The Paraguayan government completed Operation Umbral 2.5 on Sunday (17), transferring 361 women deprived of liberty from six mixed prisons to the Emboscada Women's Penitentiary Complex (Comple). The action, coordinated by the Ministry of Justice with support from the National Police and the Armed Forces, transforms Comple into the main female prison unit in the country, with a total capacity of 1,122 inmates.
The women were removed from the units in Concepción, Villarrica, Cambyretá, San Juan Bautista, Ciudad del Este, and Pedro Juan Caballero. The Juana María de Lara women's prison in Ciudad del Este was emptied and permanently closed, now housing only men. The same occurred in the other units, which are now exclusively male.
The General Director of Penitentiary Establishments, Rubén Peña, reported that the transfer included the Uruguayan Gianina García Troche, partner of the alleged drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, who was in the Martín Mendoza maximum security prison and is now at Comple.
The Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Nicora, stated at a press conference on Monday (18) that the operation allows for “effective separation” between convicted and pre-trial detainees, as well as fulfilling the constitutional mandate not to keep men and women in the same location. Nicora highlighted that Comple was created to offer “dignified and adequate conditions for security and implementation of social reintegration programs.”
The operation involved 737 National Police officers, 507 military personnel, 62 Ministry of Justice employees, and 26 health professionals from the Ministry of Public Health. The Interior Minister, Enrique Riera, reiterated the commitment to expand the use of electronic ankle monitors for home detention monitoring, noting that of the 1,000 available, only 200 are in use, while more than 9,000 people under this regime should be monitored in person by police officers, a number insufficient for the task.
The other female prison still in operation is Sefarina Dávalos, in Coronel Oviedo, exclusively for mothers with children up to 3 years old, where there are currently 37 inmates.