President Mario Abdo Benítez and Argentine minister Patricia Bullrich travelled to Pedro Juan Caballero, Amambay, on 4 June 2019 to launch Operativo Nueva Alianza against organised crime and drug trafficking on the border.[1] Brazil’s justice minister Sérgio Moro had met anti-drug chief Arnaldo Giuzzio the day before, after weather blocked a wider regional summit, and the three countries toured a marijuana plantation carrying out destruction raids as a show of joint force.[1]
First tri-national push
In early June the three countries’ security forces carried out the Nueva Alianza operation across Amambay department, centred on Pedro Juan Caballero on the Brazilian border, a production and trafficking hub contested by groups such as Comando Vermelho and the First Capital Command.[2] It was the first time Argentina joined a marijuana eradication effort in Paraguay, a country that has become a major destination for the drug.[2]
The operation seized more than 500 tons of marijuana and disrupted the flow of more than US$5 million into organised crime, according to Diálogo.[2] Argentine security secretary Eugenio Burzaco said the two keys were three-way cooperation and destroying plantations with Paraguay before the drug reached consumers, while Brazil’s Moro overflew the area and Federal Police chief Maurício Valeixo called the joint work the only way to confront transnational crime.[2] Giuzzio said the initiative let both nations advance more openly against criminal structures.[2]
