In early October 2018, a Chamber of Appeals in Asuncion’s Supreme Court was assigned to resolve the removal of Judge Griselda Caballero from Paraguay’s Judicial Branch and encourage a thorough investigation on her close ties with drug lords in South America. Over the last five years, on multiple occasions, Judge Caballero has released from prison top members of dangerous drug cartels that were engaged, orchestrated large cocaine shipments to various South American countries, the United States and Europe.
According to Attorney Marcelo Pecci, a local District Attorney; Griselda Caballero has taken measures of obstruction of justice in favor of a group of drug traffickers in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, ordering the release of their expensive, unregistered airplanes that were confiscated by Attorney General’s office in Asuncion, as part of a pursuit and investigation lead due to capture of over 500 kilograms of cocaine waiting to be shipped abroad.
The Ethical Tribunal of Appeals integrated by Delio Vera Navarro, Jose Agustin Fernandez, and Cristobal Sanchez must reach a consensus on the immediate removal of Caballero from the justice system and hopefully have her spend the rest of her life behind bars. Subsequently, Navarro and his two colleagues must analyze the reasons why Judge Caballero decided to return various airplanes to original owners, despite the fact that all of them are well-known drug lords in Paraguay and Brazil.
On July 6th, 2015, the three modern aircrafts where captured during a police operation in Pedro Juan Caballero, on a nearby hangar and service shop only two hundred meters from the city’s international airport. Almost one year after this operation, on June 27th, 2016, Judge Caballero ordered Attorney General’s office to return, within the next 48 hours, the three airplanes to the National Directorate of Civil Aviation (DINAC).
Earlier Caballero had stated to Attorney General’s office that aircrafts were not part of the captured evidence; therefore it would have been appropriate to return these objects to DINAC, which is the institution in charge of determining the ownership of these aircrafts and their daily duties, including their return to their owners after finishing up supposed paperwork.
It is clear that resolutions issued by Caballero are fully violating the principal values of laws and statutory policies that are effective in Paraguay, knowing that Attorney General’s office pursues any investigation based on the evidence captured during a given operation, conducting a thorough research and investigation. What Caballero has done is simply a gross violation of rule of law and of national constitution of Paraguay. Caballero cannot undertake the prerogatives of a collegial tribunal nor can she intervene on any case that is in the process of investigation. There is no doubt that Judge Caballero has taken upon her shoulders a responsibility too heavy to carry, subsequently becoming one of the best allies of drug traffickers in Paraguay and abroad. According to various international news reports, Judge Caballero has previously been engaged in a number of flamboyant money laundering cases that have proved to be damaging the national image of Paraguay and Brazil over the last five years.
Caballero has allegedly received large sums of money from the four drug lords that were captured by SENAD on November 15th, 2014 in Karapā’i within the territory of Pedro Juan Caballero. Among the captured suspects was also a police officer Sixto Gonzalez Godoy. These actions taken by Caballero have further weakened Paraguay’s institutions, incriminated the justice system and harmed the perilous operations against drug trafficking implemented by the National Secretariat of Anti-Drug operations (SENAD) and a few trustworthy exponents of attorney general’s office.
Unfortunately, Griselda Caballero represents a large swath of Paraguayan judges and Supreme Court members who repeatedly conduct dirty tricks and violate Paraguayan laws in exchange of large amounts of cash that comes from drug cartels, money laundering operations, transnational weapons trade and furnished by dangerous drug lords.
Furthermore, Caballero has damaged evidence and released three aircrafts that, according to various tests, were used for cocaine shipments. The very same aircrafts did not have a serial number and were not matriculated, at a time when DINAC’s policy requires that every aircraft must carry a license number on its fuselage.
Judge Caballero has not only exterminated the preparatory work of the Attorney General’s office, it has also ordered DINAC to return the three aircrafts to their supposed owners. It is up to the Chamber of Appeals to reveal Caballero’s murky source of income and intensely investigate about her current bank accounts in Paraguay, Panama and her family’s immense real estate properties on various European countries.
