Asunción: Paraguayan Central Bank President José Cantero was forced to appear in the Senate today after responding with censored reports on former President of the Republic Horacio Cartes and others.
The explanations have not convinced MEPs and there are already talks of an interpellation or impeachment.
Paraguayan Central Bank (BCP) President José Cantero was unable to tell the media whether former President Horacio Cartes violated regulations or laws by giving millions of dollars outside the financial system to politicians and apparently to entities like the Club Libertad awarded.
“I don’t have an offhand answer ready, it’s probably something that needs legal scrutiny,” said Cantero, trying not to comment on the suspicious operations Seprelad had reported on Cartes.
“I don’t know if I’m not an example, for example, but there are people who lend money to their relatives, to their friends, who sometimes don’t charge interest, I don’t know if that’s the case, but the point is that I not knowing when to be a lender. This is an issue that we can analyze. I don’t know if there’s a parameter that also depends on altitude,” Cantero replied vaguely. Cartes has lent well over $100 million, not just to his own family but especially to political friends.
He also pointed out that while there is regulation for the credit institutions and lenders sector, he thinks it is likely that there are many credit providers who are not registered, as in the case of Cartes, who acted as a lender and even made a profit.
“If they don’t register, we should see what action is taken, the whole scenario needs to be configured, we need to see the information,” he added.
The head of the BCP said that providers can operate within the legal framework and offer loans at prices that do not exceed the interest rate and are not extortionate in order to protect the citizen working in the sector.
“We recently issued a resolution on the BCP’s scope for action, but we haven’t had time to visit any lending institution or person making these loans,” he explained.
Senators speak of interrogation or impeachment proceedings
For his part, the Senator of the Frente Guasu, César Querey, said that they were not satisfied with the report and that an effort had been made to explain the bureaucratic systems of decision-making.
“I think it’s important to note that there is a shield on the financial system and especially the central bank of Paraguay. They acknowledge that they cannot provide us with third-party information, and that is where a philosophical discussion of what third-party information is begins,” he noted.
He also said the BCP’s reports extend an interpretation of banking secrecy and give the financial system a state-within-a-state protection.
Lawmakers explained that the requested reports, which were answered with complete censorship, concern the financial company Ara, which has gone bankrupt and for which there was a conviction, while in the case of the Cartes group, it was asked whether, due to the size of the monies lent by it is registered as a lender.
In the case of the Cartes group, the question has been raised as to whether it is registered as a moneylender because of the amount of money lent: “Not being registered as a moneylender, she has lent millions of dollars to Club Libertad, her sister, and in her In her affidavit she states what profits he made from it, in other words he works as a moneylender,” he said.
The scope of the term “third party” renders Congress’s constitutional right to investigate impossible,” he added.
He also explained that the BCP is structured to provide a protective shield for all financial movements, be it Sarah Cartes, González Darum, or Mario Abdo Benítez.
“I believe that this is a shield for any facts that might have irregularities and doesn’t allow us in Congress to investigate whether or not a crime was committed,” he said.
He concluded that they will repeat the request to comply with legal steps, but that the national constitution is clear on non-compliance with the reports and that if they do not respond, they could be impeached or fired.
“BCP would cover Cartes,” believes Kencho Rodríguez
Senator Miguel Fulgencio Rodríguez said the BCP covers Cartes and Santiago Peña, who belong to the political group managing the financial part.
“We discovered that the central bank is a state within a state and that the Senate is useless,” he said, claiming they want to protect political forces, although the BCP is obliged to provide the information necessary for the investigation .
“We have learned that there are laws that are above the Constitution, depending on the interpretation,” he said.
Weekly / Última Hora
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