Paraguayan People's Army

The Paraguayan People's Army (Spanish: Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP) is a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group that officially operates in Paraguay since March 1, 2008, although its antecedents go back as far as the 1990s, acting at that time as the "clandestine armed wing" of Patria Libre (a communist party founded in 1990).

They operate in a similar way to other insurgent Latin American left-wing paramilitary guerrillas in times of dictatorships, claiming expropriations and kidnappings against businessmen, bankers and ranchers in the area in which the EPP operates and has staged a number of armed operations, including bombings, arson attacks, shootings as part of an organized insurgency. They operate in northeastern Paraguay, with most incidents occurring in Concepción Department, as well as the neighboring departments of Canindeyú and San Pedro. According to the Paraguayan government, in its beginnings, its first leaders and members were trained by members of regional guerrilla groups, such as the FARC of Colombia, or the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front of Chile, among others.

As of March 2012, the group was suspected of carrying out 27 separate operations, with more than half of them occurring after January 2011. These incidents resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people — 9 civilians and 7 police officers. By December 2013, the insurgency resulted in killing of at least 33 civilians and police officers, with an unknown number of killed EPP operatives. By mid 2020, fatalities from the insurgency had surpassed 70, most of them civilians and police.

According to investigations by the Joint Task Forces (a special counterinsurgency unit made up of police, military and other state agents created in 2013), the EPP has millions of dollars collected in kidnappings, extortion, expropriations and even contributions from neighbors and supporters. To this day, they continue to gain followers in the area, given the void left by the Paraguayan State.