Paraguayan congress, media weigh in on 'mercenary' mystery.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
News that a paramilitary agent, apparently from Italy, secretly entered Paraguay under contract by the government, helped train a joint military and police task force, and even participated in operations against a group of alleged guerrillas, killing four, caught the public and media outlets by surprise and prompted Congress to demand an official explanation from President Horacio Cartes.
The information first surfaced in mid November, when Capt. Amilcar Vera, a commander with the Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta (FTC) operating in northeastern Paraguay, told a correspondent from the Associated Press that a former soldier from the US with experience in the Middle East had trained Paraguayan agents who, days before, had killed members of a previously unknown organization of supposed guerrillas called the Agrupacion Campesina Armada (ACA). "The American, known as Instructor Zero, was training our agents, specifically the youngest ones, the rookies, to participate in operations," Vera revealed, adding, "I can't say what his real name is, nor how his contract came about, because that information is kept at the highest levels."
The only other thing the AP's Pedro Servin was able to glean from Capt. Vera was that Instructor Zero worked for an international outfit called Team Zero. With those scant details, the Senate approached President Cartes a week later, on Nov. 26, demanding a public report on the "engagement of a foreign ex-agent, associate of a private military instruction company, to train members of the Army elite to fight the guerrillas."
An investigation led by Sen. Desiree Masi of the opposition Partido Democratico Progresista (PDP) determined that Instructor Zero was actually a former Italian reservist named Yeco Belucci. In calling on the government to clarify the matter, a motion that was later approved by the Senate as a whole, Masi revealed that "the mercenary" had been contracted by "a European country" at one point but "released for psychological reasons." She also drew attention to a video he posted on social media in which he describes Paraguayan soldiers as "my boys."
In the video, which was shown in the Congress building, Belucci is seen in a sunny and wooded place, his arms covered in tattoos, dressed in a T-shirt with the US flag stamped on the front, and wearing a pair of night-vision goggles, even though it is the middle of the day. "That's it, brothers," he says. "Zero casualties. Zero collaterals. Four targets down. This is...
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