The lawyer Pedro Ovelar maintained that the purpose of the complaint filed with the Prosecutor’s Office is to find the authors and ideologues of the political persecution plan mounted against former President Horacio Cartes, which generated serious damage to his image and his companies.
Ovelar commented to the Fuego Cruzado program broadcast by GEN that the main objective with the complaint made days ago is to discover the truth and present it to the Public Ministry, so that from there a series of proceedings can be generated to help clarify this plot.
“Since 2018, he (Horacio Cartes) was continuously the target of attacks outside what could be called the normality of politics and political attacks that occur in the framework of an electoral confrontation,” he said.
On this point, Ovelar highlighted the seriousness of these attacks since they were carried out through manipulation of State organs, all using “propaganda and significant propagation through friendly media outlets.”
Likewise, he stated that there was a great political persecution against the current president of the ANR through State terrorism. “What is truly expected is that the investigation by the Public Ministry will reveal those responsible for generating, instigating and manipulating State officials to achieve those objectives,” he added.
From there -he mentioned-, they will seek to demonstrate the nullity of all the information generated from these state agencies and that was subsequently presented to foreign governments, specifically those of Brazil (which at the time presented an arrest warrant against the former president) and United States (which applied a sanction from the Treasury Department).
“Nothing was generated and arose in the United States or in Brazil, everything was from Paraguay because looking at the Constitution, the laws and the relations between States, it is not possible that a foreign State could come to produce evidence per se in a territory outside his country”, affirmed the legal professional.
Ovelar maintained that these are “distorted qualifications” and “conclusions without support, without substance and without foundation” that were published by “media friends” both from the government and from the opposition to generate negative news about Horacio Cartes.
“What they were looking for is to destroy a man and his companies that represent the most important sector of the Colorado Party that is in government today and that will continue after August 15. The objective was to destroy the Colorado Party, they undisguisedly sought that, ”he pointed out during the interview.
He reiterated the innocence of Horacio Cartes and affirmed that he is a person who only dedicated himself to doing politics, who never used any institution to persecute his political opponents.
Although he could not specify the names of those behind the political persecution plan, Ovelar announced that “it is a broad group of people and important heads within the Executive and Legislative Powers.” “I have information from a person who is not Paraguayan, who is not known from where and how he is appointed within the structure if he is, from whom he receives his salary or from whom he receives instructions and how he even has the power to call ministers and deputy ministers or other secretaries of State to give orders from the Government Palace”.
“The damage received by Horacio Cartes is enormous, he as a person, his family, his children and his employees who were affected, until today these damages persist,” he said.
He also mentioned that those who prosecuted political issues are the ones who attacked Cartes and at all times sought his prosecution. “From the beginning they have sought that through the processes, harm, set the agenda and they have spent a lot of ink asking that the North American justice come to take him prisoner.”
“He wants the truth to be known, to clear his name and that of his family, he owes himself not only to his family but to an entire country, to a party that is the ANR that trusted him. He must demonstrate through this action that he was the victim of persecution and not the author of any punishable act as they want to make it appear, “he added.
The lawyer hopes that the institutions can be respected and that State institutions are not used as a “political stick.”
The former President of the Republic Horacio Cartes, through his lawyer Pedro Ovelar, this week filed a complaint with the Public Ministry for the punishable acts of False Complaint, Simulation of Punishable Act, Persecution of Innocents, Criminal Association and Usurpation of Public Functions.
Through Resolution No. 4203, the Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the opening of a criminal case and the formation of a team of prosecutors made up of Rodrigo Estigarribia, Daniela Benítez and Aldo Cantero -who will act under the coordination of the assistant prosecutor Patricia Rivarola- to address this complaint.
