Senate asks U.S. to allow Angel Napout to undergo eye surgery
Last Tuesday the former president of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) Juan Angel Napout, convicted and in prison in Miami, United States, was to undergo eye surgery as his eyesight is very deteriorated.
The plenary of the Upper House approved yesterday, Thursday, to reiterate a humanitarian request to the Government of the United States for the compatriot Juan Ángel Napout, former sports leader held since 2018 in a US prison and who requires urgent surgery in view of the possibility of going blind. This draft declaration, moved before the plenary by Senator Juan Carlos Galaverna, was unanimously approved by the 37 senators present.
On several occasions, the Napout family requested that the former head of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) be medically treated due to the advance of cataracts that are already affecting Juan Angel’s vision. The family appealed to several instances, from the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay to the Organization of American States (OAS) for him to urgently undergo eye surgery.
Senator Juan Carlos Galaverna, who signed the bill with his colleague Enrique Bacchetta, described the treatment of the former Paraguayan soccer leader as miserable, since last Tuesday Napout was taken to a clinic, however, only for a medical check-up and not for the requested eye surgery.
“What happened yesterday (Tuesday) was already the height of miserability, they took him out of prison with the hope of taking him to the clinic for the ophthalmologic surgery, they kept him waiting for hours and finally they told him that there was never any provision for surgery, that they took him just for an inspection”, claimed Senator Galaverna.
He added that in that inspection it was found that he had indeed lost the sight of one of his eyes and that he is about to lose the sight of the other eye. “They told him that this kind of operations are not performed in that clinic, so they took him there only to play with his illusion, with his hope, with his feelings and to make fun of this compatriot”, questioned the parliamentarian. Galaverna asked the plenary that the document be taken by the president of the Senate and the president of the Foreign Relations Committee to the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay.
LOST VISION IN ONE EYE
In view of the lack of response to the compassionate request, the Paraguayan senators insisted again on an exhortation addressed to Joe Biden’s administration to mediate in favor of a health intervention for Napout. Senator Enrique Bacchetta expressed: “I am very concerned about our compatriot and my friend Juan Ángel Napout, I want to insist again on the situation that is being raised, it is a really regrettable situation”, expressed Bacchetta during his intervention.