Paso Yobaí: Threats, a multi-million dollar deal, a mortgage signed under duress and trespass on one of the most valuable gold mines in Paso Yobai. All these articles are part of a series of complaints filed with the authorities.
Juan Urrustarazu was the one who filed a complaint against the invasion of Minas Paraguay to the prosecutor, while American Steven Klaver was the one who asked for help from the American embassy.
“They broke me and are still looking for me,” Urrustarazu told our newspaper.
A long history behind the precious property
The raid on valuable assets carried out months ago is only the epilogue of a long series of problems, as can be seen from the reports and publications in our own newspaper and in other media.
This story began in 2011, when foreigners named Steven Klaver, Thomas Dalrimple and Dwight Romanica came to Paraguay to start buying several plots of land in the Paso Yobai area, a district in the department of Guairá that has become the center of gold rush in our country has become. The New York firm Fair Trade Acquisitions Corp. landed in Paraguay to start work in Minas Paraguay.
Foreigners bought a 254-hectare property from the Paraguayan company Talavera y Ortellado to start exploiting it.
The problems started soon after. Local residents had identified these properties as some of the potential ones for the precious metal. After a quiet start to joint work, the first attack on the mine took place.
When problems arose at the mine in 2014 due to conflicts with local prospectors, foreign investors turned to the then Deputy Minister of Mines, Emilio Buongermini, who put the investors in contact with an influential figure in the government: Eduardo Heisecke Mazó.
Heisecke Mazó introduced the lawyers Ana Mora de Ramírez, her son Oscar Fabián Ramírez Mora and the bankruptcy trustee Blas Velázquez Fernández to the foreigners. All of this was detailed in a complaint filed with the US Embassy in Asunción in August 2021.
Mora and Velázquez Fernández have recommended that investors file an eviction suit, but in a Quiindy court. The Americans had been promised they could handle the process there in peace.
Velázquez is from Quiindy, as is his “godfather” minister Antonio Fretes. But please be careful.
The case then fell into the hands of Judge Clara Raquel Isasi, wife of trustee Blas Velázquez.
It took Isasi just two weeks to issue a ruling banning local miners from approaching the mine. This decision has been appealed. When the final decision came, Ana Mora and Oscar Ramírez Mora told investors they would have to meet with Eduardo Heisecke again and pay $100,000. Otherwise, the judges would rule against them. Klaver and his partners refused. Then the problems started.
There was already a legal confusion in 2015, then published by the newspaper Última Hora. Adding to the chaos in court, Attorney Mora managed to get her fee pegged at nearly $2 million for one surgery.
Mora benefited from this ruling by then Judge Clara Isasi of the Children of Quiindy. Yes, Blas Velázquez’s wife.
Isasi was investigated and admonished by the Judicial Council (JEM) for this action in 2017. Subsequently, however, she was reinstated as a judge in Misiones.
The threats of Eduardo Heisecke
Given the continued refusal of foreigners to pay the exorbitant sum, criminal and civil harassment began against them and against the society they represent. Desperate, they turned again to Eduardo Heisecke Mazó.
“You know better than anyone that if I attack you, I will not stop until you return to the United States or to prison, because that is how I will be (…) Sell, sign and go,” says Businessman, business partner of Juan Carlos López Moreira, director of Cartes group companies and head of the presidential cabinet of the government of Horacio Cartes, in an audio recording published by Abc Color in 2018.
Finally, in 2017, the MOPC withdrew the mine from investors in Minas Paraguay. They argued that they forgot to pay the 2015 and 2016 license fees (about $1,300), which the company’s current legal counsel disputes. They argue that Article 20 of the contract they signed provides for the right to “rectify” within 60 days any reason for expiry given by the government.
Surprisingly, after the MOPC signed off on the concession, within days a new interested party emerged – a lawyer and former MOPC official – to whom the mine was handed over, while not retaining the technical or financial capacity as the mining law should have.
Finally, in 2016, the investors had to sign a contract for the sale of the exploitation of Minas Paraguay to Ana Mora and Óscar Fabián Ramírez Mora for five years.
Therefore, on November 3, 2016, a service agreement was signed between the companies Fair Trade Acquisitions Corp and Minas Paraguay SA on the one hand and the company Itapoty on the other.
Itapoty SA is owned by Éver Noguera, a member of the Guairá management team. This is evident from his own declarations of assets and income, which he submitted to the Office of the Court of Auditors.
60% of the profits would go to Itapoty SA and 40% to Fair Trade Acquisitions Corp. go, and only this amount had to be paid in full to Ana Mora and Oscar Ramírez Mora, up to the two million dollars they asked.
Not happy with this contract, Mora and his son forced the foreigners to take out a mortgage on the entire property of the mine, under which another part of the nightmare would unfold.
The second expropriation: the invasion
With the mortgage, another part of the nightmare. Itapoty was supposed to exploit the mine, but that never happened. As a result of this default, Mora and Ramírez initiated foreclosure proceedings against the foreign investors, who lost in the first instance.
While trying to get second-degree judgment in the foreclosure, Mora and Ramírez Mora invaded the properties that make up Minas Paraguay in Paso Yobai. At the same time, they also filed a complaint against engineer Juan Urrustarazu, partner of the foreign investors and one of the technical directors, for alleged environmental crimes.
Despite losing in the first instance, Mora and her son used those documents to enter the mine site a few months ago, also accompanied by members of a local police station, according to the lawsuit filed with prosecutors.
To give everything a certain validity, as soon as they entered the premises, they asked a judge of Villarrica for admission.
Threats to the prosecutor María Unger
The lawyer and his son even threatened a delegation led by prosecutor Maria Unger, who is dealing with the trespassing charges against the two.
“Two people, identified as Ana Mora de Ramírez and Óscar Fabián Ramírez, posing as the temporary caretakers, began shouting incomprehensible words and profanity,” the transcript read.
The transcript shows that Ramírez Mora treated the committee like a fool. “They reiterated their refusal to allow the other person onto the property, stating that they are not responsible for people entering the property and that people on the property are carrying firearms,” the document read.
According to Urrustarazu, the site has now been completely destroyed and the equipment that belonged to the estancia is no longer there.
According to whistleblowers, the site is being used for logging and exploitation even without an environmental permit.
According to the announcement, Noguera even went so far as to ask for $1 million in exchange for signing the new concession. So, for nearly a decade, foreign investors have lived with the constant threat of losing a $10 million investment. All because a group, protected by Guairá’s politicians and a minister of the Supreme Court, is trying to seize a piece of land where these investments have been made.
Weekly / Abc Color
The purpose of this service is to add value to the news and establish a more fluid contact with readers. Comments should be adapted to the subject of the article. Commenters are solely responsible for the content, which should be factual and clear. Swearing, personal insults and racism will not be tolerated.
