The Senate’s chairman, Basilio Núñez, summoned the Attorney General, Emiliano Rolón, and the Minister of the Interior, Enrique Riera, to appear before the audience and explain the details surrounding the death of legislator Eulalio Gomes, a 67-year-old cattle rancher and member of the ruling Colorado Party.

Gomes was shot dead last Monday by Paraguayan anti-drug agents who raided his home as part of an investigation into his alleged links to Brazilian drug traffickers.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation and Rolón has pledged to clarify the circumstances in which the legislator lost his life, allegedly in a shootout with law enforcement.

This case unleashed a political storm in Paraguay, as the Lower House considers Gomez was murdered and therefore demands the dismissal of both Riera and the police commander, Carlos Benítez, for ‘dereliction of duties’.

According to the official version, on August 19 Gome’s property was raided twice on the border city of Pedro Juan Caballero, 550 kilometers northeast of Asunción. On both occasions shots were fired, which were responded by the policemen, fatally wounding the parliamentarian.

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