On August 24, 2021 the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated three individuals involved in Paraguayan corruption and five entities owned or controlled by these individuals. The designations were made pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets those who commit serious human rights abuses and corruption. Two of the sanctioned individuals are despachantes (or dispatchers), individuals who specialize in navigating government bureaucracies to import and export goods, including illicit items, by laundering funds and bribing customs officials in the tri-border area where the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, an where a large volume of criminal and terrorist transactions are knwn to occur. The third designated individual is an intermediary who has bribed despachantes, Paraguayan customs officials, and others, and whose criminal network focuses on importing goods from the US.
As a result of these sanctions, all US property and interests in property are blocked, and transactions with sanctioned persons and entities are generally prohibited. Transactions with entities that are owned fifty percent or more by sanctioned persons are also blocked.