Weekly Report - 01 September 2016 (WR-16-34)

President Horacio Cartes suffered a serious blow this week following a deadly attack on a military-police task force (FTC) patrol deployed in the north of the country to combat the self-proclaimed Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) insurgent armed group. The incident took place when a FTC patrol vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb as it travelled on a back road in the Arroyito area of the municipality of Horqueta, Concepción department, in the so-called EPP ‘area of influence’. Eight soldiers were killed in the attack, with those surviving the blast being shot dead by hidden gunmen.