A Paraguayan MP is killed in a police shootout during a drug raid, highlighting the country's problems

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — A dawn police raid on the home of a Paraguayan lawmaker in a notorious drug-smuggling haven near the border with Brazil ended in a chaotic shootout Monday, authorities said, leaving the lawmaker dead and the nation in turmoil.

The murder of Eulalio “Lalo” Gomes, a 67-year-old rancher and politician from Paraguay's long-standing Colorado Partyis also a grim reminder of the network of collaboration between political families and organized crime in Paraguay, experts said.

“This is not an isolated case, on the contrary, it is the continuation of many other cases that establish links between politics, drug trafficking and organized crime,” said Paraguayan lawyer and political analyst Leonardo Gómez Berniga.

Security forces armed with firearms and search warrants arrived simultaneously at the two homes of Gomes and his son, 32-year-old Alexandre Rodrigues Gomes, in the lush border region early Monday to search for evidence in what authorities described as a major investigation into drug smuggling and money laundering in the local real estate business.

Officials said Gomes greeted them with a barrage of gunfire. Police returned fire, fatally wounding the conservative Colorado lawmaker.

“We have a community in turmoil, a public that needs answers,” said Emiliano Rolón, Paraguay's prosecutor, as he emerged from the morgue in Asunción, Paraguay's sweltering capital, about 445 kilometers southwest of Pedro Juan Caballero, the border post where the raid took place. “We are dealing with organized crime, and this is not an easy thing.”

Rolón said his office filed charges immediately before Monday's raid accusing Gomes and his son, along with three other suspects, of involvement in a smuggling scheme involving the gang of a prominent Brazilian cocaine lord imprisoned across the porous border.

Brazilian authorities have helped investigate the case, he said, adding that this is the latest example of how growing regional cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking has increased pressure on Paraguay to do its part.

As a deputy, Gomes was immune from prosecution. His son, Alexandre, opened fire on police officers and fled the scene before eventually surrendering to police in the Amambay district, authorities said. No other people were injured in the shootings, which broke out in the two houses about 10 blocks apart.

The Gomes family denies the allegations of drug trafficking and accuses the police of using excessive force.

“My father was hiding and the police just killed him,” sobbed Larisa Gomes, the daughter of the murdered MP, before retreating to the morgue to await the results of the autopsy.

The family's lawyer, Oscar Tuma, questioned why the police conducted the raids in the middle of the night and kicked down the gates of the houses instead of summoning father and son for questioning. “The circumstances were not appropriate and there was no urgency for this raid at 3am when our MP was sleeping with his wife,” he said.

Prosecutor Rolón said police had no choice but to carry out the raid. During the day, he said, heavily armed bodyguards patrolled Gomes' white villa in Amambay – a remote province where the murder rate is about 10 times the national average, according to government figures.

The botched drug raid and deadly shooting on Monday fascinated Paraguayans largely because of Gomes' status as a lawmaker from the dominant right-wing Colorado Party led by tobacco magnate Horacio Cartes, who was the country's president from 2013 to 2018.

But according to experts, this dramatic incident reveals something quite common about Paraguay: In Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, the country ranks 136th out of 180 countries, one of the lowest in South America.

Corruption and clientelism have long characterized governance in Colorado, the South American country. The capital's roads and power lines are in poor condition, and embezzlement of small amounts of money is widespread among poorly paid civil servants.

“This approach is embedded in all political parties and at all levels,” says Christopher Newton, an investigator with the Colombia-based research organization InSight Crime. “When it comes to people who have the power to make changes, many of them are the ones who are likely to benefit from not making changes.”

While the fight against corruption in the country is stalling, pressure from outside is growing.

Last year, the US government accused Cartes and former Vice President Hugo Velázquez of “significant corruption” and US companies banned from doing business with themThis month, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Tabesa, a major Paraguayan cigarette producer, for Millions in payments to CartesThe former president denies allegations that he built his enormous wealth through money laundering.

Over the past decade, Europol, the European Union's police agency, has increasingly been able to trace large transatlantic drug raids back to Paraguay's river ports.

The seizures highlight the country's institutional weaknesses and insecurity as it tries to tout its success story as one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies. Earlier this month, ratings agency Moody's became the first to upgrade the country's credit rating to investment grade, marking a victory for President Santiago Peñaa former official of the International Monetary Fund.

But the chaos on Monday in Pedro Juan Caballero has once again revealed “a very dangerous dimension,” said analyst Gómez Berniga. “Politics, business and the judiciary are all under intensive observation to see how conscientiously they ultimately resolve the matter.” ___

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