Development: On 26 July Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes ordered the dismissal of Carla Bacigalupo from the post of justice & labour minister.
Significance: Bacigalupo, who was appointed just six months ago in a mini cabinet reshuffle, was sacked a day after explosives believed to be part of an imminent prison-break plot were found during a raid at Tacumbú prison, the country’s largest penitentiary. This incident once again raised alarm about the parlous state of the country’s prisons and the apparent lack of control that the authorities have over them. While Cartes’s decision to summarily dismiss the already under fire Bacigalupo may be welcomed in some quarters, the drastic action leaves the justice portfolio rudderless at a sensitive time for Paraguay. The country not only has to address the crisis in the national prison system, but it is also headed for another major institutional clash with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) over Venezuela.
-
Bacigalupo was already in the spotlight following the deadly fire that broke at Tacumbú last month, in which six people lost their lives. Although the fire was accidental, the deaths were attributed to the poor state of the prison’s facilities and its chronic overcrowding. Bacigalupo sought to avoid any direct responsibility by blaming the overcrowding on a lack of other suitable prisons resulting from years of underinvestment in the national penitentiary system; and the abuse of the preventative detention measures by prosecutors. More controversially, Bacigalupo suggested that in order to address the situation at Tacumbú many of its over 3,000 inmates would have to be either transferred and held at military facilities or released in order to allow the authorities time to conduct the necessary repair of the facilities. But this proposal was widely criticised by local judges and the political opposition.
-
The explosives were discovered when police special forces (Fope) conducted a surprise raid on Tacumbú on 25 July after being tipped off about a possible break plot. A milk carton filled with an explosive gel (gelignite), that reportedly was connected to a detonator and ready to use, was found inside a hole in one of the prison’s walls. The authorities said that they believed that the explosives were going to be used to blast through the wall as part of a suspected break plot by an organised criminal group (believed to be Brazil’s Primeiro Comando Capital [PCC]).
-
Prosecutor Joel Cazal, who authorised and accompanied the raid, said that six inmates believed to be behind the plot - including convicted Brazilian drug trafficker Jarvis Chimenes Pavão - had been taken into Fope custody for interrogation. Cazal added that the authorities would also launch an investigation to determine how the gelignite, which has commercial uses but the sale of which is regulated by the army’s war materiel directorate (Dimabel), was smuggled into Tacumbú.
- As questions about whether prison officials may have been involved in the plot began surfacing in the media, the government announced Bacigalupo’s dismissal. A statement by the office of the presidency said that Cartes had ordered Bacigalupo’s immediate dismissal and that her post is to be filled on an interim basis by the deputy justice minister, Ever Martínez, while a new minister is found. The short statement does not give any reasons for the change. But government sources have told the press that Cartes was angry with Bacigalupo’s lack of response to the latest incident at Tacumbú and her failure to inform him about the suspected plot.
Looking Ahead: With Bacigalupo gone, President Cartes will have to move quickly to find a new justice minister to tackle the prison sector crisis and handle the other major legal issues faced by the country. Among these could be the dispute within Mercosur over whether Venezuela should be allowed to assume the bloc’s pro-tempore presidency this month as Uruguay, the current pro-tempore Mercosur president, believes should happen. Yesterday Paraguay formally announced that it will not attend the Mercosur market council (CMC) meeting called by Uruguay for 30 July to debate and officialise the transfer of the pro-tempore presidency to Venezuela, with Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga warning that any move to pass on the presidency to Venezuela without Paraguay’s consent would violate Mercosur’s internal rules and so be “illegal”- a view that Uruguay has already challenged.
