Leader of Paraguay Liberal Party lodges criminal complaint against ex-president Horacio Cartes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Joined by his attorney, Alegre pointed out the correction made by Cartes in September, shortly before the journalistic investigation was disclosed, to his sworn statements upon assuming and leaving the Presidency, which failed to include the offshore company acquired in Panama in 2011.

“The rectification is a confession to the crime. He is saying, yes, I committed a crime and now I want to fix it (…) The duty of the Prosecutor’s Office is to conduct the investigation,” Alegre told the media. Attorney Marlene Orué commented along the same lines, noting that the “submission of a false sworn statement is a criminal offense.”

“According to the international press in the Panama Papers, the offshore company was incorporated in 2011. Ten years went by. How can anyone try to rectify it after 10 years? It is clearly making fools of the citizens. Falsification and concealment are criminal acts,” Orué said.

The criminalization of the deed, according to the complaint, is established in Article 243 of the Criminal Code, which provides a prison sentence of up to 5 years for anyone who submits a false statement to an authority. The complaint comes days after the Comptroller General’s Office confirmed that Cartes, of the ruling Colorado Party, failed to declare the company Dominicana Acquisition until last month, acquired in Panama in 2011 and cited in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ investigation.

However, the Comptroller’s Office pointed out that the rectification is a right and that there are no deadlines established in criminal law regarding the timing for doing so. Before the rectification came to light, Cartes’ attorneys explained – through the former president’s business group’s media – that he had complied with the mandatory reporting before and after his term of office.

They added that Dominicana Acquisition was acquired “as a legal vehicle for the purchase of an apartment for his family in the city of Miami,” and that it was struck off the Panamanian commercial registry once the property, which was its only asset, was sold. Regarding the complaint lodged, Alegre said that he does not “have high expectations,” and again referred to the Prosecutor’s Office as a “mafia” controlled by Cartes.

“We know that the Prosecutor’s Office is run by the mafia, Cartes heads the mafia, so we certainly don’t have too many expectations. But we do it because it is our obligation and this is the authority,” the liberal leader added.

Alegre accuses Prosecutor General Sandra Quiñónez of being subservient to Cartes, and Cartes of monopolizing the Prosecutor’s Office and other institutions from Honor Colorado – the main current of the ruling party.