Paraguay is a fairly peaceful country - in fact, super tranquilo - but has been having some problems lately with a group called the EPP, the Ejercito Pueblo de Paraguay, or the People´s Army of Paraguay. It´s a group of domestic terrorists that has anywhere between 15 and 45 people in it, basically a copycat group of kidnappers like FARC. Most of them are holed up in the northern part of the middle part of the country in a region near a city called Concepcion.
In any event, the group recently killed three ranchhands and a policeman. This is on top of other firefights, a possible bomb in the capital a few years back, and the odd kidnapping.
The crux of the matter for Peace Corps Volunteers is that the President of the Country is now asking Congress to pass a law granting an "Estado de Excepcion" - a state of emergency throughout five zones across Paraguay. The departments (States) are Alto Paraguay, Presidente Hayes, Concepcion, San Pedrom and Amambay. (As you all remember, I´m situated in the department of Paraguari.
Peace Corps Volunteers around the world have four status levels during situations like this: Alert, Standfast, Consolidation, and Evacuation. In the department of Concepcion, volunteers are consolidating - meeting in a preplanned hotel in a group. In San Pedro, they are at Standfast - meaning they continue about their business, but don´t travel outside of their sites. A general Alert - the lowest level, has been issued for the rest of the country. More as this develops.
St. John-this is very interesting and a little scary; a small determined group can cause so much havoc. I will look forward to hearing more about this. As for the tarantulas, yuck-they too are very creepy. Keep them coming...xom
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