U.S. authorities have approved a reward of up to US$5 million in exchange for information on the killers of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who died in May on an island near the Colombian city of Cartagena while on his honeymoon.
The US ambassador in Asunción, Marc Ostfield, has appeared together with the president of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, to demand «credible information» that will allow the arrest of «the people who conspired» to assassinate the prosecutor, who specialized in organized crime matters.
The United States «applauds» the efforts carried out in recent months by the authorities of Colombia and Paraguay, and has pledged to help. «We will not stop until every individual involved in this murder is brought to justice,» the ambassador stressed, according to the newspaper ‘ABC Color’.
Pecci was shot dead on May 10, when he was in a hotel on the island of Baru with his wife. Following the crime, Colombian authorities arrested five people, four of whom have already been sentenced to 23 years in prison after confessing their involvement in the robbery.
The fifth defendant, Francisco Luis Correa, whom the prosecution considers the mastermind of the operation, pleaded not guilty and a preparatory hearing for the trial is scheduled for November 24. Investigators do not rule out that there may be more involved in Paraguay.
