Marcelo Pinheiro’s murder of Lidia Meza, 18, in an apparent attempt to avoid extradition, highlights a culture of impunity

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Paraguayans have been left shocked and outraged after a jailed cartel boss murdered a young woman inside his high-security cell, in an apparent attempt to avoid extradition to neighbouring Brazil.

The case has underscored the scale of criminal impunity in the landlocked South American country – and fuelled fears of more violence to come.

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Marcelo “Piloto” Pinheiro was seized in a joint operation by Brazilian, Paraguayan and US anti-drug authorities in December. A leading figure in Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling criminal group Comando Vermelho (Red Command), he had been on the run from Brazilian authorities and operating from Paraguay since 2012.

He faces 26 years in prison for armed robbery, and charges of homicide, arms smuggling and drug-trafficking.

After his capture, Pinheiro sought to implicate a web of politicians, judges and police and admitted that he hoped to stay in a Paraguayan jail – which are notorious for offering luxury “VIP cells” in exchange for bribes – rather than face tough justice in Brazil. “Paraguay is the country of impunity and corruption,” he told reporters.

Yet as his extradition drew closer, police foiled multiple armed efforts to free him from a riot police barracks in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marcelo Pinheiro, AKA ‘Piloto’, is transferred to Catanduvas maximum-security federal penitentiary in Paraná state, Brazil, on Monday. Photograph: Christian Rizzi/AFP/Getty Images

On Saturday afternoon, soon after a visit by his lawyer, Pinheiro received Lidia Meza, 18, alone in his cell.

According to Paraguayan authorities, Pinheiro then knocked Meza out before stabbing her 16 times with a dessert knife. She was brought to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

It is unclear why Meza was in his cell. Suggestions she was a sex worker have been denied by her parents. Local media reported it was her second visit.

Pinheiro’s lawyer immediately called for his client to face murder charges in Paraguay.

But Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, instead ordered Pinheiro’s extradition to Brazil, where he is now being held in solitary confinement in a maximum-security federal prison.

In an emotional video shared on social media, a mourner at Meza’s funeral wept as she followed the ambulance Meza’s family borrowed to use as a hearse.

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“They’re killing us like dogs,” she said. “A handful of Brazilians come and do whatever they want in our country, kill a tiny girl from the countryside, seize the border and run everything from a jail cell. Everything is for sale for a few dirty pesos.”

Since late 2016 Comando Vermelho has been locked in a bloody battle with a rival cartel, Primero Comando da Capital (First Capital Command), for control of cocaine and marijuana-smuggling routes from Paraguay.

Analysts fear that the as-yet unclear security policies of Brazil’s rightwing president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, could push some crime groups across the border.

The result could be even worse corruption and violence, said Andrew Nickson, a Paraguay expert at the University of Birmingham. “The Paraguayan state hardly has the power to withstand what they are doing even now,” Nickson said.