Censorship in Paraguay: The Gap Between the Cartista Government’s Official Discourse and Reality

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The Honor Colorado administration, led by President Santiago Peña, has championed a public discourse of freedom of expression and transparency. Peña’s action of signing the Declaration of Chapultepec in October 2024 and officialist leaders’ criticism of repressive regimes, such as the Cuban one condemned by Bachi Núñez, serve as an international showcase. However, domestically, a growing pattern of censorship and intimidation is evident. This pattern is orchestrated by powerful political and economic figures and executed through the instrumentalization of the judicial system to silence...

This contradiction translates into a systematic attack on journalism, where judicialization and informational shielding have become the primary tools to repress the dissemination of critical information throughout the 2023-2025 period.

In January 2024, Trinidad Peace Judge Gloria Machuca issued an unprecedented ruling in Paraguay. She ordered businessman and media figure Christian Chena and the media outlet RDN to refrain for 365 days from publishing or sharing any information about Gisele Mousques, wife of former IPS director Darío Filártiga, a political advisor to Horacio Cartes and current ambassador to Taiwan. The ruling, based on Law 5.777/16 on Comprehensive Protection of Women, followed the release of a video alleging irregularities at the Social Security Institute.

The ruling’s scope was extraordinary: the judge classified a “retweet” as incitement. She argued that reposting content on social media constituted a “rehash” or “indirect offense.” Attorney Alejandra Peralta Merlo, representing Chena and RDN, challenged this interpretation, noting that retweeting was being equated with instigation without proof.