ASUNCION, (Reuters) – Paraguayan police shot dead a leader of an armed leftist group blamed for murders and kidnappings during a gun battle in a border region yesterday, the Interior Ministry said.
Left-leaning President Fernando Lugo has been under pressure to track down key figures in the Paraguayan People’s Army (EPP), a small armed group trained by Colombian rebels and active in marijuana-growing regions in the north.
EPP leader Severiano Martinez, who was one of the country’s most wanted fugitives, was tracked down by police in a part of the inhospitable Chaco region that borders Bolivia.
“They told us he’d been located, they gave him a warning and he responded by firing at the officers, which in turn led to an exchange of fire,” Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola told a news conference.
Filizzola said five arrest warrants had been issued for Martinez, who was accused of kidnapping and killing the daughter of former President Raul Cubas in 2004.
President Lugo dispatched extra police and troops earlier this year to areas bordering Brazil and Bolivia to track down members of the group, who are believed to number about 100.
