Paraguay official sacked for signing agreement with fake country

Earlier this year, the mayor’s office of Newark admitted being scammed into hosting officials of a non-existent country —“United States of Kailasa”— and signing a ‘sister city’ partnership with them.  This week there is news of a Paraguay official being ousted after acknowledging a similar blunder.

Excerpts from a DW news report:

The chief of staff at Paraguay's Agriculture Ministry, Arnaldo Chamorro, was replaced this week after admitting he’d been conned into talks and signing a memorandum of understanding with representatives of a non-existent country.

Chamorro told reporters on Thursday that purported officials from the “United States of Kailasa” had told him the country was a South American island.

The memorandum signed by the two parties had envisaged the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two “countries.”

In the document, complete with the ministry's letterhead and official seal, Chamorro salutes “the honorable Nithyananda Paramashivam, sovereign of the United States of Kailasa” and praises his “contributions to Hinduism, humanity and the Republic of Paraguay.”

The memorandum also called for Paraguay to push for Kailasa's acceptance into “various international organizations, including the United Nations.”

The agriculture ministry in a statement lamented “procedural errors” committed and said the memorandum “cannot be considered official” nor could it confer any obligations on the state of Paraguay.