Paraguay
Disputes in the Paraguayan government over the relocation of a wiretapping system
The move of equipment purchased for Senad to a Ministry of the Interior facility prompted conflicting accounts within the Executive Branch. ABC reported that earlier documents had specifically called for avoiding that dependency.
The relocation of a telephone interception system acquired for the Secretaría Nacional Antidrogas to the sphere of the Ministry of the Interior opened a controversy in the Government of Paraguay, according to ABC.
According to that outlet, on July 3, 2026, the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Gustavo Villate, sent official note MITIC-SE number 166/2026 to the head of Senad, Jalil Rachid, to order the transfer of the mediator system purchased through the Fundación Parque Tecnológico Itaipú in 2025. At that time, the operation was valued at around US$ 12 million.
ABC noted that an internal Senad document known months earlier showed that the investment had been approved with the aim of ensuring the antidrug agency’s “total independence” from the Ministry of the Interior. That assessment stated that Senad depended on a Septier mediator device installed in 2014 at police headquarters, under contract 30/2014, maintained by TSV del Paraguay SRL, and that the equipment only allowed interceptions on 2G networks.
Also according to ABC, Senad’s project contemplated a new autonomous mediator to operate on 2G, 3G, 4G, VoLTE and 5G. For that reason, the transfer now ordered contradicts that original plan and places the platform back at police headquarters.
Rachid said on September 12 that the process “is underway” and maintained that, although the purchase was made by PTI-PY and the transfer was ordered for the Ministry of the Interior, that ministry’s wiretaps will depend on Senad because its equipment is newer. He also said that dependence will be technical and will not affect the independence of the cases. In addition, he confirmed the award to TSV del Paraguay SRL, represented by Pablo Salinas, and estimated that testing with the telephone companies will be completed in a month.
In comments to ABC, Villate gave a different explanation of the scope of the transfer. He said what is being moved is not a direct audio interception system, but a “mediator system” intended for signaling and routing communications over the network. He added that the operational layer for intercepting audio works with a separate device installed in each institution.
The minister said the Ministry of the Interior will fulfill only the function of “hosting” or physical server. According to his explanation, the decision was driven by the obsolescence of the police hardware, with more than ten years of use and no licenses to operate on VoLTE or 5G, as well as recommendations from the carriers to concentrate the interconnections at the existing physical point. He also assured that contract administration will remain under Senad and that logical management through “isolated containers” preserves the confidentiality of judicial files.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this fact.
