A Paraguayan court sentenced former Argentine senator Edgardo Kueider to two years in prison for attempted smuggling. In the same ruling, his partner, Iara Guinsel, was sentenced to one year and ten months in prison. 

Both are suspended sentences, meaning that the defendants will not be sent to prison because the sentence is under the two-and-a-half years of mandatory time for incarceration. 

The case originated from an operation carried out in December 2024 at the Brazil–Paraguay border crossing, where customs authorities discovered that Kueider and Guinsel were carrying more than US$200,000, along with Argentine pesos and Paraguayan guaraníes, without filing the required customs declaration. 

Before the verdict was announced, Kueider again declared his innocence before the court and rejected the charges. “There is no reason to apologize for a crime I did not commit,” he said, insisting that the money had a lawful origin and that his conduct did not fit the criminal offense for which he was prosecuted. 

Kueider maintained that neither he nor Guinsel had committed any crime and argued that this would be demonstrated both in the current proceedings and in the other legal cases they face in Paraguay and Argentina. Neither defendant testified during the trial.

The cases Kueider faces in Argentina

Kueider and Guinsel have remained under house arrest in Paraguay for the past year and a half, a period that will be credited toward their sentence if the conviction becomes final.

Meanwhile, both have been indicted in Argentina on allegations of money laundering in an investigation related to the purchase of six apartments in a luxury residential building in Asunción.

In addition, the former senator faces two separate investigations for alleged illicit enrichment, one in Concordia, in his home province of Entre Ríos, and another in San Isidro, Buenos Aires province.

Argentine Federal Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado has requested his extradition. Paraguayan authorities have already approved the request, but its final execution remains pending until Argentina’s Supreme Court resolves a jurisdictional dispute.

Furthermore, the Federal Court of Appeals in San Isidro recently rejected Kueider’s request for immunity from pretrial detention, meaning he could be taken into custody immediately if he returns to Argentina.

With information from Ámbito