Joseph Carlos Acevedothe mayor of the Paraguayan town of Pedro Juan Caballero, who last Tuesday was shot in front of the municipality he died this Saturday as a result of the injuries sustained during the attack.
According to his brother Ronald Acevedo, the 51-year-old mayor died on Saturday night, hours after the doctors declared the brain death.
“Now rest my brother”Ronald Acevedo confirmed this Sunday, that in addition to being the brother of the deceased, he is the governor of Amambay, the department to which Pedro Juan Caballero belongs.
Acevedo’s body was veiled this Sunday in a burning chapel installed in that town, known for years for being one of the areas of Paraguay with the largest illegal marijuana crops.
The attack on the Paraguayan mayor
This Tuesday, José Carlos Acevedo received 7 shots –two of them in the neck– in front of the municipal headquarters while attending the inauguration of a work with his brother the governor.
The attack, according to the security cameras, was perpetrated by a hooded man that upon spotting the mayor, he got out of a vehicle and fired in the middle of the street.
After the shooting, the mayor was transferred to the Viva Vida hospital, where he had a heart attack, from which the doctors managed to revive him. The part of the health center indicated that the mayor spent three hours in surgery.
This Saturday afternoon, Acevedo was declared brain dead after a tomographic study was performed to assess his condition. “I am going to give a rather discouraging report in relation to the study we carried out today, where it was seen that there is very important brain damage and it was found that there is no brain flow,” said Dr. David Peña.
“The neurological evaluations lead to that brain stopped working 100% of its activities,” added Peña, head of the Intensive Care Unit of the Viva Vida hospital.
previous attacks
Jose Carlos Acevedo and his brother Ronald they had already been victims of other attacks in the past. In one of them, the 21-year-old daughter of the governor lost her life.
Acevedo’s murder is added to that of the prosecutor specializing in the fight against drug trafficking Marcelo Pecci, which occurred on May 10 on a Colombian island where he was spending his honeymoon.
Both crimes highlighted the advance of organized crime violence in South America, according to local authorities.