Three military personnel confirmed dead in bomb attack in Paraguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Paraguayan Attorney General, Sandra Quiñónez, said that three soldiers were killed on Thursday (29) in an attack on members of the Joint Task Force (FTC) in the northern part of the country, where the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP) guerrilla is active.

Quiñonez’s declarations to the Unicanal network were endorsed in other media by the spokesman of the FTC, lieutenant colonel Luis Apesteguia, who said that the victims were killed when a device exploded as they passed the vehicle in which they were patrolling.

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Apesteguia told Radio Cardinal that the truck, with only three crew members, was accompanied by another truck with six soldiers, who repelled further shots from the attackers stationed in the area.

The spokesman added that security forces are searching the area for the perpetrators of the attack on a road in the northern department of San Pedro.

Before confirming the existence of victims, the Prosecutor’s Office announced an “attack on the FTC”, without further details, and the formation of a prosecutorial team for the tasks at the site.

This is one of the departments where the EPP is active, which last September kidnapped the former vice-president Óscar Denis, 75 years old, whose whereabouts are still unknown.

The security forces estimated that there were around twenty active members of the EPP, founded in 2008 and with the defense of the poor peasantry as its political banner.

The guerrilla group, which finances itself with kidnappings and the collection of the “revolutionary tax” from agribusinessmen in the north, killed eight soldiers in 2016 in an attack reminiscent of this Thursday’s attack.

The explosion of a bomb was placed in a place where a truck with FTC troops passing by was carrying out control tasks on a country road in the department of Concepción.