Two masked men shot and killed Lourenço “Léo” Veras at his home in the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero, which borders the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã, around 9 p.m. on February 12, 2020. Veras, a Brazilian national, was the owner and manager of Porã News, a news website covering organized crime, policing, and drug trafficking-related issues on the Brazil-Paraguay border.
Three men drove to Veras’ home in a white vehicle, and two raided the home while he was having dinner with his wife, son, and father-in-law, while the other waited in the driver’s seat, according to a report by the Amambay district police, which CPJ reviewed. Veras tried to escape, but the attackers shot him in the leg; they then shot him 11 times, including once in the head.
Veras was brought to the local Viva Vida private hospital and died shortly after, according to the police report, which was provided to CPJ via email by the Paraguayan National Police Transparency and Anti-Corruption Department, which said police found 16 used 9 mm cartridges at the scene.
Ignacio Rodríguez, the director of police in Amambay, said the attack may have been retaliation for material published by Porã News.
According to a statement by the National Federation of Journalists in Brazil, an association of journalists’ unions, and Veras’ interview with Brazilian broadcaster TV record in January 2020, the journalist received numerous threats from drug dealers as a consequence of his reporting.
While Veras worked for six months as a regional correspondent for Paraguayan daily ABC Color and other outlets in the Brazilian border state of Mato Grosso do Sul, he was granted police protection due to a series of threats he received from members of an organized crime group, ABC Color reported.
Veras had worked for more than 15 years in the border region around Pedro Juan Caballero and Ponta Porã, one of the main entry points of arms and drugs in Brazil.
In a 2017 Abraji documentary, Veras spoke about the threats he had received, saying, "We have to die one day. I always hope that my death won’t be so violent, with too many rifle shots. Here, if a hitman wants to kill you he comes to your door, tells you to open it and he will shoot you. I hope that it will only be one shot in order not to cause too much damage."
Carlos Eduardo, an investigator with the Civil Police in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state, told CPJ in an email that Paraguayan authorities were responsible for investigating Veras’ killing but said the civil police were working with their Paraguayan counterparts to look into whether the killers fled to Brazil.
The Paraguayan Department Against Organized Crime arrested 10 people suspected of involvement in the killing on February 22, 2020. Abraji reported that police seized four 9 mm Glock pistols in the arrests, and found a white Jeep Renegade.
The Paraguayan public prosecutor’s office published a February 24 statement saying they suspected the Jeep was the vehicle used in Veras’ killing and that forensic analysis revealed that the gun that shot Veras was also used in at least seven other incidents.
Paraguayan authorities also said the Brazilian crime group First Command of the Capital (PCC) ordered the killing, later pointing to Sergio de Arruda Quintiliano Neto (Minotauro), a PCC member who is imprisoned in Brazil but allegedly commands criminal activities in Paraguay.
Paraguayan national police agents detained Waldemar Pereira Rivas (Cachorrão) believed to be the main suspect in the case, in the Jardín Aurora neighborhood of Pedro Juan Caballero on May 1, 2020. Police issued an arrest warrant for him on February 24 after they located the vehicle used for Veras’ killing at Rivas’ home.
The prosecutor’s office charged Rivas, allegedly the leader of the PCC criminal gang’s operations in the area, with homicide and criminal association for Veras’ killing on May 2. Rivas denied the charges and was acquitted by the Amambay Court on November 3, 2022, due to a lack of evidence linking him to the murder.
The Amambay Appeal Court overturned the decision eight days later, but Rivas was not rearrested and remains at large.
However, Cintia González, Veras’ widow, told Abraji in an April 2021 interview published that Rivas does not match the description she gave to authorities and she no longer had the police protection she was initially granted.
González told CPJ in October 2024 that she moved abroad in 2023 in search of job opportunities, where she remarried.
The Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry told CPJ by email in February 2020 that the killing was “unacceptable” and said, “It is expected that the investigations carried out by Paraguayan authorities result in a rapid solution of the case and punishment of those responsible.”
CPJ’s email to the prosecutor’s office requesting comment on the classification of Veras’ killing as a targeted murder did not receive a reply.