Macarena Duarte Garcete is a solicitor and notary with over a decade of experience spanning the public and private sectors, having built her practice around corporate law, public procurement, and infrastructure contracts. Her professional trajectory is defined by a sustained focus on complex, high-stakes legal matters in Paraguay’s infrastructure and construction industry. 

She currently serves as Head of Legal Affairs at Tocsa S.A., a leading construction and infrastructure company, a role she has held since November 2019. In this position, she leads a multidisciplinary team and provides legal advice across the company’s business activities, from the pursuit of major public tenders to the execution of infrastructure contracts and corporate transactions. Tocsa operates across roadworks, electrical, civil and hydraulic infrastructure, mining, industrial operations, and property development, with a presence in both Paraguay and Peru. 

Her public sector experience is equally substantive. Before joining Tocsa, she held three successive advisory positions at the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MOPC), covering pre-contractual legal analysis, contract and agreement review, and regulatory advice. In those roles, she analysed procurement processes under Paraguay’s principal public procurement laws, interpreted international loan covenants, and advised on the structuring of infrastructure contracts — including Paraguay’s first public-private partnership (PPP), a landmark initiative in the country’s infrastructure development, and projects financed by multilateral institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank. Prior to MOPC, she served as an Examining Judge in the Protests Department of the National Directorate of Public Procurement, where she adjudicated procurement challenges, recommended procedural suspensions, and delivered institutional training on the protest mechanism. 

Macarena graduated with distinction and was included on the honours roll in both her Law degree and her Notary programme at Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. Her postgraduate education reflects a deliberate focus on the technical and institutional dimensions of infrastructure law: she has completed programmes at Universidad Austral (Buenos Aires), Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Fundação Dom Cabral, and holds certifications in FIDIC contracts and NEC3/NEC4 project management. She is currently completing a Master’s in Corruption Prevention and Public Procurement Professionalisation at the Universidad de Salamanca. 

Macarena is fluent in English (IELTS C1) and has basic proficiency in German. She has been awarded academic scholarships by the Governments of Taiwan and Germany (DAAD). Her career traces a clear arc from public institution to private sector leadership, bringing to Tocsa a thorough command of Paraguay’s regulatory framework and the contractual standards that govern its major infrastructure projects. She was first recognised in the Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Paraguay 2025.