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Text : Renaud OLGIATI (2002)
If you have any complaint or suggestion concerning this page, if you want a more detailed picture of one of the plates shown here or if you have any query concerning licence plates in Paraguay, you can contact me by e-mail Should you want more information on this beautiful country, you will find here a page of links on Paraguay.
Licence plates in Paraguay In Castillan, for this is how the locals call their Hispanic language, the word for "Licence Plate" is "chapa", litteraly "sheet metal". The Paraguayan Parliament voted in 1995 the law instituting a centralised national register of motor vehicles (Registro de Automotores), depending from the Supreme Court of Justice, but it is only after several years of procrastination, and under the increasing goading by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, countries that, together with Paraguay, form the Mercosur free trade zone, that this law was finally put in application at the end of year 2000 and we should see by the end of year 2002 the total disparition of all licence plates issued under the old system. Until the year 2000, vehicle licencing and the provision of licence plates was the priviledge of municipal authorities, who found there a welcome source of income. Vehicle licensing was done without any real control of who the owner of the vehicle was, or of whether it had paid customs duty on entering the country. Hence some excesses, and it has been estimated that 50 to 70 % of the motor vehicles were breaking the law (what they call here a "mau" car), either because they had been smuggled into the country, or because they were stolen goods resold with falsified paperwork.. One must point out that some citizens of neighbouring countries, when they had sold a second-hand car to a Paraguayan for export, would then rush to the police and delare the vehicle stolen, and so pocket the insurance indemnity on top of the purchase price .... And everyone knew that if you went to a certain filling station in the centre of Asuncion, you could without any control get licence plates, issued by a municipality from Interior of the country, for about 10 US$. The scandal reached its highest peak recently, when it was revealed by the newspapers that both the armoured Mercedes Benz and B.M.W. cars used for private journeys by the President of the Republic and his wife had been stolen in Brazil and fenced here in Paraguay. You will find here a description of the new vehicles licensing system, and for the record a description of the now fast-disapearing one that was used until the year 2000.
The New System: Vehicle licensing by the Registro de Automotores License Plates Standard Plates
Plates issued in replacement of damaged, lost or stolen plates are stamped in red ink with a circle 22mm in diametre, with the letter D (Duplicado), or T (Triplicado) between the letters and figures groups.
Special Plates In addition to the standard plates, there are now only three types of special plates, also issued by the Registro: Temporary Plates, Diplomatic Plates, and what I will call "Immunity Plates". Temporary Plates
Diplomatic Plates
Immunity Plates
These plates, of the same size and general disposition as the standard plates, only difer from those in that the registration is printed in black and not in red, and by the use of special series of letters for those registrations.
Numbering Common or garden registrations Registrations have been issued, for the ordinary series, in strict numeratological order, starting with AAA 001; all letters and figures are used, including 0, 1, I and O as the xxx nnn format used precludes confusion. Each group of three letters is used in its entirety by the same regional office of the Registro. There is no possibility of "booking" a number, nor of getting a "custom" registration. Motorcycles are registered in the same series as the motorcars, but to reduce the possibilities of fraud (sticking on a car the registration of a motorcycle) the registration format is inverted, nnn xxx instead of xxx nnn: and if a motorcycle is registered 123 ABC, there will not be a car with registration ABC 123.
After the destruction or exportation of the vehicle, the registration will not be re-used. Anecdote: the registrations with the number 108 are not issued; years ago, a number of homosexual Paraguayans came (or were thrown ?) out of the cupboard, and a list of 108 names was published in the press. Since then, the expression "one of the 108" is used here as one would use "a poofter" under other climes, and the lucky beneficiaries of the first registrations with number 108 complained so loudly, arguing that their machismo was being put in doubt, that it was decided to issue them with another registration and completely withdraw number 108 from use.
Special series
Registrations JMx nnn are issued to the vehicles of members of Municipal Councils (Junta Municipal) and GMx nnn toe those of Municipal Governors. The third letter of the group indicates in what Departamento the car is registered.
The Pxx nnn registrations are reserved for the temporary paper "plates" issued to vehicles awaiting customs regularization. The Txx nnn registrations are reserved for tractors et agricultural machinery. The VAx nnn registrations are reserved for vintage cars (Vehiculos
Antiguos) and VAP nnn for the antique cars of the members of the
"Club de Vehiculos Antiguos del Paraguay". "Non-Plates"
Registration Procedure The candidate must first go to the local office of the Registro, where he will buy form A01; this filled out, he can now pay the verification fee. He can then take his vehicle to the verification station, where the chassis and engine numbers of his vehicle will be checked against those he wrote on his form, and those on the title and customs documents of the vehicle. The verification report (form A03) will be ready for him a few days later. Now he has the A03 form he can return to the Registro and pay the registration fee, which covers the costs of the licence plates and the registration certificate; to this end he must present two notarized copies of the title to the vehicle, two copies of the municipal road-tax receipt, and two copies of his identity card or passport. He will be given the plates immediately, the registration certificate several months later. He can now return to the verification station where the identification stickers will be applied on windscreen, rear window and chassis. If any doubt arises concerning any of the car numbers, any figure badly aligned with its neighbours, the vehicle must be checked by the police criminal investigation department. The total financial cost of the operation
is about 50 US$, plus another 50 US$ if the Police forensic experts are called
in. Motorcycles pay half the car rate.
The system that was: Until the 1995 law was put into effect in 2001, motor vehicle licensing was done by the municipal authorities, and was a purely fiscal operation: the municipality registered vehicles, issued plates, and pocketed the road-tax. Some small municipalities in the interior of the country were very active in that field, which brought them non negligible financial ressources. One of them even paid a municipal employee in a petrol station in the centre of Asuncion, who worked full time registering cars, selling plates and garnering the money, to the great detriment of the Asuncion Municipality who was loosing on the monetary side of the thing. In the rest of this study we will distinguish on the one hand the registrations and plates issued in the Capital, Asuncion, and on the other hand those issued by the Municipalities in the Interior of the country, plus a short appendix covering various official vehicles, registered by the administration or ministry responsible for them. Plates of the Capital The plates issued by the Municipalidad
de Asuncion were pressed out of painted steel plate, measuring 322mm x 161mm
(216mm x 113mm for motorcycles). The registration was pressed in figures
85mm (43mm) high, and 10mm (6mm) thick. The plates bore at the top the inscription
"ASUNCION PARAGUAY" in letters 25mm (21mm) high and 2,5mm (2,5mm)
thick. An 8-figure serial number was struck in figures 6mm talll, to identify the plate. The colour of the plates indicated the category of the vehicle:
Veheicles licensed in the Capital kept
their number for as long as they remained there, notwhithstanding chnges of
ownership; the registration numbers of vehicles that had been destroyed
or exported were not re-used. Plates of the Interior
In addition to the plates issued by the Municipalities, there is a great variey of plates, issued by various authorities for the vehicles depending of those authorities, or simply driven by Important People. All the following plates are now being replaced by either diplomatic (and "immunity") plates, or by standard plates in the Exx nnn serie. Given here pride of place in this collection,
the polished brass plate of one of the Presidency's official limousines. (P.E.
= Protocolo del Estado) (Apologies for the quality of the picture, I had
to run fast and hard to catch it !)
Diplomatic Plates
The format of the registration number is the same as that used for the present day Diplomatic Plates (see above) except for the letters that are placed vertically and not horizontally. The Country Codes have remained the same.
Parliamentary Plates
Plates issued by Ministries,
Those that survived the massacre
Text and pictures © Renaud Olgiati 2002-2003
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Small landlocked country
isolated in the heart of latin South America, Paraguay has just finished a
complete reorganisation of its system of vehicle licensing.
Supplied
only by the Registro de Automotores, they are pressed out of white reflectorised
aluminium sheet, 320mm x 150mm (200mm x 130mm for motorcycles plates; the
dimensions for these will hereafter be given in parentheses); the plates edges
are reinforced by a 5mm (4mm) molding painted red; The registration is pressed
in characters 70mm (45mm) high and 7mm (4mm) thick, painted red; the top
of the plate carries a national identification: from left to right, the
national flag 30mm x 50mm (24mm x 39mm), the text "PARAGUAY" in pressed letters
19 mm (10mm) high and 3mm (1,5mm) thick, painted black, and the seal of the
Republic measuring 29mm (24mm) in diametre.
To make counterfeiting
more difficult, the plates have a security background printed in a U.V.-visible
ink: a chain of circles, 30mm (28mm) in diametre, with the letters PY,
along the horizontal middle line of the plate; this background is faintly
visible in natural light under certain angles. (See the picture on the left,
taken at sunset) 
The plates receive an identification number, cold struck vertically
in characters 4mm high along the vertical middle line.
At the beginning of the licensing operations, following a late
delivery of the aluminium sheet, temporary plates were issued; made of non-reflectorized
steel sheet, without security printing or serial number, they were most easy
to spot because of the inscription "valido hasto Abril 2001" they carried.
These plates were later exchanged for the definitive ones, in June 2001.
Some people show a great
deal of ingenuity: here on the left a plate I caught in traffic, on the back
of a bus: wrong proportions for the plate itself, no "Paraguay" text nor Republic
seal, the flag placed too low. A closer look showed it has been painted on
the reverse side of an old plate issued in the interior.
New vehicles awaiting the completion of Customs
processing receive a temporary registration in the Pxx nnn serie. the "plates"
issued are printed on a sheet of legal-size paper, and are applied inside
the windscreen and rear window of the vehicle.
Cars driven by accredited diplomats receive specific plates, issued
by the Registro on the advice of the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores.
Diplomatic plates are coal-grey, with the pressed inscriptions painted in
reflexive white.
Diplomatic registrations are as follows: a group of letter
(CD, CC ou MOE for Cuerpo Diplomatico, Cuerpo Consular, and Mision Oficial
Extrangera), a group of three figures thet identify the country, separated
by a hyphen from another three figure group. You will find in annex the
Some Paraguayans, holders of an elective office or judicial
appointment, benefit from legal immunity. They receive, for the duration of
their mandate or apointment specific plates that inform the police forces
of their special status.
The registration will be issued only once, and will remain the
same over the life of the vehicle.
It is reproduced on the windscreen and rear window (security
sticker) and on the chassis, in the right-hand side rear wheel arch (stamped
metal sticker). 
Registrations DIP nnn and SEN nnn are issued to the
vehicles of elected representatives (Diputados and Senadores) for the duration
of their mandate.
A registration Exx nnn denotes a vehicle of the State,
of a NGO or of a Territorial Authority, tax exempt but subject to restrictions
of use. Interestingly enough, the vahicles of the Policia Nacional are now
being registered in the normal series, not in the Exx nnn series.
Since 2001, the general format and layout of the new plates has been appropriated for
advertizing, mainly in the fields of sports and politics. On the left the publicity of
a well-known football club, celebrating its 100th birthday, and on the right
that of a candidate in the coming 2003 presidential elections.
Private vehicles had blue plates (the colour varied with deliveries,
from an almost black Navy Blue, to French Racing Blue) with white markings. 
Note on the left, on a motorcycle plate, with the white "precinta"
pop-riveted on, which attests of the payment of the road tax for the year
2000; All the Asuncion plates had the space, on the left of the registration
number, for the precinta even if they were no longer used for cars and heavier
vehicles after the year 1994. 
The plate shown on the left is interesting for it is doubly fake:
it has not been made for or issued by the Municipality (different dimensions
and font, numbers not pressed in), but also the number it bears is much higher
than 218 030, which was the last number issued in Asuncion in 1999.
Yellow plates with black inscriptions were seen on vehicles run by
nationalized entities, para-govenrmental and non-govenrmental organizations whose vehicles
are tax-exempt, but subject to use restrictions.
Public transport vehicles, busses and taxis, had red
plates with white inscriptions.
Vehicles belonging to
the Municipalidad itself (Municipal Police, rubbish trucks, road repair
machinery) carried pink plates with black writing.
Until 1993, payment of the municipal road-tax was attested
by a little piece of sheet metal ("Precinta") stamped with the millesime of
the year, pop-riveted on the left side of both licence plates; since 1994
these precintas have been replaced by stickers inside both windscreen and
rear vindow on all vehicles (Windscreen only since 2003), except motorcycles.
Stamped out of steel sheet, the precintas whose colour changed every year
measures 40mm x 69mm to 80 mm depending on the year; the figure for the year
was stamped in letters 25mm high and 4 mm thick, with just under it the
registration number of the vehicle stamped in figures 5mm high.
Motorcycles continue to
this day to be issued with the precintas; and as the new plates have no provision
for fixing them, one has to improvise and they are displayed in many different
ways.
Plates issued in the Interior
usually bear the following: The name of the issuing Municipality and that
of the country, sometimes abbreviated in PY, often a motto that changes with
each Municipality ("Gate to the Chaco", "Star of the South", "Steel City"
etc.), sometimes the year of issue, either pressed in of by Precinta, and
the registration number, in the form of one letter for the Department and
a number of one to six figures.
There is almost no standardization of the licence plates
issued by the municipalities of the Interior of the country: the dimensions
of the plate, the font and size of the inscriptions vary from Department to
department, and from year to year; some localities keep the same number for
a given vehicle, others issue a new number each year; some have the
indication of the year as an integral part of the plate, others use a separate "Precinta"
to this effect, others have no indication of the year and use a windscreen
sticker as proof of payment of the tax.
Compare on the left the
two plates issued in Mariscal Estigaribia on two consecutive years to the
same vehicle: different size, different font, different number, one with Precinta
and city arms rivetted on, and the other with the year pressed in the plate
and no city arms.. 
The only unifying factor
was the colours used, as almost all the ordinary plates issued in the Interior
were white with red writing. 
Following the lead of the Capital, some municipalities of the
interior used different colours to distinguish special categories of vehicles,
black on yellow in Luque, white on green in San Lorenzo or black on green
in Ciudad del Este for public trandport vehicles (Busses and taxis), black
on yellow in San Lorenzo for municipal vehicles.
Most municipalities of the
interior in recent years also issued a few plates, white on sky-blue background,
for the Mayor ("Intendente") and for the Municipal Council ("Junta Municipal")
often with a JM xx registration.
And we continue with Important People, with more
polished brass, on the left for the Governoe of the Amambay Department, and
on the right a mamber of the Departmental Council of the same department. 
Issued by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, they had
yellow inscriptions on a French Racing Blue background, with variable
dimensions
Three examples of
the old plates issued to members of the houses of Parliament; size, model,
colours vary a lot.
On the left
a plate of the National Police force, and on the right the quasi-diplomatic
plate issued to a Foreign Army Officer on secondment to the Paraguay Armed
Forces.
On the left the plate
of a vehicle of the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Comunicaciones, and on
the right the plate of a Post Office motorcycle, which belong also to the
MOPC.
On the left the old-style registration of an army van, stencilled directly on the rear
door of the vehicle; on the right hose of an Army lorry which carries both
the old registration painted directly on the body of the lorry, and the new-style
plate (Exx-nnn number), 
On the left the plate of a judge, on
the right that of a Public Prosecutor.
On the left the plate
of a County Councilman, from the Département of San Pedro, on the
right
As
the new Registro only deals with motor vehicles, the plates issued to horse-drawn
carts are still being issued by the Municipalidad. 