translated from Spanish: Brazilian journalist shot dead at his home in Paraguay

The Brazilian journalist Lourencao ‘Leo’ Veras died on Thursday after receiving a dozen shots when he was at his home in the Paraguayan border town of Pedro Juan Caballero, according to DPA. Veras, who ran the Pora News news portal, was having dinner with his wife when two masked men entered his house and opened fire, as explained by the Paraguayan prosecutor Marco Amarilla.The chief of police of the amambay department, Ignacio Rodríguez Villalba, has claimed that his murder is linked to the information that the journalist used to publish about organized crime in the area. Thus, the agent stressed that the security forces are doing “everything possible” to clarify what happened and explained that there were no specific allegations of previous threats. However, Vera had police security eight years ago due to the threats suffered at the time. “We have a lot of information. According to some, the crime took place because of the publications he was doing. Lately he’s been spreading a lot of information about the border. This is where the matter would come,” said Rodríguez.The Yellow Prosecutor, for his part, has pointed out that the police have seized from the victim’s computer and mobile phone to investigate the possible motivation of the attackers. Many Brazilian criminal organizations operate in Paraguay, one of the largest marijuana producers in Latin America. A lot of this drug is transferred to countries like Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay illegally.

Original source in Spanish