Brazil & Southern Cone - April 2026

President Santiago Peña has expanded military deployment for internal security across the entire eastern region of the country. In late February he signed a decree authorising military involvement in policing, including the use of force with the aim of countering criminal groups active in the region. This marks a major escalation in the country’s long-running strategy of using the armed forces to combat organised crime.

Peña signed a decree on 25 February to authorise the Comando de Operaciones de Defensa Interna (Codi) division of the joint military-police taskforce Fuerza de Tarea Conjunta (FTC) to “execute strategic actions and necessary tactics” in the internal defence of the country’s eastern region, according to a government press release. The ‘Región Oriental’ (eastern region) spans most of the country, comprising 14 of the Paraguay’s 17 departments.

The easternmost departments of Paraguay, such as Canindeyú and Amambay, are known to be areas where criminal gangs and armed groups operate, given the rivers and land borders shared with neighbouring countries such as Brazil and Argentina are major routes for drug trafficking networks.

The government measures to boost the military presence in domestic security comes despite the fact that Paraguay has a lower homicide rate than most countries in South America. According to specialist website Insight Crime, Paraguay registered a total of 391 murders in 2025, down from 477 in 2024. This brings the country’s homicide rate down from 7.5 killings per 100,000 people in 2024 to 6.1 killings per 100,000 in 2025. In South America, only Argentina and Chile had lower murder rates, with the former registering 3.7 killings per 100,000 and the latter posting a homicide rate of 5.4 killings per 100,000 in 2025. Brazil, which shares much of Paraguay’s eastern border, recorded a significantly higher homicide rate with 19.2 killings per 100,000, while Uruguay also posted a higher rate with 10.3 per 100,000.

However, Peña’s decree came amid local security concerns over the abduction of a farmer named Almir de Brum in Canindeyú department. Authorities believe the kidnapping was carried out on 21 February by the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) armed criminal group or other related organisations. At the time of writing, media reports had not indicated that the authorities had located De Brum.

The government has not explicitly described Peña’s decree as a direct response to the kidnapping, with government statements highlighting general issues such as the importance of tackling organised crime. On 26 February national daily ABC Color cited Senator Natalicio Chase, a member of the ruling right-of-centre Asociación Nacional Republicana – Partido Colorado (ANR-PC), as defending Peña’s decree as a measure to combat crime and terrorism.

Chase dismissed the criticisms and human rights concerns of the opposition, responding to comments made on the same day by Senator Ever Villalba, of the main opposition Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA), who described the increased militarisation of public security as a lurch towards what he called “Stronismo 2.0”, referring to Paraguay’s military dictatorship under former President Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989). Daily newspaper Última Hora also cited Villalba as criticising the increase in military deployments in the eastern region, saying that most drugs that enter Paraguay are smuggled into the Chaco region which spans most of the western region.

US cooperation

On 11 March Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña signed into law the US-Paraguay Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa), the terms of which were agreed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano in December. The agreement establishes a legal framework for regulating the temporary presence of US military and civilian personnel in Paraguay for security cooperation, which would allow the countries to train together, transfer equipment, and share intelligence.