MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Statements linking former Paraguayan President Cartes to Pecci's murder to be investigated

“We are gathering the information that will support the new team and once we have it we will make it known,” said Rolón in a radio interview

Paraguay's Attorney General Emiliano Rolón announced Monday that statements linking former President Horacio Cartes (2013-2018) to the murder of anti-maffia Prosecutor Marcelo Pecci last year while honeymooning in Colombia were to be investigated.

See also: Paraguayan anti-drug prosecutor shot dead while honeymooning in Colombia

The phrases allegedly connecting Cartes with the crime were uttered by Francisco Correa Galeano, who is believed to have been behind the assembling of the team of hitmen that killed Pecci.

“We are gathering the information that will support the new team and once we have it we will make it known,” said Rolón in a radio interview.

Correa Galeano accused Cartes and drug lord Miguel Insfrán, alias “Tío Rico” as the instigators of the crime.

Cartes, who is also known to be the political mentor of current President Santiago Peña, has denied the accusations but might be summoned to testify, it was reported in Asunción.

If Correa's statement is false, he faces between 6 and 12 years in jail, explained Erik Urbieta, judicial overseer of Colombia, also in an interview with Asunción's Radio Monumental 1080 AM. He urged the Paraguayan Judiciary to help Colombian authorities determine whether or not the former president was the brain behind Pecci's crime.

According to Rolón's office, Paraguayan authorities will use their own sources to clarify the accuracy of Galeano's Oct. 6 statements before Colombian Prosecutor Mario Burgos, when he singled out Cartes and “Tía Rico” as the masterminds of the crime.

Rolón also announced that a working team has been formed by prosecutors Cristian Ortiz and Carlos Alejandro Cardozo (from the Specialized Unit for Organized Crime), and Osmar Legal and Francisco Cabrera (from the Specialized Unit for Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption), who will work under the coordination of Deputy Prosecutor Matilde Moreno.

Pecci was murdered by hired assassins on May 10, 2022, during his honeymoon on a beach in Isla Barú, near Cartagena. Colombian authorities have captured most of those suspected to have been the material perpetrators of the crime. However, the intellectual authors have yet to be determined.