguay's border with Brazil and Argentina -- the so-called tri-border -- as a hotbed of money laundering and funding for Islamic fundamentalists.
At the center of suspicions is Ciudad del Este, a honeycomb of smuggling and piracy that moves billions of dollars annually outside the legal channels of the music, tobacco and electronic industries.
'JUST A PATCH ON A RIP?'
While most recognize the advances against corruption in the government's first year, skeptics still abound.
“It is just a patch on a rip,” said Alejandro Nissen, a former state prosecutor renowned for his anti-corruption cases.
Nissen says the economic elite and the politically powerful will continue to get in the way of justice. When he tried to nail the last president and his wife for driving stolen cars, he found the documents were so well forged that he couldn't press his case. He later was pushed out of the prosecutors' office.
The judicial system is considered the third pillar of Paraguay's corruption along with the customs and tax departments. And if Duarte Frutos is not successful in reforming the courts, analysts fear his technocratic team's efforts will go down the drain.
“If impunity continues we will have a very big boomerang because we will reach a level of cynicism that could be very dangerous,” said Pilar Callizo, director of Transparency International's Paraguay branch.
[Source: Reuters - Sun Aug 22, 2004 10:49 AM ET]
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Aug 17, 2004
Lyrical Indian Tongue Thrives in Paraguay
By Mary Milliken
ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) - A ring in the Guarani language translates literally as "a companion of the finger," while an airplane is "a bird with hard wings that flies" and a telephone is "a line that permits one to speak from afar."
Every phrase evokes the beauty of South America's jungles and plains and the ways of the indigenous peoples that populated them. Some say it is a language stuck in time warp, from an era when Guarani women wooed Spanish colonizers with their sing-song tongue.
But Guarani is alive and kicking, changing and evolving. And that is because it is the only Indian language in the Americas designated as an official language.
In 1992, Paraguay reformed its Constitution to make Spanish and Guarani the two official languages of the landlocked nation of 5.6 million mostly mixed race people.
Now there is a new champion for the bilingual cause -- President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, an avid Guarani speaker who is called "tendota" or supreme chief in Guarani. He used it on the campaign trail in last year's election to charm voters, appealing to their love of the "teta" or fatherland.
But this newfound hope for Guarani has also fueled the debate over the role of an indigenous language in a rapidly modernizing Latin America, where English and other foreign languages are making inroads with students anxious to participate in the world.
"Since it was officially recognized, the language has certainly prospered," said Marta Lafuente, Paraguay's vice minister of education.
"But there has also been resistance. Some say the consolidation of Guarani means we will end up just talking among ourselves."
The language survived a 35-year dictatorship under Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, who banned Guarani and reinforced its reputation as the tongue of country bumpkins. Parents would speak Guarani to each other, but scolded their children when they tried to do the same.
Today nearly everyone in Paraguay speaks some Guarani, no matter the social class or education level. It is the dominant language in rural Paraguay, but its also can be heard on most every street corner in the capital, Asuncion.
No indigenous language in the Americas can boast such a broad following. Quechua in Peru or Mayan in Central America and Mexico are rarely spoken by non-Indians, while languages of the Indian tribes in the United States are increasingly limited to the elders.
Duarte Frutos was education minister in 1994 when Paraguay began its reform to provide bilingual education. Ten years on, educators and linguists express a certain frustration with the results.
They say the debate has centered too much around vocabulary, like what to call objects of the modern age. The so-called purists insist on creating words while the other school is more in favor of "borrowing" words from Spanish.
Television is a case in point. Almost every language in the world has a word that is like television, but in Guarani it is "the object that moves."
"They want to invent Guarani all over again," said linguist and diplomat Ruben Bareiro Saguier, a pioneer of bilingual Paraguay. "We need a Guarani that is useful."
Educators also have to overcome a history of discrimination against Guarani speakers. Many parents in Guarani-speaking homes oppose schooling for their children in their mother tongue and want only Spanish, the language they think will take their offspring out of poverty and illiteracy.
The backers of bilingualism also say Paraguay has yet to put Guarani in all instances of public service, for example on street signs, court rooms or documents. Guarani-speakers need to know they can always have a trial or receive advanced medical care in their first language.
But professionals from the middle and upper classes are increasingly aware of the need to be fluent in Guarani and even foreigners working in Paraguay feel compelled to learn.
"Guarani is the soul or spirit of Paraguay. If we don't understand Guarani, we don't understand Paraguay or its people," said Yoshikazu Furukawa, consul at the Japanese Embassy in Asuncion.
Indeed, Guarani is the basis of Paraguay's rich oral culture and is best suited for romance, relationships, family life and community integration.
"It is a language for loving and for scolding," said Lafuente.
It was love that allowed Guarani to survive after the Spanish conquistadores came to this isolated and distant heart of South America without women from home.
Unlike many mestizos in colonial times, the offspring of the Spanish with the Guarani women earned special rights to hold public office. And for these love children, it was the mother tongue that mattered.
(Additional reporting by Daniela Desantis)
Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:24 AM ET
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
[http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=5986825]
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Aug 03, 2004
Paraguay Mourns Hundreds Killed in Supermarket Blaze
ASUNCION, Paraguay - The death toll from a supermarket blaze soared by more than 100 to reach 464 Tuesday, as a security guard told investigators he was ordered to lock the building's doors to prevent theft just after the fire began.
[Editor's Note: Anytime there is a tragedy of such magnitude, we invariably ask, "Why does God allow suffering?" In answer to that question, we have posted an excellant article writen by James L. Melton. Read it here.]
Dozens of families were still searching for lost loved ones as investigators questioned the store's owners, manager and security guards over reports that doors were locked, trapping shoppers inside during Sunday's fire, the worst disaster in decades in this impoverished South American country.
The attorney general's office put the death toll at 464, saying 325 bodies had been identified and 139 others still had not. Officials also said 409 people remained hospitalized.
Hundreds were injured in the blaze that broke out during lunch hour Sunday at the three-story Ycuá Bolaños supermarket in a suburb of Asunción, the capital. The fire, accompanied by two explosions, quickly filled the supermarket, food court and parking garage, collapsing one floor. The fire blazed for seven hours before firefighters were able to put it out.
Police are investigating allegations the owner of the supermarket ordered the doors locked during the blaze so that customers could not leave without paying for their goods. Authorities detained a store manager and a security official on Monday. The arrests brought to four the number of people in custody in connection with Sunday's inferno.
The owners, a father and son, were detained for questioning within hours of the disaster. They have strongly denied that doors were locked to prevent theft.
Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, who is leading the investigation, said a security guard told authorities that at the outset of the fire he received orders over a radio to lock the doors to prevent theft.
Sanchez said the guard "didn't know" who gave the order. "He couldn't identify the voice that spoke to him over the radio," the prosecutor said.
The store's owners, a business associate and four security guards have been taken into custody for questioning. Judicial authorities said they also ordered a freeze on the assets of Juan Pio Paiva, who owns the supermarket with his son.
But officials said they were trying to piece together survivor claims that locked doors might have impeded or slowed shoppers trying to escape.
As funerals and burials were held across the capital, the mood remained edgy. Authorities evacuated a second Asuncion supermarket Tuesday after reports of a gas leak.
At the site of the fire, firefighters and others continued searching for victims in the rose-colored building, which was cordoned off by yellow police tape and guarded by rifle-toting soldiers.
Nearby, some families were trying to locate the bodies of relatives missing and believed dead. Dozens of family members gathered to look over badly burned bodies. Others held up photographs, hoping rescue workers might recognize them.
The first services for victims were held around the capital Monday. In a neighborhood near the complex, some 25 grief-stricken families held wakes and vigils, many after the deaths of children.
Some of the victims were burned beyond recognition, and their caskets are to be marked for possible exhumation in the future to identify the remains, Asuncion Mayor Enrique Riera said.
A pregnant woman, a baby and dozens of children died near the toy section of the three-story complex. Some of the Sunday shoppers were burnt beyond recognition, hugging each other. Others died in an underground parking garage as fire spread after a propane gas blast.
Firemen & neighbors found the main entrance bolted and smashed their way in to reach survivors. "We couldn't get inside and the people couldn't get out," said Liliana Hernandez, 33, who lives next door.
Public Health Minister Julio Cesar Velazquez told reporters, "I have never seen a disaster like this. The firefighters were taking out, as best as they could, the bodies, the injured and people suffering from smoke inhalation. It's horrible."
Dozens of volunteer psychologists circulated among the crowd hoping to console relatives, and forensic experts urged some of them to take blood tests and bring dental records and X-rays to help identify victims.
"This is a moment of great anguish," said President Nicanor Duarte Frutos, who visited the site of the tragedy & declared three days of national mourning for the victims. "I've come here to provide support to the injured and the families of the deceased."
President Bush, Pope John Paul II and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer sent condolences to Paraguay. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the U.S. Embassy and agencies are working with Paraguayan officials "to identify the emergency assistance that we can provide."
[Sources: AP & RFE/RL]
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Jul 19, 2004
Jewish Group Presses Paraguay To Close Mosque
By Damir Ahmad, IOL Correspondent
MOSCOW, July 13 (IslamOnline.net) – A Jewish lobby group is pressing Paraguay to close a mosque in the capital Asunción under the pretext of funding Palestinian resistance operations, the Russian Jewish News Agency (AEN) reported Monday, July 12., The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is affiliated with the Jewish Agency, sent a letter to the Paraguayan presidency to shut down the Prophet Muhammad mosque in Asunción.
Citing alleged information from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Jewish group claimed that the mosque was raising funds for Palestinian "terrorists" to carry out "bloody attacks" against Israeli interests.
It also alleged that the mosque has become a "hub" in South America to transfer cash to the Palestinians in the Middle East.
The group claimed that Israeli customs officials arrested two months ago three people carrying Paraguayan passports with huge sums of US dollars in their possession.
The Israeli officials said the three confessed they had been assigned by the mosque to transfer the cash to Palestinian resistance factions.
There are some 50 mosques in Paraguay. Prophet Muhammad mosque is one of two in Asunción.
Muslims represent 2% of Paraguay’s six million population.
[Editor's Note: The Jewish community here in Paraguay is small, but influential. Pray that they may be reached with the Gospel & realize that Jesus IS their Messiah.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Jun 29, 2004
Paraguay Arrests Leader of Failed Coup
By Adam Thomson in Buenos Aires
Paraguayan security forces on Tuesday arrested Lino Oviedo after the popular former general and leader of a failed military coup returned to the country from exile.
Mr Oviedo, who has aspirations to lead the country, fled in 1999 to Brazil. He faces a 10-year prison sentence for staging an attempted military coup in 1996, which failed to overthrow Juan Carlos Wasmosys administration.
He is also accused of involvement in the assassination of Luis Mara Argana, the countrys then vice- president, in 1999, and of seven anti-Oviedo demonstrators in March of the same year.
Many believe Mr Oviedos decision to return marks the first step in a challenge to become president in 2008. "Oviedo is very ambitious," said a diplomat in Asunción yesterday. "He is certainly not coming back to tend his garden or write his memoirs."
Mr Oviedo insists the charges against him are the result of a political conspiracy. He told journalists recently that he intended to go back to his native country to clear his name and that he would go armed only with "a crucifix, a pencil and a small notebook. They have always helped me."
President Nicanor Duarte Frutos' administration, which took power less than a year ago, is taking Mr Oviedos return seriously. The general was expected to be escorted to a military prison 10km from the capital. From there it is thought he will be taken to Lagerenza, a remote military outpost close to the border with Bolivia, to make contact with his supporters more difficult.
Political analysts in Asunción yesterday agreed that Mr Oviedo continued to exert significant influence among Paraguays poor and mainly rural population.
"There is a widely-held view that 15 years of democracy have failed to improve peoples livelihoods," said Francisco Capli of First Analisis y Estudios.
"For many people, Oviedo represents the strong, authoritarian style of lead- ership that this country was so accustomed to in the past."
Indeed, with crime levels rising and with public concern centred on a recent wave of kidnappings, some believe that Mr Oviedo has timed his return to perfection.
Pablo Herken, an economist in Asunción, says the former military leaders arrival will undoubtedly be an important boost for Mr Oviedos Unace political movement, a branch of the ruling Colorado party. That, in turn, could prompt the opposition Liberal party to look to form an alliance as its only hope of obtaining power.
However, Mr Herken dismisses the idea that Mr Oviedos presence could jeopardise the current administration. "Paraguay is not Bolivia," he said. "There are important social pressures here but President Duarte Frutos commands high levels of popularity and it would be a mistake to see [Oviedos return] as a threat to stability."
[Source: Financial Times. Published: June 29 2004 22:17]
[Editor's Note: As Ive commented in past articles, this man is dangerous & warrants careful handling. Our President, Dr. Nicanor Duarte, once told me that immediately after Vice-President Arganas assassination, Duarte & his family were high on Oviedos "hit" list. As a result, his family had to go into hiding for awhile.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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Jun 03, 2004
Money Laundering by Arabs From Ciudad del Este Reported
from ABC Color on Thursday, June 03, 2004
An investigation by the Money Laundering Prevention Secretariat (Seprelad) has revealed that a group of merchants and businessmen from Ciudad del Este sent close to $50 million abroad without control from the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP). All of those involved are of Arab origin.
Superintendent Prosecutor Juan Carlos Duarte has a concrete denunciation on the matter, but the prosecution case file is frozen.
The money laundering scheme on the border has another facet, in the sense that powerful businessmen and merchants of Arab origin are involved. This is what a Seprelad investigation revealed.
In a brief investigation, the agents of that state organism detected that a small group of businessmen and merchants had in just over a month sent $49.8 million outside the country irregularly. The information is being managed by the Seprelad with total secrecy.
A little over a month ago, the lawyer Simon Jara Sosa presented a concrete denunciation in the case. It was he who denounced Nassar Hichan Mohamad and his cousin Atef Ali Walav. The professional cites law 1015, which indicates that operations that have the rational characteristics of money laundering and are over $10,000 must be reported.
In his denunciation, the lawyer mentions the Seprelads investigations. "These operations, reported to that organism in the form of sworn statements, were not investigated and we believe that they could be covering up remittances sent to finance terrorism, using their companies or various fictitious people as a front to cover up this crime," says a section of the denunciation presented by Jara Sosa.
In another paragraph, the professional says that the denunciation that was presented to the Public Prosecutors Office is aimed at requesting an exhaustive investigation into these people for the punishable activities of smuggling, piracy, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Seprelad sources said that there was no indication that the dollars sent by the businessmen and merchants of the area were destined to financing supposed radical Islamic groups.
According to the information,the majority of the money comes from other illegal activities, such as smuggling and tax evasion. The millions of dollars are sent to tax havens and to the United States, according to the investigators.
In response to the information, the reference denunciation was sent to the prosecution unit in the charge of Superintendent Prosecutor Juan Carlos Duarte, who noticeably has not at all promoted a serious investigation into the case.
The representative from the Public Prosecutors Office also has another money laundering case that includes the clandestine money changers, in which, despite the evidence of illicit activity, the representative from the Public Prosecutors Office has not intervened.
[Source: Translated from the Paraguayan newspaper, ABC Color, by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.]
* This article may be freely reprinted provided it is used in its entirety without modification and includes the following sentence:
Article reprinted from Pryors of Paraguay [http://pryors.net/] - Gods Work in Gods Way! The Pryors are missionaries to Paraguay, South America who are purposed to pursue the Biblical plan for missions and prove that New Testament principles still work today.
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