Civil Society, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

PARAGUAY: Soft, Slow, Shabby Justice

Natalia Ruiz Díaz

ASUNCIÓN, Aug 25 2009 (IPS) - Five years after the tragic fire that destroyed the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket in the Paraguayan capital, leaving a death toll of 400 people, the courts at last confirmed the prison sentences of the four principal defendants, although compensation for survivors and victims’ families has still not been decided.

Early this month, the Supreme Court upheld the sentences of 12 years in prison for the supermarket’s owner, Juan Pío Paiva, 10 years for his son, Víctor Daniel Paiva, five years for security guard Daniel Areco and two-and-a-half years for Humberto Casaccia, a shareholder in the supermarket company.

Given that the maximum penalty under Paraguayan law for the crimes committed is 25 years in prison, hundreds of relatives of the dead and survivors who were directly affected by the worst civilian tragedy in Paraguayan history regarded the sentences as overly lax.

The Supreme Court confirmed, without modifications, the sentences handed down in February 2008 by a lower court, which convicted the accused of second-degree murder and endangering people in the workplace.

The fire in the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket in Asunción started at 11:25 local time on Sunday Aug.1, 2004, when it was crowded with over 800 people. A gas explosion in the kitchen spread to the food court and to both floors of the building, including the built-in car park.

Survivors of the tragedy testified in court that the supermarket owners ordered the exit doors locked when the fire broke out, to make sure nobody left without paying for their purchases. Unable to get out, customers died of smoke inhalation.

“The favourable Supreme Court ruling early this month means that we can begin to believe that the justice system can change,” Carmen Rivarola of the Ycuá Bolaños Victims’ Coordinating Committee told IPS.

In Rivarola’s view, the justice system dealt with the case inefficiently, and “the sentence was obtained through the resistance struggle mounted by the victims,” who demanded that the Supreme Court rule on the matter in time to prevent it from lapsing under the statute of limitations.

During the series of trials, 79 judges and four Supreme Court justices recused themselves, saying they were disqualified because their impartiality could be questioned. The Ycuá Bolaños fire left 401 people dead, of whom 327 died in the fire itself, while the death toll grew over time as others died of their injuries.

There are 361 survivors who were injured to varying degrees; 22 are severely affected, with mutilation or serious disfigurement, as well as diminished physical or mental capacity. Seven persons are missing, believed killed, and 206 children were orphaned.

Studies by the Victims’ Coordinating Committee say that 5,000 families were directly affected, and 69,000 people indirectly. Paraguay has a population of 6.1 million.

After the final ruling on the sentences, the next issue is reparations for damages. Valuations will be carried out on the assets of those convicted.

“Given the number of victims involved, and the cost of treatments, it will really be impossible to provide fair indemnity without active participation by the state,” Ricardo Lataza, a lawyer representing 137 victims, told IPS.

He argued that there is shared responsibility for reparations in this case between the owners, the builder and also the state, represented by the Asunción municipal government.

When the investigation into the causes and those responsible for the supermarket fire was opened in 2004, the Attorney-General’s Office ordered four separate lines of enquiry.

One case was opened against the owners, shareholders and security guards; another against the builder; a third against the municipal authorities and mayors of Asunción; and a fourth against municipal employees.

The case against the authorities was dismissed in February 2006.

“From that point on, the litigation that was intended to define the overarching responsibility of the public sector shifted gear, and was aimed merely at punishing the private individuals concerned,” said Ade Galeano of POJOAJU, an association of Paraguayan non-governmental organisations, in the latest annual report of the Paraguayan Human Rights Coordinating Committee (CODEHUPY).

Galeano said “this is by no means a minor issue in a society in which the state is generally absent and there is no oversight or regulation of key sectors of the economy, which gives rise to tragedies.”

The Ycuá Bolaños case continued in three parts: the owners and security guards, the builder and the municipal employees. Appeals have been filed in the last two cases.

At present there are different groups of people who should be indemnified. The criminal case presents 320 claims, and when civil actions are included the number is over 400.

“We have no idea how many people are to be indemnified, or how much they will collect. It’s a very complicated and thorny issue,” said Rivarola.

The burned-out supermarket building, located in a densely populated Asunción neighbourhood, remains untouched since the fire. It was a branch of the chain of supermarkets owned by the Ycúa Bolaños company, and its future has yet to be determined.

According to Lataza, the indemnification process will absorb all the assets of those convicted and of the Ycúa Bolaños company.

The Banco Nacional de Fomento, the state development bank, is holding 18 billion guaranís (3.5 million dollars) to compensate survivors and victims’ families for pain and suffering. These funds were raised by the attachment of owners’ assets during the trial.

But in Lataza’s view, “no amount of money will be enough, because every plaintiff has specific expenses.”

In spite of the uncertainty about reparations, the victims’ organisation is carrying on its struggle.

“We have managed to bring about a change: now the Paraguayan justice system will have to look on ordinary people differently and realise that justice is not only for one sector of society, but for every citizen of this country whose rights have been infringed,” said Rivarola, repeating the slogan of the movement: “Ycuá Bolaños, never again!”