The Paraguayan People's Army (, EPP) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group that officially operates in Paraguay since March 1, 2008, although its antecedents go back as far as the 1990s, acting at that time as the "clandestine armed wing" of Patria Libre (a communist party founded in 1990).
They operate in a similar way to other insurgent Latin American left-wing paramilitary guerrillas in times of dictatorships. These methods include "expropriating goods" and kidnapping businessmen, bankers, and ranchers in the area in which the EPP operates. Moreover, they have staged a number of armed operations including bombings, arson attacks, and shootings as part of an organized insurgency. They operate in northeastern Paraguay, with most incidents occurring in Concepción Department, as well as the neighboring departments of Canindeyú and San Pedro. According to the Paraguayan government, in its beginnings, the EPP's first leaders and members were trained by members of other regional guerrilla groups, such as the FARC of Colombia, or the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front of Chile, among others.
As of March 2012, the group was suspected of carrying out 27 separate operations, with more than half of them occurring after January 2011. These incidents resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people — 9 civilians and 7 police officers. By December 2013, the insurgency resulted in killing of at least 33 civilians and police officers,"The EPP has now killed 33 people, including police officers and civilians, since 2005, the government said." with an unknown number of killed EPP operatives. By mid 2020, fatalities from the insurgency had surpassed 70, most of them civilians and police.
According to investigations by the Joint Task Forces (a special counterinsurgency unit made up of police, military and other state agents created in 2013), the EPP has millions of dollars collected in kidnappings, extortion, and what they term"expropriations." Contributions are also received from neighbors and supporters. To this day, they continue to gain followers in the area. There is a void left by the Paraguayan State.
Ideology According to Carmen Villalba, a member of the organization, who is currently in prison for the kidnapping of María Edith Bordón de Debernardi, the EPP is a "revolutionary and political military organization." Carmen Villalba, in January 2012, had admitted in an interview conceived by Mina Feliciángeli (Radio 1000 journalist) the following: "The EPP is a detachment from Patria Libre. We started there and formed the armed wing. We were always from Patria Libre, even though we were publicly denied by the party leaders."
The EPP was critical of previous governments, such as those of Fernando Lugo and Nicanor Duarte Frutos, since according to them, it represented the oligarchy, ignored social problems and did not propose a true agrarian reform. Since Nicanor Duarte Frutos came to power, the EPP has spoken up to the present day.
The Paraguayan People's Army defines itself as Marxist–Leninist and claims to be inspired by José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the architect of Paraguay's independence and considered by the insurgents as a revolutionary. It rejects Paraguay's model of economic development, which is based on large farms owned by powerful landowners, most of whom grow transgenic soya. According to Galeano Perrone, a political analyst and former minister, the guerrillas "enjoy a certain popularity in poor regions abandoned by the state, and EPP members are often seen as Robin Hoods, redistributing wealth."'
The guerrilla group finances itself mainly by collecting "revolutionary taxes" from landowners and kidnapping for ransom prominent people. The authorities have accused it of involvement in drug trafficking, but this has been disputed by independent studies.'
According to an official of the diocese of Concepción, the Paraguayan authorities use the pretext of EPP "terrorism" to criminalise all economic and social demands of the peasants. Peasant trade unionists are murdered by the army and portrayed as guerrillas, while families are forced to leave because of military activities and hand over their land to large landowners or Brazilian companies. According to priest Benjamin Valiente, who is close to the peasant union movement, "the problem is that the EPP has the same demands as the peasant groups. Against deforestation, against fumigation and hostile to the big landowners, the armed organisation claims in its communiqués to be fighting for the people and against the oligarchs. But their actions harm us every time. They justify the security discourse and the militarisation of the region.'
The EPP is accused by the Paraguayan judiciary of having links with the FARC, which is said to have trained some of the EPP members in guerrilla techniques. The Colombian guerrilla group denies these allegations, explaining that it has no contact with the EPP, but praises its fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged.FARC desconoce la lucha del EPP EPP is also said to have had relations with the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, a Chilean armed group, when it was active.
Background (1992-2007)
Beginnings In 1992 the Metropolitan Seminary of Asunción took the drastic decision to expel 8 seminarians, some of them were Alcides Oviedo, Gilberto Setrini, Osvaldo Martínez and Pedro Maciel, for the reason of taking to the extreme a Catholic ideology known as the "Theology of the Liberation" and participate in political activities other than the Church.
On the other hand, Juan Arrom, a well-known young university leader and opponent of the Stroessner dictatorship, led the then "Movimiento Patria Libre", a far-left political movement that had emerged shortly after the fall of Alfredo Stroessner, in 1990.
Arrom contacted Alcides Oviedo Britez (who had already known each other since 1990 for having taken a theology course together at the Catholic University of Asunción) and the other expelled seminarians, to invite them to be part of his political Movement, led by Arrom and Marti advertisement.
At first, this movement had thought to gain followers and thus come to power through elections. They went through the interior, and in poor communities to hold meetings, looking for sympathizers and recruiting people for it. But after the failed general elections of 1993, they showed that from a radical left-wing party and without infrastructure, it would be impossible to come to power. The strategy chosen after the elections was to continue with the political party (with Arrom at the head), and at the same time create an armed wing (with Oviedo at the head). The purpose of this was to install the idea of revolution as an alternative for the people and focus on criminal actions to get money and provide the movement with infrastructure. To strengthen the "armed wing" of the movement, between 1995 and 1996 Alcides Oviedo (head of the armed wing), and Carmen Villalba (Alcides' partner) contacted the Chilean guerrilla group Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, and made numerous trips to Chile, to complete his military training in urban guerrilla and others.
Choré gang (1997) In late 1997, authorities uncovered an attempted bank robbery in the town of Choré, San Pedro, located approximately north of Asunción. According to investigators, the operation was allegedly intended to raise funds to support the logistical structure of a political movement in the lead-up to the 1998 general elections. Members of the group—subsequently referred to in the media as the "Choré gang"—had rented a house near a local branch of the Banco Nacional de Fomento. From that property, they excavated an underground tunnel designed to reach the bank's vault. The plan was discovered on 15 December 1997 during a police raid.
Police became aware of the operation after neighbors reported suspicious activity at the residence, including a vehicle that periodically departed loaded and returned empty. Officers initiated an investigation and, while pursuing the suspected vehicle, intercepted several bags containing soil later identified as material extracted from the tunnel under construction.
Carmen María Villalba Ayala, Alcides Omar Oviedo Brítez, Gustavo Lezcano, Lucio Silva, and Pedro Maciel Cardozo were arrested. Gilberto Chamil Setrini had previously been detained on the outskirts of the town while transporting bags of soil removed from the tunnel. During the raid, authorities seized large-caliber firearms, ammunition, and wigs from the rented house. They also discovered the partially completed tunnel, which measured approximately in length and in diameter. The suspects were subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
Kidnapping of María Edith Bordón de Debernardi (2001) On 16 November 2001, María Edith Bordón de Debernardi, also known as "Nika", was abducted in the morning hours. She was a member of a prominent family and the daughter-in-law of Enzo Debernardi, one of the "barons of Itaipú" during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner. The kidnapping is widely regarded as the beginning of a series of high-profile abductions attributed to the group later known as EPP, which at the time operated under the name Patria Libre. Bordón de Debernardi remained in captivity for 64 days and was released in the early hours of 19 January 2002. According to official sources, a ransom of approximately US$1,000,000 was paid; other reports have suggested that the amount may have been higher.
Several of the kidnappers were part of the "Choré gang", and in turn sympathizers of the then Free Homeland Movement (later Free Homeland Party). For example, after a ransom payment agreed between kidnappers and family members of Bordón, three unknown young men collected the money and left in a vehicle with license plate 198174 from the municipality of Asunción., badge issued in the name of Gilberto Setrini, one of the members of the Choré gang captured in 1997. Likewise, part of the ransom money delivered to the authorities by Marcos Álvarez (given to him by Juan Arrom to "keep it for him"), it turned out, under expert opinion, to be money from the rescue. Advertisement Martí and Alcides Oviedo were recognized by the hostage as the "guards" during their kidnapping; Juan Arrom as the leader, Carmen Villalba as one of the cooks, among other people. It was not until June 2005 that the authorities discovered the house in which he was held in captivity, in the Palomar neighborhood of Asunción.
The then Chief of Investigation and Crimes of the National Police, Crio. Roberto González, would make a revelation that would turn what until then was an extraordinary police case, into a political scandal: “It was a successful outcome of a plan by a left - wing group (in reference to Patria Libre), with the intention of promoting the destabilization of the Government”. The Paraguayan population did not take these statements well, since they sounded like a return to the Stroessner era persecution of the left. After this, the arrest warrants were already circulating in the media for Arrom and Martí (leaders of Patria Libre) and for the participants of the "Choré gang" involved in the kidnapping.
A few days after their release, the relatives of Arrom and Martí denounced that they were missing, and they were found on January 30, 2002 (almost two weeks later) in a house in Villa Elisa, with traces of torture. They reported being kidnapped and tortured by a group of the police, demanding "the ransom money" and indicting them as the perpetrators of the crime. This incident became a national scandal that, due to the failure of public order, forced the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice and the Chief of Police. According to Arrom and Martí's version, they were kidnapped on January 17, 2002 in front of the then headquarters of the Center for Judicial Investigation (CIJ).