The Vice President of Paraguay, Hugo Velázquez, announced this Friday that he will resign from office next week and withdraw from the race for the presidency of the country, after being accused of corruption by the United States.
The announcement of his resignation, which, he said, will be formalized on Monday or Tuesday of next week, came after the US State Department accused him of participating in “significant acts of corruption” and had him forbidden to enter the territory of the United States.
I, Hugo Velázquez, will make the decision that I consider most convenient for the country,” the vice president told ABC Cardinal radio, before officially resigning in the coming days.
He also ruled in favor of his wife, Lourdes Samaniego González, current deputy attorney general in the Public Ministry of Paraguay and that Washington also prohibited stepping on US soil, to leave office.
Velázquez and the legal adviser of the Yacyretá binational entity (EBY), Juan Carlos Duarte, were included by the United States in its list of corrupt, indicated the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
At a press conference in Asunción, the United States ambassador to Paraguay, Marc Ostfield, said that Duarte, at the request of Velázquez, “offered a bribe of more than a million dollars” to a public official, with the alleged intention of “obstructing an investigation that threatened the vice president and his economic interests.”
However, Juan Carlos Duarte said he “had no idea” of such an accusation and denied being investigated.
Also classified as “A big lie” the charge of having offered a bribe.
This never happened. They never offered me anything at all,” she insisted.
Velázquez, who was a deputy and fiscal agent, said that he had always considered himself “an ally of the North Americans” and even recalled that he worked with various agencies in that country.
I will find a way to access [à informação], if I can, to be able to defend myself. I will resign from the position and, as an ordinary citizen, I will try to defend myself against this accusation, ”he stressed.
On January 22, the Paraguayan vice president who had resigned had nominated for the Republican Force political faction in the internal elections of the Colorado Party, called for the following December 18.
The inclusion of Velázquez in the list of corrupt United States occurs after Washington included former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes (2008-2012) on it on July 22.
Source: Observadora
