The Paraguayan People's Army (Spanish: Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP) is a Marxist-Leninist[3] 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).

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.

"[10] The EPP was critical of previous governments, such as those of Fernando Lugo and Nicanor Duarte Frutos, since according to them, it represented the oligarchy, ignored social problems and did not propose a true agrarian reform.

The Paraguayan People's Army defines itself as Marxist-Leninist and claims to be inspired by José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, the architect of Paraguay's independence and considered by the insurgents as a revolutionary.

According to Galeano Perrone, a political analyst and former minister, the guerrillas "enjoy a certain popularity in poor regions abandoned by the state, and EPP members are often seen as Robin Hoods, redistributing wealth.

Peasant trade unionists are murdered by the army and portrayed as guerrillas, while families are forced to leave because of military activities and hand over their land to large landowners or Brazilian companies.

In 1992 the Metropolitan Seminary of Asunción took the drastic decision to expel 8 seminarians, some of them were Alcides Oviedo, Gilberto Setrini, Osvaldo Martínez and Pedro Maciel, for the reason of taking to the extreme a Catholic ideology known as the "Theology of the Liberation" and participate in political activities other than the Church.

[16] A few months before the attempted assault, and with the supposed purpose of raising money to provide infrastructure to the political movement for the general elections of 1998, the members of the "band of Choré" (nicknamed after the location of the incident), they rented a house near the Banco Nacional de Fomento in the town of Chore, department of San Pedro, in order to raid the vaults of the Banco Nacional de Fomento in that town, through an underground tunnel from the house to the bank, which would later be discovered by the police in the middle of a raid on December 15, 1997.

Carmen María Villalba Ayala, Alcides Omar Oviedo Brítez, Gustavo Lezcano, Lucio Silva and Pedro Maciel Cardozo were arrested.

Roberto González, would make a revelation that would turn what until then was an extraordinary police case, into a political scandal: “It was a successful outcome of a plan by a left - wing group (in reference to Patria Libre), with the intention of promoting the destabilization of the Government”.

In August 2003, days before the oral and public trial that Arrom and Martí would face for the kidnapping of María Edith, they fled the country (together with Víctor Colmán), being accepted in Brazil with the status of political refugees by CONARE towards the end in 2003.

[19] On July 16, 2003, there was a raid on a house located in the "Sanguina Kue" settlement in the San Pedro department, in search of the fugitive Alcides Oviedo, in which prosecutors Arnaldo Giuzzio and Antonio Ramón Bernal Casco along with several policemen were shot by a group of four people who were trying to escape, whose members were the suspects and accused of the kidnapping of María Edith Bordón de Debernardi.

In this attack, the EPP members burned agricultural machinery from the Santa Herminia ranch in the department of Concepción, of soybean production with more than 20,000 hectares, belonging to the Brazilian businessman Nabort Boht.

In a striking event, it was later learned that the Paraguayan peasants accused of being related to the insurgent group, in fact for two years had been making complaints about health conditions caused by the fumigation of agrochemicals in the Boht soybean field.

On May 30, 2013 in the morning, he was shot to death by said group, in command of his truck, on a local road in the town of Tacuati Poty, department of San Pedro, for the motive of "not complying with the revolutionary laws.

The 29 of April of 2009, the armed group was attributed to placing a bomb inside the Palace of Justice in Asuncion, which after being discovered by a janitor, was taken by a security guard outside the building where it exploded.

In May 2010, in the midst of a declaration of a state of emergency in force, military personnel had the task of arresting Magna Meza-presumed leader of the EPP at that time-, who would be on a children's birthday in the town of Hugua Ñandú, department of Concepción.

What seemed like an excellent plan to arrest one of the leaders of the EPP, ended up being a confusing and serious incident, in which military and police officers (from the area) faced gunfire, thus producing a national scandal that crossed borders.

As of 21 of September 2011, another serious incident is repeated, in which members of the EPP used all types of heavy weapons and an explosive to attack Captain subpolice Giménez, confirmed a senior police chief Concepción.

On Wednesday 2 of April 2014, Paso Tuya department of Concepción was the scene of a firefight waged in a house between the Joint Task Force (FTC) of the army and guerrilleros of the EPP, who managed to down the military but suffered two casualties.

The bloody episode managed to be projected in time, since while the guerrillas escaped, they took as hostage Isaac Arce, a businessman, and the 16-year-old Arlan Fick, son of the owner of the silo.

The first was to broadcast with video, where the guerrillas killed in the confrontation with the Paraguayan army, Bernal Maíz and Silva Martínez, are vindicated, while the second was to distribute food - worth 50 thousand dollars - to two communities of Concepción.

Subsequently, on December 25, 2014, Arlan was released by the armed group, a few kilometers from Yby Yaú, in Colonia Nueva Esperanza, Azotey district, Concepción department.

[30] However, NCO Edelio Morinigo did not have the same fate, considering that after 1377 days of kidnapping, on April 11, 2018, the FTC found a pamphlet in a camp of the self-styled EPP, where it "confirmed" the death of the sub official and would also have details of where the body would be buried.

On August 27, 2016, on a local road of the settlement core 6 - Arroyito, located in the district of Horqueta, in Concepción department, a fatal attack occurred between members of the FTC and the ACA.

In March 2017, a journalist for ABC Color, a correspondent in Horqueta, found a pamphlet and a memory card on the wall of her home, related to a new guerrilla group, called "Army of Mariscal López" (EML).

The Mennonite settler Gerardo Wall Rempel was kidnapped on March 17, 2017, around 7:30 p.m. in the vicinity of the López Salinas settlement, near the Río Verde neighborhood of the Santa Rosa del Aguaray district, north of the San Pedro department.

The last attack occurred on December 22, 2018 at 10:00 p.m., in which members of the criminal group murdered the security guard Nery Germán Araújo Esteche, who received six shots from a shotgun and a rifle.

[40] On 29 February 2020, a tractor used for pest fumigation was set on fire in the town of Tacuatí, Department of San Pedro, a well-known area of influence of the guerrillas where several attacks have been carried out in previous years.

The Paraguayan government asked the DEA for authorization to use its mobile communication interception technology (supposedly aimed exclusively at combating drug trafficking) with the declared attempt to spy to EPP.