The list includes five names of current and former congresspeople, many of whom have small fortunes in assets tied to illegal activity. It became public in the context of a nationwide state of emergency for coronavirus, which granted the executive branch the ability to repurpose parts of the budget. The Comptroller subsequently published a list of the income of all officials affected by the budget changes, some of them politicians connected to shady assets.

Perhaps the most prominent figure listed is Freddy D’Ecclesiis, a Colorado party deputy representing San Pedro, a department in central Paraguay. It also includes Cynthia Tarragó, a former TV personality and Colorado Party deputy, who in November 2019 announced her candidacy for mayor of Asunción.

The list also includes former deputies for the ruling Colorado Party, including Perla de Vázquez of San Pedro, Bernardo Villalba of Concepción and Cirila Concepción Cubas of Amambay. Cubas was also a former member of the Mercosur Parliament, a governing body for the Southern Common Market trading bloc.

InSight Crime Analysis

A public list of assets connecting eminent politicians to drug trafficking and other illegal activities would, in most cases, result in national scandal and investigation. But in Paraguay, connections between Colorado Party figures and criminal groups are nothing new.

The Colorado Party is Paraguay’s longest and most successful political organization and has long faced criticisms for essentially turning a blind eye to its members’ criminal activities. In December 2019, Paraguayan media published a list of 45 Colorado members who had been indicted or found guilty on criminal charges. Of these, only three had seen their membership suspended.

The D’Ecclesiis family has long faced allegations that it was involved with drug trafficking. In 2002, Freddy D’Ecclesiis’ uncle and cousin were arrested for cocaine trafficking in the United States. His brother Victor Raúl has been arrested a number of times on drug-related charges, some involving hundreds of kilos of marijuana and cocaine. And his sister-in-law Juana Carolina Vera González was arrested in 2018 following a raid on a family hangar by the Anti-Drug Secretariat (Secretaría Nacional Antidrogas — SENAD).

Cynthia Tarragó, meanwhile, was arrested by the FBI in New Jersey last year and charged with running $2 million money-laundering operation connected to cocaine deals. Previously, she had married Pedro Wilson Marinoni, a lawyer notorious for representing some of the country’s biggest criminals.

It is no coincidence that charges against these figures have only stuck when they come from the United States.

The Colorado Party is also the political home of former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), a wealthy businessman whose family has a hand in virtually every major industry in Paraguay — from hotel chains and transportation companies to cattle ranching and aviation.

Although no longer in office, Cartes has been connected to an extensive cigarette smuggling operation, spanning much of Latin America, according to an investigation by the Counter Extremism Project.