Oscar Denise: Family Asks Abductors of Paraguay Former Vice President to Provide Proof of Life
Picture taken on June 28, 2012 showing (then) new Paraguayan Vice-President Amancio Oscar Denis (L) during his swearing-in ceremony at the Congress in Asuncion. - The the Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP), a small left-wing armed group that has operated in Paraguay since 2008, demanded a ransom for former Paraguayan Vice-President Oscar Denis, kidnapped last September 9, 2020 in the department of Concepcion, about 500 km northeast of Asuncion, his relatives said on September 12, 2020. NORBERTO DUARTE/AFP via Getty Images

The family of Oscar Denis, the former vice president of Paraguay, has asked his abductors to provide proof of life.

Oscar Denis' daughter Beatriz said that in the nine months since her father was kidnapped, they had not received any news from her father, BBC News reported.

Oscar Denis was kidnapped by members of the Marxist Paraguayan People's Army (EPP) rebel group from his ranch near the city of Yby Yaú on Sept. 9, 2020.

The EPP claimed responsibility for the former vice president's kidnapping and demanded the government to release two of the group's jailed leaders in exchange for Oscar Denis' release.

The group also directed the family of the former vice president to hand out food to 40 communities in the region where the kidnapping took place. They also ordered the family to distribute the group's propaganda material.

The family had met the kidnappers' demands. However, the government had refused to free the two imprisoned EPP rebels who are both serving sentences for the attempted murder of the three police during a failed jailbreak in 2004.

The 96-year-old mother of Paraguay's former vice president died last week without seeing her son. Beatriz said Sunday, June 27, that there had been no results from the government's side, with no advances or information.

The former vice president's daughter noted that the only information the family had received was in the form of another EPP pamphlet, which had been left in a local business on June 4. Authorities had verified the pamphlet, which was addressed to Oscar Denis' family.

The kidnappers asked the daughter of Paraguay's former vice president to make the pamphlet's contents public. However, she said that she would only do so if the rebels provided proof that her father is alive.

Calls for Oscar Denis' Release

After he was kidnapped, hundreds of people joined a protest in Paraguay to demand the release of the former vice president.

According to another BBC report, the EPP had earlier released a pamphlet stating the deadline for the government to release Carmen Villalba and Alcides Oviedo. The deadline set by the rebels has already expired.

Villalba and Oviedo were members of the rebel group sentenced last year for the attempted murder of three cops in an attempted jailbreak. Both of them were already serving long sentences for kidnapping.

Paraguayan Interior Minister Euclides Acevedo said the state would never enter into negotiations about matters of "public security."

Girls Killed in a Paraguay Raid

In September 2020, the United Nations called for an investigation after two girls were shot dead in a raid by Paraguayan security forces on a rebel camp.

Neighboring Argentina has identified the two victims as Argentine nationals and confirmed that they were 11 years old, another BBC report noted.

The two girls were identified as Maria del Carmen Villalba and Lilian Mariana Villalba. Myrian Viviana Villalba, Lilian's mother, said the girls planned to return home to Argentina in March to start the school year.

However, they got stuck in Paraguay when both countries shut their borders due to the pandemic, The New York Times reported. Myrian said both of the girls had fathers in the EPP. However, she declined to identify the men.

The EPP is known for carrying out a string of killings and kidnappings in Paraguay.

WATCH: Former Paraguayan Vice President Feared Kidnapped - From Reuters