2023-08-02 17:26:33
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Despite the extensive deployment of police forces in recent days, the Bolivian government has been harshly criticized by the opposition and a part of the ruling party for the delay in the capture of a powerful Uruguayan drug trafficker accused of being the intellectual author of the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor that occurred last year in Colombia.
Sebastián Enrique Marset Cabrera has been wanted by more than 2,500 policemen since Saturday following his security subdued three policemen and escaped. While the Bolivian police coordinate tasks with their counterparts in Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay, the Vice Minister of the Interior Regime, Jhony Aguilera, informed Unitel television on Wednesday that “there is an armed group that protects him.”
Criticism was not long in coming and even the government party, which is divided, questioned the administration of President Luis Arce.
Former Minister of Government Carlos Romero, from the faction of the ruling party headed by former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), told Pan-American radio that Bolivia has let this “big fish” escape. “Indications indicate that Mr. (Marset) was protected,” he added.
The Uruguayan -with more than three false identities including a Bolivian ID granted in 2019-, arrived in Bolivia in 2018 and has left and entered the country several times. He settled in Santa Cruz, in the most prosperous region of Bolivia, where he owns luxurious houses and was a member of a soccer team.
“The intelligence of the Bolivian security services has been mocked,” the president of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, who is close to Morales, recently expressed.
Marset, 31, is considered the leader of the First Uruguayan Cartel (PCU) with connections in Paraguay, where he lived. He is a fugitive from justice in his country and in Paraguay and is accused of sending cocaine to Europe. Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci was investigating Marset’s criminal organization when he was murdered in May last year in Colombia, where he was spending his honeymoon.
From the opposition, Fabiola Guachalla, from the Creemos force, mentioned that Bolivia is becoming a country that “has ties to drug trafficking.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Government Eduardo del Castillo assured that at the meeting of the Mercosur bloc held in June in Argentina he had a meeting with his counterpart from Uruguay, who informed him that “there is probably a Uruguayan” in Santa Cruz who was wanted by the Paraguayan government.
In Bolivia, Marset is accused of at least 10 crimes, including kidnapping, aggravated robbery, serious and minor injuries, criminal organization, criminal association, attacking members of State security agencies and illicit arms trafficking.
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou explained to the press in his country that Paraguay has made its request and that “some time ago we had the information that he was in Bolivia.”
Marset is wanted by Interpol. “This request is active,” said the head of Interpol Paraguay, Carlos Duré, the day before.
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