Paraguayan President Santiago Peña insisted that Jalil Rachid should not resign as head of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (Senad) despite sending a note to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stopping all cooperation and then recanting after finding out an agreement dating back to 2022 was in force.
Peña blamed the administration of his predecessor Mario Abdo Benítez for the scandal.
Peña also insisted he would rather sort out the incident with the incoming Government of President-elect Donald Trump, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025. We want to discuss the framework of cooperation. We have doubts about some commitments assumed by the previous administration, documents that were not public, an opinion that their own legal counsel said could not be signed, there are tremendous doubts that are solved by talking, Peña explained. The president also mentioned that his ultimate goal was to increase cooperation.
We are in communication with the Trump transition team, and our position is clear, there is no room for doubt. We are open to genuine collaboration with all countries, including the US, Brazil, and Argentina, Peña underlined as he pledged to seek better conditions for his country in a fresh deal. We want to sit down and talk with the DEA, he stressed while noting that his plan was not to relinquish sovereignty.
It was given many hours of radio and ink to build a story that will not last, we are going to distort again and again, try not to insist on something that has no basis, crime has never been confronted this way before... Nobody is going to come to solve the problem of the Paraguayans. We have to be the masters of our own destiny, Peña argued.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Óscar González told reporters that no reply had been received to the second note backtracking on the first one severing ties with the DEA and therefore the current agreement is still in force.
That is the decision made by President Santiago Peña. We are going to move forward, the agreement will continue. We are going to do everything that needs to be done for this to continue, González said in a radio interview.
The US agency has 90 days to reply after announcing it would be taking back from Asunción all the equipment donated under the 2022 agreement.
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