Global Courant
It took several blows with a piece of hose and a direct shot to the left hand of the Paraguayan Navy sergeant to prevent the man from continuing to escape by boat to the neighboring country with a load of Argentine fuel. The sequence was captured in a video filmed from the prefecture’s boat, calling into question the Paraguayan Navy’s version.
The video shows the prefectural boat sailing at full speed across the Paraná River under leaden skies. “Raise your hands” is the urgent cry of the Argentine patrol as it attacks a wooden canoe full of 20-liter barrels that was crossing the river with the help of an aluminum boat piloted by the Paraguayan sailor.
The second order is for the helmsman to turn off the engine and not to continue his escape towards the Paraguayan coast, but the soldier – he was in civilian clothes – ignores him, despite the three blows that one of the prefects gave him on the hand Located on the control stick of the Yamaha 25 HP engine. It took a shot with a rubber bullet to the left hand to get the sailor to change his stance in the middle of the river channel and agree to the action.
“Get on the ground,” is the next order the three smugglers receive, already installed on the sailor’s boat. The prefects concentrated the proceedings on this boat, while the canoe with the barrels was left adrift and was later rescued by other smugglers and brought to the Paraguayan coast.
The three Paraguayans – one of them just 14 years old – were taken to the prefecture of Puerto Rico, where they stayed for a few hours. Oberá’s federal judge ordered his identification and expulsion from the country because he entered without authorization from the immigration authorities. In addition, he ordered that they return to court in the coming weeks to be examined for the crime of disobedience and smuggling.
The procedure was carried out in an area called Colonia San Alberto, about 140 kilometers from Posadas, and revealed how Argentine fuel flows into the neighboring country, where it almost triples in value.
As soon as the arrest of the sailor and his two accomplices became known, the Itapúa Naval Area said that the petty officer second class Alberto Martín Rojas Cabrera was carrying out intelligence tasks on board the boat and that “two people who were apparently fishing there When they were on board an unstable boat As they crossed the area, they asked staff for help because the canoe they were in was taking on water and they were in danger of sinking.”
The report, distributed from Asunción, further states that “the personnel of Puerto Triunfo responded to the request of the compatriots for help, whereupon the Argentine Naval Prefecture fired rubber bullets from a long distance, injuring the non-commissioned officer in the hand.”
The video released by the prefecture makes it clear that the Paraguayan military was fully involved in the smuggling maneuver. And it can be seen that one of the occupants had just exited the canoe when it was struck by the Argentine emergency boat, showing that the boat was in no danger of sinking.
