This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

021640Z Sep 05

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASUNCION 001119 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA A/S NORIEGA AND PDAS DERHAM 
STATE ALSO FOR DS/T/ATA 
STATE PASS TO USAID LAC/AA 
BUENOS AIRES FOR LEGATT WILLIAM GODOY 
NSC FOR SUE CRONIN 
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD DAN JOHNSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/02/2015 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PINR SNAR KCRM PA CO BR
SUBJECT: PARAGUAY: UPDATE ON CUBAS AND DEBERNARDI 
KIDNAPPING INVESTIGATIONS 
 
REF: A. ASUNCION 1012 
 
     ¶B. ASUNCION 668 AND PRECEDING 
     ¶C. 04 ASUNCION 1449 AND PRECEDING 
 
Classified By: PolOff Mark A. Stamilio, reason 1.4(d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: In recent months, Paraguayan authorities 
filed formal charges against 14 of 28 suspects in the 
kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas and located the house 
where kidnappers held Maria Edith Bordon de Debernardi for 64 
days in 2001.  Members of the left-wing Patria Libre Party 
(PPL) are implicated in both kidnappings.  Prosecutors intend 
to present evidence that the PPL sought advice from the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  They believe 
that recent stirrings in San Pedro Department suggest that 
radical groups are actively planning additional kidnappings. 
They stressed Paraguayan authorities' need for hostage 
negotiation training, and requested that the FBI assist in 
identifying the voices of several suspects on a PPL video 
tape seized in 2003.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) In late July, the Attorney General's office filed 
formal charges against 14 of 28 suspects in the kidnapping 
and murder of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former President 
Raul Cubas (ref B).  Although all 14 of the defendants are 
Paraguayan nationals, the charges also implicate the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the crime. 
The lead prosecutor in the Cubas case, Arnaldo Giuzzio, 
announced that he intended to present evidence at trial that 
the kidnappers sought the FARC's advice in planning and 
executing the crime. 
 
¶3. (U) In June, authorities located the house where 
kidnappers held Maria Edith Bordon de Debernardi for 64 days 
in 2001 (ref B).  A confessed accessory to the crime led 
prosecutors to the house, which is located in a middle-class 
Asuncion neighborhood.  The search of the house revealed an 
underground chamber similar to the one where Ms. Cubas' body 
was discovered in February.  Following the search, the lead 
prosecutor in the Debernardi case, Nestor Suarez, opined that 
the same gang was responsible for both kidnappings. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Comment: Members of the left-wing Patria Libre Party 
(PPL) are implicated in both kidnappings.  PPL leaders Juan 
Arrom and Anuncio Marti were accused of orchestrating the 
Debernardi kidnapping.  They were later granted refugee 
status in Brazil after they allegedly were tortured by 
authorities in Paraguay.  A militant PPL faction led by Osmar 
Martinez is charged with responsibility for the Cubas 
kidnapping and murder.  Paraguayan authorities believe that 
at least three of the suspects in the Cubas kidnapping also 
were involved in the Debernardi kidnapping.  Lawyers 
representing the Cubas family are pressing the Attorney 
General's office to look more closely at links between the 
two cases.  If prosecutors were to connect Arrom and/or Marti 
to the Cubas case, it could lead the GOP to increase pressure 
on Brazil to extradite them to Paraguay. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment continued: Giuzzio told PolOff on August 16 
that Paraguayan authorities had arrested an individual who 
was attempting to buy a house in San Pedro Department using a 
false identity.  San Pedro is a center of radical PPL 
activity.  While the individual arrested was not a PPL 
member, Giuzzio fears that he was seeking to purchase the 
house on behalf of the PPL in preparation for another PPL 
kidnapping.  Giuzzio's fears may be justified since, in 
similar fashion, the PPL employed a third party to purchase 
the house where Ms. Cubas was held. 
 
¶6. (C) Comment continued: Giuzzio also told PolOff that, 
within the week, the Attorney General's office expected to 
receive from a journalist in San Pedro Department a copy of a 
video tape showing another criminal gang rehearsing to 
execute a kidnapping.  In 2003, authorities seized a similar 
tape during the search of a house that belonged to one of the 
suspects in the Debernardi case.  The gang on the new tape is 
reportedly associated with Elvio Benitez, the purported 
leader of a campesino organization responsible for protests 
and land invasion in San Pedro (ref C).  Police and military 
officials suspect that Benitez is involved in marijuana 
trafficking.  During the Ambassador's recent trip to San 
Pedro (ref A), a school teacher in the municipality of Santa 
Rosa told an Embassy driver that Benitez controls activity in 
the area like an organized crime boss.  Considering the 
estimated USD 1.3 million that the PPL extorted in the Cubas 
and Debernardi kidnappings, it is conceivable that Benitez 
would turn next to kidnapping as a means to increase his 
organization's revenue. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment continued: Giuzzio inquired about possible 
USG assistance in two areas.  First, Giuzzio stressed 
Paraguayan authorities' need for hostage negotiation 
training, particularly in light of what he perceives to be 
preparations for additional kidnappings.  Giuzzio was a 
member of the Paraguayan delegation that attended the FBI's 
kidnapping crime scene management training in Bogota in 
April.  He feels that hostage negotiation training would be 
an essential complement to the Bogota training.  PolOff 
advised Giuzzio that a Diplomatic Security Anti-Terrorism 
Assistance (DS/ATA) assessment conducted in June would serve 
as the basis for determining what GOP training needs the U.S. 
could look to meet. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment continued: Second, Giuzzio requested 
technical assistance in identifying the voices of several 
suspects on the PPL video tape seized in 2003.  He told 
PolOff that voices in the background sounded like 
Brazilian-accented Portuguese and Colombian-accented Spanish. 
 With technical assistance from the FBI, he opined, the 
Attorney General's office could positively identify one of 
the Portuguese speakers as a Brazilian suspect in the case. 
He also felt it would be useful to confirm whether Colombian 
nationals advised the kidnappers in the Debernardi case, as 
they are believed to have done in the Cubas case.  Giuzzio 
indicated that he would submit a written request for 
assistance, along with a copy of the video tape. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment continued: On August 30, in one of his final 
acts as Attorney General, Oscar Latorre removed Giuzzio and 
Suarez from the Cubas case.  Although Latorre characterized 
the move as a routine realignment of personnel, the timing of 
the decision -- on the last day he was empowered to do so and 
just days before an October 6 preliminary hearing in the 
Cubas case -- led to intense speculation about more sinister 
motives.  Giuzzio and Suarez reportedly do not get along with 
Javier Cazal, the head of the Judicial Investigations Unit 
and a personal friend of Latorre.  Giuzzio and Suarez 
reportedly kept Cazal on the sidelines during the Cubas 
investigation, perhaps because he had been a subject in the 
investigation of the alleged torture of Arrom and Marti. 
Latorre's successor, Ruben Candia Amarilla, told the press on 
August 31 that he would review Latorre's decision and 
reinstate Giuzzio and Suarez if it appeared that their 
removal was the product of a personal or political grudge. 
KEANE