By Jorge Rolón Luna*
Last June 24, D. G. was arriving at his home in San Rafael del Paraná when he was hit by close range bullets. On the way to the nearest hospital, he stopped breathing. Up to this point it could be just another violent episode, just another homicide. However, what is striking in this case is that the author of the shots was a sniper, no less, who patiently awaited the arrival of the victim to ambush him in front of his own house and shoot him from a vacant lot located about thirty meters away. DG had no criminal record or known malfeasance. Why would anyone want to commission his assassination and what could explain such a level of sophistication in the “commission”? How is it that an expert marksman was commissioned to assassinate him? Perhaps the fact that both his father and his two brothers are in prison in Argentina, on trial for drug trafficking, may be part of the answer. Another part of the answer is that this area of the country has been a known drug trafficking route to Argentina for many years.
Like the murder of DG, in 2022 there were other cases of contract killings that deserve attention, either because of the violence, the overkill (torture) or because the victims were police officers, politicians, a journalist and even a high-ranking officer of the armed forces. What is not surprising is the multiplication of violent homicides registered in a year once again full of blood due to the actions of assassins hired to kill, intimidate and terrorize.
The year 2022 was a period of growth in hired killings. It could be said that with some contradictions, because although there was an increase in the number of hired assassins, the final results also show an ambivalence that I will try to interpret below.
in Paraguay there are no statistics – or reliable statistics – on this criminal phenomenon, which they try to make invisible or belittle, such as contract killings. It is well known that no public policy – in this case the fight against contract killings – can be adequate without reliable statistical data
In a previous article I have explained the parameters used to classify a case as “hired assassination”. The number of cases that meet the characteristics of the intervention of hired assassins to intimidate, threaten or kill someone, increased in 2022 compared to 2021. In this aspect, then, there is a continuity in terms of the growth of the phenomenon. Indeed, in 2022, 212 cases of attacks or interventions by hired killers have been recorded, with January leading with 28 cases (the most violent month ever in terms of hired killings), as shown in the following graph.
Graph 1. Hitmen attacks 2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
The number of casualties, totaling fatalities and injuries, reached 228, with January being the month with the highest number of casualties.
Graph 2. Victims of hired assassination 2022 (dead and wounded)
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
The number of fatalities totaled 175, with January leading the way with 30 deaths.
Graph 3. People killed by hitmen in 2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
The number of injuries during the past year was 53.
Graph 4. People injured by hitmen in 2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
During 2022, successful or unsuccessful attempts at murder, deprivation of liberty leading to death, machine-gunning of homes, businesses or vehicles, vehicle arson, homes or businesses, bombings (one case), increased by 24 cases more than the 188 in 2021 (12.7% increase).
Graph 5. Comparison of hitmen attack 2020/2021/2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
Although the number of attacks increased by a significant percentage, the total number of deaths and injuries is similar to last year’s, with a “tie” of 228.
Graph 6. Comparative number of victims of hired assassin attacks 2020/2021/2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
The number of victims recorded a slight decrease compared to 2021 with 8 fewer cases, a decrease of 4.3%, although this is still a very high figure when compared to 2020.
Graph 7. Comparison of people killed by hired assassins 2020/2021/2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
While the number of fatalities decreased between 2021 and 2022, on the contrary, injuries increased by 32.5%, a significant increase, to use a fashionable term.
Graph 8. Comparison of people injured by hitmen attacks 2020/2021/2022
Source: Own creation with data from open sources (journalistic).
I wish to emphasize that the numbers I present here differ dramatically from those recently released by the National Police in a terse document called “Informe de Gestión 2022” (Management Report 2022), in which they refer to 70 homicides for hire throughout the country during 2022. The document in question does not provide further details regarding its parameters of inclusion of a homicide in the category “for hire” or other data (date, location, number of victims and others). I have requested in December 2022, information from the National Police regarding these contract killings (number, characteristics, location, date, etc.) under Law No. 5282/14 On Free Citizen Access to Public Information and Government Transparency. The request was due to the desire to compare police statistics with the record of the cases of hired killings that I have been keeping for several years. The only response I have received from the institution in charge of internal security in the country was limited and unsatisfactory, not complying with the provisions of the aforementioned law. Public information, as stated by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, must be “complete”, in order to comply with the principle of “full disclosure”, established in the Inter-American Model Law on Access to Public Information.
As I have already pointed out in a previous article, in Paraguay there are no statistics – or reliable statistics – on this criminal phenomenon, which they try to make invisible or belittle, such as contract killings. It is well known that no public policy – in this case the fight against contract killings – can be adequate without reliable statistical data. As long as the institutions do not proceed to correct this situation, I hope that my contribution to the series of publications on the subject will serve the purpose of calling attention to this complex phenomenon that increasingly affects us as a society.
Cover image: Ultima Hora