AP PHOTOS: A river route for food and crime: The dual nature of a major South American waterway

VILLA GOBERNADOR GALVEZ, Argentina (AP) — From its headwaters in Brazil, the Paraguay River flows hundreds of miles (kilometers) south to where it joins the Parana River to form a single 2,100-mile (3,400-kilometer) waterway that carries much of the agricultural and mineral wealth of South America to the Atlantic.

The riverine waterway connects Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and carries much of the world’s soybeans, ore and minerals.

While the Amazon River is longer and bigger, the Parana-Paraguay waterway carries almost as much freight. In a sense, it is the Mississippi River for the nations of South America’s southern cone.

Given the nature of the freight — bulk cargos — most of the thousands of ships that ply this waterway are huge, hulking transports carrying loads for international food conglomerates like Cargill. They tower above the low-lying port towns that dot the length of the Paraguay-Parana.

Into the bowels of the ships are fed unimaginably large quantities of soy beans from warehouses holding equally gargantuan piles of soy, the basic foodstuff for millions of farm animals around the globe.

But like the Mississippi, the waterway known locally as the “hidrovía” also conserves traces of its past.

Fisherman Dante Andino rises at dawn, around 5 a.m. His son Pablo, 14, accompanies him, learning the trade.

The elder Andino puts on his rubber boots and once on the water carefully uncoils the net he will cast by hand four or five times in a day from the prow of his tiny row boat.

On average, that will earn him around $20 per day. His net is the most valuable tool he owns, and the one that is most at risk from the huge freighters. “If we are not careful, they run over our nets and cut them.”

“This waterway has made it very difficult for us fisherman, because for these big ships to pass, they have to dredge out (the river bottom) very deep,” said Andino, as he prepared his net. “They tell us that the river is for agricultural exports, not for fishermen.”

“But we have families, daily expenses, we can't stop,” he said. “I am 35 years old, and stopping fishing now and looking for other work would be difficult.”

Gustavo Idígoras, the head of Argentina's oil and seed business chamber, said the freight traffic on the waterway cannot stop. It's a question of “world food security,” he says.

“It is truly a highway that connects our country with 120 overseas markets,” said Idígoras.

But the waterway also carries violence and drug trafficking. And the drug cartels, among them, Brazil’s First Capital Command, have found devious and complex ways to use the waterway to ship cocaine as far away as Belgium and Holland.

In the last two years, more than 50 tons of cocaine that traveled this route through South America were seized from the European ports of Antwerp, Belgium and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Much of it was controlled by the First Capital Command.

The trafficking is so large-scale that it can sometimes be downright brazen.

In July, authorities at a river port on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay seized four tons of cocaine that had been packed into sugar sacks in a container bound for Antwerp, Belgium. The traffickers apparently hoped that one sack of white crystals would look much like any other.

According to a 2019 investigation by Paraguay’s anti-drug agency, Senad, huge loads of cocaine were produced in Bolivia. From there, traffickers loaded it aboard small airplanes and landed in Paraguay’s Chaco region, which borders Bolivia.

It’s the perfect geography for drug trafficking, said Francisco Ayala, a spokesman for Senad.

“It is an ideal terrain for trafficking all kinds of products, it is ideal,” said Ayala. “It is a sparsely populated area with rough terrain, directly on the border with Bolivia.”

“Paraguay’s Chaco (region) has, and lends itself to, setting up clandestine airstrips” for drug flights mainly from Bolivia, he said.

Once in Paraguay, the drugs in the 2019 case were taken by land to Seguro de Villeta, a shipping port on the upper Paraguay River. There, the cocaine was hidden in freight containers bound for Belgium and Holland.

Farther down the river is Rosario, Argentina, the picturesque hometown of soccer star Lionel Messi and revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. It lies just 180 miles (300 kilometers) from where the vast river enters the sea. Here, the trafficking and violence intensifies as the shipments get closer to the sea and drug gangs vie to protect their shipments. Homicide numbers in Rosario are five times the national average for Argentina.

Rosario’s link to soccer goes beyond Messi; in November, authorities said they were investigating the killings of two leaders of the fan club for the city’s soccer team, Rosario Central, as a possible hit by rivals or drug gangs.

Things got so bad that President Javier Milei instituted a crackdown on crime. Known as “Plan Bandera (the Flag Plan)," police were sent into the city’s roughest neighborhoods and tightened control on gang leaders running their operations from inside prisons.

Milo Lautaro Sandoval gets his slingshot ready to hunt pigeons after assisting his neighbor Carlos Andino to fish in the Parana River in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Briceno Medina and his grandfather Gerardo Medina relax on the banks of the Parana River in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Workers walk at the Molinos Agro on the banks of the Parana River in San Lorenzo, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A worker stands in a soybean warehouse at the Molinos Agro agroindustrial complex on the banks of the Parana River in San Lorenzo, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A couple watches the sun set outside an agricultural export port on the banks of the Parana River in Puerto General San Martin, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A first responder from a Rosario based company CCREP, patrols the Parana River in a boat in Puerto General San Martin, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Relatives grieve over the body of 21-year-old Silvano Caballero, who was shot dead in the Villa Banana neighborhood of Rosario, Argentina, early Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Police officers talk to a woman during an anti-gang operation in the 7 de Septiembre neighborhood of Rosario, Argentina, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The keys used by penitentiary agents hang inside their office at the Pinero prison in Rosario, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A prisoner peers from his cell as penitentiary agents search the pavilion where the most dangerous gang members are held at the Pinero prison, Rosario, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Control towers are seen through a window of a pavilion where drug trafficking gang members are held in the Pinero prison, during a security operation carried out by prison guards in Rosario, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Penitentiary agents search inmates in the pavilions where the most dangerous drug gang members are held at Pinero prison in Rosario, Argentina, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Manjui Indigenous women play volleyball in the Abisai community of Mariscal Estigarribia, in the western region of Paraguay known as the Paraguayan Chaco, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The luggage of passengers coming from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, are inspected by agents of Paraguay's National Anti Drug secretary (SENAD) in Mariscal Estigarribia, the western region of Paraguay known as the Paraguayan Chaco, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A private aircraft sits parked on the tarmac of the Dr. Luis María Argaña Airport in Mariscal Estigarribia, inthe western region of Paraguay known as the Paraguayan Chaco, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Agents from Paraguay's National Anti Drug Secretary (SENAD) stand guard at a check point in Filadelfia, the western region of Paraguay known as the Paraguayan Chaco, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A worker repairs a wall on a ship at La Barca del Pescador shipyard on the banks of the Paraguay River in the port of Villeta on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The captain of a cargo ship from the Paraguayan company Paranave works with his crew as they navigate the Paraguay River after leaving the port of Villeta on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A crew works to release their cargo ship as they leave the port of Villeta, on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A container ship navigates the Paraguay River near the port of Villeta on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Caacupemi port workers take a break on the Paraguay River in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The Caacupemi port stands on the banks of the Paraguay River in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Artisanal fisherman Marcelo Munoz nap inside a container used as a base by fishermen before fishing overnight in the Parana River in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd

The bones of fish caught in the Parana River lay on the table after being eaten for lunch in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Dante Andino prepares to plunge a dead pig into boiling water in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Dante Andino fishes in the Parana River in Villa Gobernador Galvez, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Portland, which is welcoming a WNBA team back to the city after 24 years, selected veteran forward Bridget Carleton with the first pick in Friday's expansion draft.

Guard Julie Allemand, who played last season for the Los Angeles Sparks, was selected by the Toronto Tempo with its first pick.

The Tempo won a coin flip and opted to take the sixth pick in the college draft on April 13 over the top pick in the expansion draft. So Portland went first on Friday and will have the seventh pick in the college draft.

Carleton, who has played for the last seven seasons for the Minnesota Lynx and averaged 6.5 points and 3.6 rebounds a game last season off the bench, was an unrestricted free agent.

“Once we finalized our process, and zoomed in on Bridget, and knew we had our first expansion pick, it was obvious we did not want to have Toronto hold our destiny in their hands," Portland general manger Vanja Cernivec said.

Allemand averaged 5.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 5 assists in 34 games last season.

“This group gives us the ability to compete from day one while continuing to build, and embraces the opportunity to help shape something new in a new country as Canada’s first WNBA team,” Toronto general manager Monica Wright Rogers said.

The league's teams protected five players apiece ahead of the expansion draft but those lists were not made public, leading to speculation about which players were available.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Sky announced trades with the Tempo and the Fire, which prevented the expansion teams from selecting Sky players. In exchange, the Fire got the No. 17 pick in the college draft and the No. 26 pick went to the Tempo.

The expansion draft had two rounds, with up to six picks for each team in each round. The teams alternated picks, with the Tempo picking first in the second round after the Fire got the first overall selection.

Teams could only lose two players to the expansion draft. If a player was taken in the first round, a second player from that same franchise couldn't be taken until the second round.

Following Allemand, the Tempo selected center Nyara Sabally from the Liberty, guard Marina Mabrey from the Sun, forward Aaliya Nye from the Aces, guard Lexi Held from the Mercury, and forward Maria Conde from the Valkyries.

In the second round the Tempo selected forward Maria Kliundikova from the Lynx, center Adja Kane from the Liberty, center Nikolina Milic from the Sun, guard Kitija Laksa from the Mercury, and guard Kristy Wallace from the Fever.

After Carleton, the Portland Fire selected guard Carla Leite from the Valkyries, center Luisa Geiselsoder from the Stars, forward Emily Engstler from the Mystics, guard Maya Caldwell from the Dream and forward Chloe Bibby from the Fever.

In the second round Portland took guard Haley Jones from the Wings, forward Nyadiew Puoch from the Dream, guard Sara Ashlee Barker from the Sparks, guard Sug Sutton from the Mystics and guard Nika Muhl from the Storm.

Mabry was also an unrestricted free agent. Each team was allowed to pick only one unrestricted free agent.

The teams still do not know when free agency will open. More than 80% of the players are free agents this year, as many players have expiring contracts or opted out of the previous collective bargaining agreement.

The college draft is set for April 13 and training camps open on April 19. The season will start on May 8.

The Tempo and Fire join the WNBA as the league's 14th and 15th teams. Portland previously had a WNBA team, also called the Fire, that played from 2000 to 2002.

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Toronto Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers, right, and assistant general manager Eli Horowitz pose for a photo after speaking to media following the WNBA Expansion Draft in Toronto, Friday, April 3, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)

FILE - Minnesota Lynx forward Bridget Carleton (6) dribbles the ball up court against the Phoenix Mercury during the second half of Game 2 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn, File)