The Paraguayan Military and the Struggle Against Organized Crime and Insecurity

Abstract

In October 2018, Paraguayan security forces successfully foiled two attempts to free “Marcelo Piloto,” a local leader of the Brazilian criminal gang Comando Vermelho (CV) from Agrupación Especializada, a military prison in the capital Asuncion. The sophistication of the plots, which included a car bomb and assault rifles,[1] illustrates the evolution of the threat in Paraguay from transnational organized crime.  At the same time, the successful resolution of the attempts, including intervention by the Paraguayan police special forces organization FOPE, illustrates some progress by Paraguayan security forces in addressing the organized crime challenge.