A high-profile Paraguayan prosecutor who fought against organised crime in his home country has been shot dead during his honeymoon in Colombia. Marcelo Pecci was on a beach on the idyllic tourist island of Baru when he was killed by two gunmen.
Hours before the shooting, Mr Pecci’s wife had announced on Instagram that she was pregnant.
Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez described the shooting as a “cowardly murder”.
Mr Pecci’s wife, journalist Claudia Aguilera, said that they were approached by two men on a private beach before her husband was shot. She said he had not received any threats.
“Two men attacked Marcelo. They came in a small boat, or on a jet ski, the truth is I did not see well,” Ms Aguilera told the El Tiempo newspaper.
One of the assailants got out and “without a word he shot Marcelo twice, one [bullet] hit him in the face and another in the back,” she said. Paraguayan prosecutor Augusto Salas, a colleague of Mr Pecci, said that the attack appeared “typical of the [drug] mafia, so that is what I will think until the contrary is proven”, according to news agency AFP.
Credit: bbc.com
