#imposes #ban #Paraguayan #leader #corruption
The United States imposed a travel ban on Paraguay’s former President Horacio Cartes on Friday, accusing the businessman-turned-politician of corruption and links to “terrorist” groups.
Cartes, who led the South American nation from 2013 to 2018 and runs a business empire that includes a tobacco and soccer team, will not be eligible to travel to the United States along with his three adult children.
The State Department said Cartes “obstructed a major international investigation into cross-border crime,” a reference to a money-laundering scandal for which Brazil has sought the former president’s extradition.
“These actions have undermined the stability of Paraguay’s democratic institutions by contributing to public perceptions of corruption and impunity in the Paraguayan President’s Office,” Foreign Minister Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“Furthermore, these actions enabled and perpetuated Cartes’ recently documented involvement in foreign terrorist organizations,” he said.
He gave no further details, but Paraguay’s Vice President Hugo Velazquez has accused the former leader of ties to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which allegedly profited from smuggling counterfeit cigarettes through Paraguay and its porous three-way border with Argentina and Brazil.
Argentina grounded a plane with Venezuelan and Iranian crews in June after Paraguayan intelligence linked a passenger to Iran’s elite Kuds force, which supports Hezbollah.
But Argentine President Alberto Fernandez later said it was a false claim.
Despite the alleged Hezbollah ties, Cartes pleased the United States as president by making Paraguay one of the few nations to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which the Palestinians also want as a future capital.
The decision was reversed by his successor, President Mario Abdo Benitez.
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