Óscar Denis: Family of kidnapped Paraguay ex-VP plead for proof of life

Óscar Denis was kidnapped last September

The daughters of the kidnapped former vice-president of Paraguay, Óscar Denis, have asked his abductors to provide proof of life.

Mr Denis, 75, was seized by members of the Marxist Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) rebel group in September.

His daughter Beatriz said that in the nine months since his kidnapping they had received no news from their father.

The EPP has carried out a string of kidnappings and killings in Paraguay.

EPP key facts

• Small Marxist rebel group which was founded in 2008

• Traces its roots to the armed wing of the Free Fatherland Party (Partido Patria Libre)

• Estimated to have fewer than 100 members

• Finances itself by smuggling marijuana and through ransoms paid for those it has kidnapped

Óscar Denis, who served as vice-president from 2012 to 2013, was kidnapped from his ranch near the city of Yby Yaú on 9 September 2020. His 96-year-old mother died last week without having been able to see her son again.

In pamphlets left in Mr Denis's car, the EPP claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and demanded that the government free two of the group's jailed leaders in exchange for the former vice-president's release.

The rebels also demanded that the family of Mr Denis hand out food worth $2m (£1.4m) to 40 communities in the region where the kidnapping took place and that they distribute the EPP's propaganda material.

While the family said it had met the kidnappers' demands, the government refused to free the two imprisoned EPP rebels who are both serving sentences for the attempted murder of three police officers during a foiled jailbreak.

On Sunday, Beatriz Denis said that nine months on from her father's kidnap "there have been no results from the side of the government, nor any other advances or information".

She said that the only information the family had received was in the form of another EPP pamphlet which had been left in a local business on 4 June.

The pamphlet, which was addressed to the Denis family, has been verified by the authorities.

Ms Denis, who said that the kidnappers demanded that she make the pamphlet's contents public, said she would only do so if the rebels provided proof her father is alive.

Óscar Denis is not the only person the EPP is holding. Rancher Félix Urbieta has been in captivity since October 2016, and police officer Edelio Morínigo was seized by the rebels in July 2014.