By Juan A. Martens Molas*
Sicariato is justice administration by the organized crime. It is an agile mechanism for conflict resolution that originated in the criminal market. Therefore, to understand the implications of a case we must broaden our view of the context, the players in dispute, the responsibilities of security and justice agencies and even the reactions generated in the press and society.
On Saturday, February 25, 2022, two hooded men chased and fired 34 bullets at Ederson Salinas Benítez in the parking lot of a supermarket, killing him on the spot. Almost all the bullets were shot into the victim’s face and head. The murder was recorded on video surveillance cameras. Ederson was 33 years old and for over 15 years, like many young people in his city, he had been working for border businessmen, those whose activities shift between the legal and the illegal, without arousing any institutional interest.
He was killed in Asunción, where he came to take refuge. In March 2022, some 15 people with pistols and AK-47 rifles attacked his bunker house in the center of Pedro Juan Caballero (PJC). They left behind more than 200 percussion pods. The magnitude of the attack attracted the security forces, (among these, one of his protectors) preventing the aggressors from achieving their objective. As they found him with an undocumented weapon, they arrested him. The then deputy chief of Investigations was evicted from his office because it was to be used as a cell for him, since he could not be in a dungeon (the usual arrest quarters). He was soon acquitted, without charge. He moved around in an armored van, without a license plate. He drove more than 500 kilometers between Pedro Juan and Asunción without anyone questioning him.
His police record shows that he has no criminal record or open criminal proceedings; however, after his death, a high-ranking police chief stated that he was being targeted for his links to drug trafficking and even the February 2020 murder of Leo Veras, a PJC communicator. He was also said to be part of the First Capital Command (PCC), the region’s largest criminal enterprise, with a presence and business in Paraguay for at least 15 years.
So how did he move so calmly around Asunción, to the point of going with his girlfriend to a hairdresser’s? The explanatory framework developed by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) professor Michel Mise can help with understanding. Mise argues that part of the success of criminal organizations can be attributed to the buying and selling of political merchandise, that is, privileged information collected by members of security agencies in the performance of their duties and placed at the service of criminal gangs, either in exchange for money, or to put a certain price on their silence and/or inaction.
In the case at hand, the police have a deep knowledge of the members involved and their criminal dynamics in every corner of the national territory. They collect a large volume of information daily that would allow them to predict and intercept illegal activities. However, this knowledge is mostly used for personal gain, specifically to collect money and get rich. Part of what is collected (from drug dealers, smugglers, and other criminals) is sent to the nearest boss and the rest is sent to the capital. It is a scheme that has been working perfectly for a long time and any attempt not to conform means an immediate transfer, as an officer explained to me months ago.
This conceptual framework may shed light on why Ederson Salinas did not even have an arrest warrant, despite appearing in wiretaps from Operation North, in 2019, when some 20 uniformed officers were arrested for cooperating with the then head of the PCC in Pedro Juan, Levi Adriani Fabricio. Probably, this is also where his close ties and protection by high-ranking police chiefs operated.
This sale of political merchandise is not exclusive to the National Police but represents a common practice of SENAD and Public Ministry agents, according to some members of criminal gangs, who are already budgeting for the respective purchases in order to avoid risks, such as loss due to seizure or unexpected intervention.
The murder of Ederson and other events linked to drug trafficking (for example, the murders of M. Schwartzman and Willian Giménez or the arrest of Eduardo Aparecido de Almeida or Pisca) in Asunción reveal the functionality of the capital as a refuge and center of operations for criminal market actors, while at the same time showing the logistical capacity of these criminal groups to carry out attacks in more controlled and urban spaces.
At this point, it should not be forgotten that the mega-loads of cocaine seized in Europe in 2021 were shipped in and around Asuncion. Clearly, these facts highlight the expansion of crime and the fact that it is no longer a local problem in border areas.
On the other hand, Ederson rubbed shoulders with the highest authority of the PCC at the local level, from Levi to Minotauro, until he gained trust and, thus, climbed up the structure. However, as he gained power, he broke some basic rules of the organization, which, above all, seeks to do business and be fair in the world of crime. In that world, everything is regulated, and some deviations are punishable by death.
Ederson made decisions about some people’s lives, without consensus or authorization, which attracted institutional presence. He became a problem that had to be solved, as he broke the status quo that allows for the smooth running of border business. This hypothesis would be confirmed by the shots that destroyed his head.
how did he move so calmly around Asunción, to the point of going with his girlfriend to a hairdresser’s? The explanatory framework developed by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) professor Michel Mise can help with understanding. Mise argues that part of the success of criminal organizations can be attributed to the buying and selling of political merchandise, that is, privileged information collected by members of security agencies in the performance of their duties and placed at the service of criminal gangs, either in exchange for money, or to put a certain price on their silence and/or inaction.
The criminal career and the murder of Ederson Salinas confront us with security and justice institutions that are functional and at the service of organized crime and not the rule of law. They also show a society that, out of fear or convenience, tolerates the situation and continues to hand over its young people as disposable labor. In this sense, it is striking that only a sector of the press departed from a descriptive reading of the facts and asked uncomfortable questions to understand the institutional context and the conditions that made possible the expansion of organized crime.
After this event, it is clear to me that to confront organized crime, good speeches and lukewarm measures will not be enough. It will require an inter-institutional revolution, carried out by leaders with courage and bravery to withstand pressures and even attacks, since they will affect the business of many people with weapons and power, accustomed to killing people to solve their problems.
Image Description and Source: Levi Adriani Fabricio and Ederson Salinas in conversation in late 2018 in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay. Author’s file image.
* Executive Director of INECIP-Paraguay. PhD from the University of Barcelona-Spain (UB). Master’s in Criminology, Criminal Policy and Security (UB) and Criminal Guarantees and Procedural Law, National University of Pilar (UNP-INECIP). Lawyer-UNA. Research Professor at UNP and INECIP-Paraguay. Professor of Criminology-School of Law UNP and UNICAN. Researcher Level II PRONII-CONACYT.