Paraguay police seek arrest of president's 'soul brother'

[Judi Lynn]

Updated 4:52 pm, Wednesday, May 9, 2018

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguayan authorizes have issued an arrest warrant for a man President Horacio Cartes has described as his "soul brother" as part of a sweeping investigation into corruption in Latin America.

A financial crimes prosecutor on Wednesday accused the president's friend, Dario Messer, of money laundering and criminal association. The dual Brazilian-Paraguayan citizen has been on the run since Friday, when Brazilian authorities issued an arrest warrant there.

Brazilian authorities alleged Messer is the leader of a group of Brazilian illicit money dealers who delivered bribes as part of the mammoth "Car Wash" kickback scheme, the biggest corruption scandal in the history of Brazil.

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Cartes' five-year term ends in August. Paraguay's constitution says former presidents are automatically "senators for life," with a "voice but without a vote." Cartes, however, won a Senate seat during last month's elections, which would give him a voting role, and the courts sided with him.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Paraguay-police-seek-arrest-of-president-s-soul-12901522.php

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Paraguay was ruled 35 years by Nazi-harboring Paraguayan President Stroessner, who both murdered native Paraguayan people, and pressed survivors of genocide into slavery. He gave haven to Nazi concentration doctor, who performed experiments on prisoners, Dr. Mengele. Strossner was completely accepted by the U.S. Government throughout his brutal dictatorship. His political party, The Colorado Party's Wikipedia:

The National Republican Association – Colorado Party (Spanish: Asociación Nacional Republicana – Partido Colorado, ANR-PC) is a right-wing political party in Paraguay, founded on September 11, 1887, by Bernardino Caballero. The presidential candidate of the party was defeated in elections held in April 2008 after 61 years in power, but the party regained the presidency in the 2013 presidential election.

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From 1947 until 1962, the Colorado Party ruled Paraguay as a one-party state; all other political parties were illegal.[1] In 1962, all national parties were nominally legalized; the Communist Party being deemed "international" remained illegal and its adherents repressed by the Paraguayan state. During the rule of Alfredo Stroessner all members of the armed forces and government employees were required to be members of the Colorado Party. In the late 1980s, there was a rift in the party between a hardliner faction and a traditionalist faction. This rift was primarily over the issue of Stroessner's succession and was a large contributor to the 1989 coup d'état led by General Andrés Rodríguez, himself a traditionalist.[2]

In practice, however, Paraguay remained a one-party military dictatorship until the overthrow of longtime president Alfredo Stroessner in 1989. It served as one of the "twin pillars" of Stroessner's 35-year rule, one of the longest in history by a non-royal leader.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Party_(Paraguay)