2023-11-02 00:06:20
The Foreign Minister of Uruguay Francisco Bustillo resigned following being involved in the Sebastián Marset drug case (EFE)
The Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Francisco Bustillo, resigned following being involved in the case investigating the delivery of a passport to drug trafficker Sebastián Marset.
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“To dispel any suspicion that as a leader I might exercise certain interference over third parties, protected by the prerogatives of the position, I allow myself to inform that my peace of mind is such that I have presented the respective resignation,” he said in a statement.
Bustillo presented his resignation following, this Wednesday, audios were heard in which he was heard asking the vice chancellor, Carolina Ache, not to collaborate with Justice in the investigation. Specifically, she suggested that he lose his cell phone to avoid handing it over to the authorities and for them to access the chats with the number two of the Ministry of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel. According to what was learned, in these conversations Maciel warned regarding the risk of granting documentation to Marset, who was identified as a “very dangerous and heavy drug trafficker.”
In the audios, Bustillo asked Ache to lose his cell phone to avoid handing it over to Justice with evidence of conversations regarding the drug case.
Likewise, Bustillo tried to influence the internal administrative investigation in the Foreign Ministry itself.
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“Maciel should be sent to the front, I lost my cell phone, I’m imagining scenarios (…) we have to go through this step by step,” he noted in one of the listenings while in another he says: “Let’s find a way back so that you don’t have to You have to deliver that (the WhatsApp chats) because there you are stuck once more. Let me talk to Mata to see if there is any way he can talk to the guy (summarizing official) and influence.”
The release of the audios generated a strong rejection throughout the Uruguayan political spectrum – both from the ruling party and the opposition – which demanded his immediate removal from office.
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“The events that became known today are very serious and warrant immediate measures linked to those who acted outside the legal framework,” the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Pablo Mieres, wrote in his X account, while Senator Jorge Gandini warned that this scandal It might impact the Government if it does not react correctly: “Everyone must now do their part to help the President.”
The news comes following investigations began last week into the various Foreign Ministry officials involved in the drug case, who was arrested in Dubai in 2021 and had requested a passport from Uruguay.
The case investigates the processing of a passport for drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, who was arrested in Dubai in 2021
This episode generated important questions from the opposition and even led to the resignation of the vice chancellor and the start of the ongoing case. So far, the Vice Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, has testified before the Uruguayan magistrates; Minister Luis Alberto Heber; and the former vice-chancellors Bustillo and Ache.
Bustillo published a letter in which he maintained that there was “nothing illegal” in said passport processing – since, at that time, the drug trafficker was not yet wanted by the Paraguayan Justice for the murder of prosecutor Marcelo Pecci – and he denied having lied during his interrogation in Court.
“I wish to state that there was nothing illegal in the processing of Mr. Marset’s passport, in which case I had no participation or knowledge either. Of course, I did not lie or deviate from the truth in the parliamentary questioning,” the text reads.
Bustillo assured that there was nothing illegal in said process (EFE)
Next, he pointed out once morest his number two, who also testified this Wednesday and was the one who provided the sound evidence, and maintained that “Dr. Ache decontextualized conversations and acted in bad faith.” “Things are not as they have been shown but they are sensitive enough to have presented the immediate resignation to the President. ”She continued.
For his part, in August 2022, Ache had denied “any participation” in this case although months later he submitted his resignation. “I was the only politician in this Government who resigned and went to his house. And -paradoxically- it was not because she had done something wrong, nor because she had done something illegal, on the contrary, it was because she was not willing to hide communications from Justice, “she said in his defense in the last hours.
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