Paraguay Travel Safety

Start with what the source says and does not say. The cited advice for Paraguay names specific regional risks in detail, and across its entry, safety, regional and health pages it carries no advice against travel to any part of the country. That is unusual in this region and it is worth reporting accurately rather than softening in either direction. Serious risks are described; no area is placed off limits.

The eastern border with Brazil

This is where the cited advice is most specific. Transnational criminal organizations carry out drug trafficking and arms smuggling along Paraguay's eastern border with Brazil. Most of that activity runs from Pedro Juan Caballero south to Ciudad del Este and to the Tri-Border Area where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet. Violent crime is described as increasing there, and the advice asks for particular care in the departments that border Brazil: Amambay, Concepcion, Alto Parana, San Pedro, Canindeyu and Salto del Guaira.

A small guerrilla-style group calling itself the Ejercito del Pueblo Paraguayo operates in the north of San Pedro and the south of Concepcion. Its targets are typically police and the military, and it attacks the ranches of large landowners, often taking cattle in numbers. Its attacks can be violent and have involved explosives and firearms, and it has kidnapped high profile people for ransom, most recently in 2022.

Read that carefully. It describes a rural insurgency with political and economic targets in two specific departments, not a threat aimed at visitors. Most itineraries, which run Asuncion to the mission country to Encarnacion, do not go anywhere near it. Ciudad del Este does sit at the southern end of the corridor described, and a great many visitors pass through it on the way to Iguazu.

Blockades and protests

The cited advice records that there is often social conflict in Paraguay, and that groups may set up blockades as a form of protest along the main roads and in downtown Asuncion near government buildings. These disrupt public transport and cause widespread delays, often with little warning.

The response is simple and it is not negotiation. Avoid large gatherings, monitor local media and follow the instructions of the local authorities. Do not attempt to cross or drive through a blockade, and do not join a protest. Build a spare day into any itinerary with a fixed flight at the end of it.

Crime in the cities

Bag snatching and pickpocketing are a problem on public transport, and the cited advice notes that many foreigners choose taxis over buses for that reason. Muggers are occasionally violent and can be armed, and carrying large amounts of cash or wearing expensive jewelry makes a target of you.

The specific habits the advice recommends are worth adopting rather than skimming:

• Use cash machines inside buildings rather than on the street.
• Call a licensed taxi from a landline or from your hotel rather than hailing one in the street.
• Keep phones and wallets out of sight, and bags within sight at all times when traveling.
• Be wary of anyone who offers to help you.
• At night, stay out of isolated or poorly lit areas, including downtown in the major cities.

Organized crime does carry out isolated violent attacks in Asuncion and elsewhere. The cited assessment is that these have been aimed at the Paraguayan security forces and at people associated with rival groups, and that tourists have not been the target.

Terrorism

The cited advice records that there is no recent history of terrorism in Paraguay, and that attacks nonetheless cannot be ruled out. Both halves of that sentence are the assessment.

Health and getting help

For an ambulance, call 141. Take out travel insurance that covers medical treatment and repatriation before you leave, and read what it excludes. Distances in the Chaco are long and services between settlements are few, which makes evacuation cover a practical matter there rather than a theoretical one.

Malaria is recorded as a risk in some parts of Paraguay. The cited source does not name which parts, and this page does not invent a list. If your itinerary takes you into rural areas, particularly in the north and east, raise it with a travel health clinic well before you go, and take mosquito precautions regardless, because dengue and chikungunya are carried by a daytime mosquito and no vaccine substitutes for not being bitten.

The yellow fever position is set out in the entry requirements guide.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay safety and security: the record that groups may set up blockades along the main roads and in downtown Asuncion near government buildings, that bag snatching and pickpocketing are a problem on public transport, the advice to use cash machines inside buildings and to call a licensed taxi from a landline or a hotel rather than hailing one in the street, the note that photo identification may be asked for when paying by credit card, and the assessment that although there is no recent history of terrorism in Paraguay attacks cannot be ruled out. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay regional risks: transnational criminal organizations carrying out drug trafficking and arms smuggling along the eastern border with Brazil, most activity running from Pedro Juan Caballero south to Ciudad del Este and to the Tri-Border Area, violent crime increasing in the departments that border Brazil, and a small guerrilla-style group calling itself the Ejercito del Pueblo Paraguayo operating in the north of San Pedro and the south of Concepcion whose targets are typically police, the military and the ranches of major landowners. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay health: the emergency medical number 141, and the advice on insurance, on medical evacuation and on what public and private healthcare can be expected to provide. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Paraguay traveler health: a yellow fever vaccine recommended for all travelers aged nine months and over except where travel is limited to the city of Asuncion, and separately a country entry requirement under which the vaccine is not required for direct travel from the United States but is required for travelers aged one year and over arriving from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru or Venezuela, counting airport transits and layovers of more than 24 hours in those countries; malaria recorded as a risk in some parts of Paraguay with no area named. Accessed 17 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Paraguay travel advice: the index to the entry, safety, regional and health pages this cluster draws on, and the standing guidance that no travel can be guaranteed safe. Accessed 17 September 2026.