Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez said Saturday in his last management report before Congress delivered virtually that his country was in debt with Óscar Denis, Edelio Morínigo, and Félix Urbieta, who has been kidnapped for years by various rebel groups.
A Paraguayan guerrilla group kidnapped on Friday a young Mennonite farmer in central Paraguay in an area where similar abductions have taken place. Bernard Blatz Friessen, 22, was driving a pickup while his father followed in a harvester, when he was attacked by several men with heavy guns who opened fire on the tires of the two vehicles.
A Mennonite teenager, Franz Weiber who was abducted last July by Paraguayan Marxist inspired guerrillas in the north of the country was released on Saturday, safe and sound, after the family and friends collected the equivalent of US$ 25.000 in food to distribute among fourteen Indian communities in the area.
The teenager said he was never cold and that he befriended national policeman Edelio Morinigo, who is still held hostage by the rebels.
“We’re optimistic about Sunday’s election and the future of Paraguay if we can agree on long term state policies, but something is for certain: democracy in Paraguay is here to stay” said Ricardo Caballero Aquino, Chargé d’affaires of the Paraguayan embassy in Montevideo who was also positive about future relations with Unasur and Mercosur.