formal denuncia from ABC Color

In a story ripped-from-the-headlines of The Onion, Paraguay's Liberal Party Senator Alfredo Luís Jaeggli has charged Deputy (a member of the lower house in Paraguay's congress) Aida Robles with "polución visual y sonora." Um, look here for some images of the accuser (he's the bald dude).

Last night, in two separate incidents (on opposites sides of the country), two different women were attacked by two robbers each. Both times, one of the robbers lost his life and his partner was critically wounded as locals noticed what was happening and used their guns.

In Ciudad del Este, two teenagers broke into the despensa (shop) where the owner and her 14 year old daughter were threatened with rape and then robbed. The neighbors realized what was going on, barged into the store, and fired at the perpetrators, killing one instantly and tying up the other to await the arrival of the police. The dead robber, 16, is the younger brother of the survivor, aged 17.

In Asunción, a woman was mugged of her cellphone by two men. An unidentified driver noticed what was happening, shot twice -- killing one mugger and severely wounding the other -- before driving away.

The response in the online comments sections for both is the same:
(Asu)
bien por este señor por su acto de heroismo y caballerosidad ... good for this man for his act of heroism and chivalry

1 menos... vamos todavia ... one less, we're on our way

Excelente al que le ayudo a la joven, no podemos permitir que los asaltantes ganen las calles, excelente, yo estimado te paso la mano, muy bien, excelente, esa chica puede ser tu hermana, tu prima, vecina, la mama de alguien, tu hija, etc, bien por tu decisiòn. ... Excellent to the one who helped the girl, we cannot allow that criminals (literally "attackers") win the streets, excellent, I shake your hand, well down, excellent, this girl could be your sister, your cousin, your neighbor, somebodies mother, your daughter, etc, good for your decision.

(CdE)
BIEN HECHO. Well Done.

es lo mejor que escuchado en mi vida ya era hora que estos mal vivientes sean penados por la gente ya que la justicia en nuestro pais no existe .... this is the best thing I've heard in my life it was about time that these lowlifes be judged by the people as justice does not exist in our country

enfrente de mi casa ya se asalto 5 (CINCO) veces en tres meses la despensa de una sra. humilde, que da de comer con lo que gana a su familia y la hace estudiar, es el colmo como estos buenos para nada, hacen sus patranhas despojando a los trabajadores de lo poco que tienen, a esta actitud se le va la nota 10 ++, ya que si en unas de esas eran capturados por la policia coimera paraguaya, la justicia se encargaria de soltarlos .... in front of my house in the past three months five times they've assaulted the despensa of a poor woman that feeds her family from what she earns and makes them study, this is the limit of how these good-for-nothings do their misdeeds robbing workers of the little they have, to this [the neighborly vigilantes] attitude I give an A++, if one of these had been captured by the bribe-loving [literally "briby"] Paraguayan police, the justice system would be sure to let them go free

For this trifle, a 17 year old kid has lost his freedom and is now at the mercy of the "justice" system of one of the worst governments on the planet. Note that this past week, Transparency International ranked Paraguay the third worst in terms of corruption in Latin America (Haiti and Venezuela were numbers 1 and 2)-- Zimbabwe and Russia did better than Paraguay on this evaluation.

No methods training in graduate school was sufficient to prepare for the heart-breaking and self-doubt-inducing experience of watching my mugger get caught and incarcerated.

In news guaranteed to bring anguish to any (and especially my) mother, I was mugged at gunpoint in Asunción at 10pm a few nights ago. The downside: I had to purchase my fifth cellphone in Paraguay in a little over a year (I lose these sorts of things all the time). The upside: this is great data, as I study the Paraguayan state.

We were only a few blocks from our building on a well-lit street that had cars on it (we were at Cerro Cora, at the corner of Caballero) and, at 10pm, might still have bus service on it. The mugger dude approached us on a really nice motorcycle (I took him first to be yet another really annoying Paraguayan male offering sex in the most unappealing way)-- more on the bike later-- and pulled out a revolver which, um, he fired to emphasize his demands. I reached slowly into my purse to get my wallet--and as I did so, removed my debit card from it--handed it to the dude and then followed with my cellphone. Yes, I almost asked him if I could take out the SIM card, but thought better of it. My friend also lost her cellphone and then mister dude took off into the night.

A few lessons from the incident: For women travelers, two women walking down the street is as safe as one woman walking down the street. Take the same precautions you would if you were alone. I.e., I would have taken a taxi were I alone, I was, instead, lulled into a sense of some security because there were two of us. Wrong! The other wrong thing we did was to speak in English as we walked. Yes, yes, I know. This is the most obvious error. Well, now we've tested it and proven empirically that it's a bad idea. We then called the police, the US embassy (021 213 715), and I had my parents assist me in canceling the one credit card I was not able to remove surreptitiously.

And now, for lowered expectations: the US embassy reception is supposed to report the incident to security personnel (particularly since there was the use of a firearm)--this didn't happen, but we got in touch with really helpful (and upset about the whole incident) folk a few days later. And, as for the Paraguayan police. Well, as we gave our statement at the comisaria, the interviewer repeatedly and persistently changed the data he wrote down as he took our statement: first, the date of the incident was wrong. Next, the description of the subject was pointedly different (they changed his age and the color of his clothing). And when challenged on this latter bit, they intransigently refused to accept our description of the perpetrator.

We finally found the spitting image of the red motorbike used by the mugger dude: parked among the other police bikes outside the comisaria.

Incidentally, I wonder what percentage of anthropologists are mugged on the field...