Jerome Giorgi *

Uruguay is experiencing its biggest political crisis since the restoration of democracy in 1985, and the trigger is so outrageous that it almost sounds like fiction for the serene and orderly country. Currently, two of the government’s top ministers, two undersecretaries and the president’s top adviser have resigned. However, this does not resolve the issue, as the president has attempted, but rather begins a long legal path that could take the country to who knows where.

The bomb exploded with the broadcast of audio in which the now former chancellor suggested to his undersecretary that he would lose his phone to hide his communications with the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior from the Public Prosecution Service. And the information stored on the phone showed that all the leaders involved in the express delivery of the passport to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, held in Dubai, knew who he was.

Nevertheless, the Uruguayan authorities delivered the document in record time. As a result, the government of Paraguay, which processed the international arrest warrant for, among other things, the murder of the leading Paraguayan anti-mafia prosecutor in Colombia, was unable to issue the warrant on time. And so the drug trafficker was able to leave the United Arab Emirates and go into hiding with his brand new passport.

The massive impact of the audio is that it dismantled the main argument that the concerned leaders had been using for over a year to justify the issuance of the passport. On August 22, 2022, while being questioned by the opposition about the issuance of the document, the then Chancellor stated before Parliament that in November 2021, when the passport was issued, “no one knew who Marset was.”

The audio also made public the communication in which the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior commented via WhatsApp to the former Undersecretary of the Chancellery that he was “a dangerous and heavy drug trafficker and that it would be terrible if he was released.” In addition, the former Vice Chancellor stated in a statement to the Public Prosecution Service that the President’s chief adviser told her that he had destroyed the report together with the communications between the hierarchs, a document that was part of a file of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, despite the fact that the The president has denied it to the press.

When the scandal broke, the president was on tour in the United States. The chancellor immediately resigned and as soon as the president set foot in the country, he accepted the resignation of the other three leaders. During the president’s long-awaited press conference, which the country had waited three days for and which lasted sixteen minutes, including answers to the only four questions allowed to ask the press, Lacalle Pou, instead of clarifying the doubts, concluded that the the case was in the hands of the judiciary, but that the passport had been issued legally.

After dismantling the argument that no one knew who the drug trafficker was, the idea that the passport had been properly issued became the main narrative to justify its issuance. And as the hours passed, the leaders of the various parties of the ruling coalition, who had initially shown concern and in some cases clear discomfort with the audio, began to embrace this new argument that has landed on the government’s shield. .

According to the president, the government had no choice but to hand over the passport in accordance with regulations introduced during the Jose Mujica administration. Although this regulation allowed the issuance of the document, the decree also provided for alternatives. One of them, for example, is that instead of issuing the passport, a document would be sent that would allow the citizen to make a return trip to Uruguay. Another alternative is that in exceptional cases – apparently this was one of them – delivery is made at the discretion of the authorities.

Therefore, contrary to what President Lacalle Pou claims, the government did not “have to” issue the passport, but “could” issue it, and did so knowing that it was being handed over to “a dangerous and heavy drug trafficker.” according to the former undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior himself.

The facts are dramatic, but there is more. The meeting to determine whether or not the communications should be presented in the interpellation was convened by the President himself through his advisor. And the indication was that those summoned entered the Executive Tower through the building’s garage. The meeting took place a few meters from the president’s office. And he was even present, although it is not clear whether he spent two, five or ten minutes.

There are still many things that have not been explained in this complicated and delicate matter. If there was no illegality, why did some of the government’s key leaders, including three personal friends of the president, become entangled in so many contradictions and go so far as to destroy information? As the president says, the issue is in the hands of justice.

But in the absence of clarification and taking into account that we are talking about a dangerous and powerful drug trafficker, doubts about whether this is a reflection of an act of corruption or, worse, the infiltration of the drug trade into the Uruguayan state, do not seem unjustified. Above all, we must take into account that suspected cases of links between the drug trade and government officials have emerged even before the current administration.

Despite everything, the governance of the country is not at stake at the moment. A year before the next elections, the coalition partners have decided to close ranks behind the president and the opposition has so far opted for moderation. The idea of ​​impeaching the president is barely mentioned and everyone seems to agree that justice will decide.

This scandal, while the most serious, is not the government’s first. To measure matters, so far in this government, 15 ministers have resigned or been dismissed and seven have resigned due to mismanagement, the highest turnover due to questions since the return to democracy. In addition, undersecretaries and numerous technical positions have been replaced, including the entire leadership of the police.

But it is the case that focuses on the president’s former security chief, the Astesiano case, which is accused, among other things, of managing Uruguayan passports for Russian citizens with false identity documents, and which is also in court, that has so far linked the president. somehow lead to even more scandals. This includes the crime of misuse of functions when using official channels to find out the destination of his own wife’s trip after a separation.

This sequence of events has led the ruling party to develop another argument, that of bad company. An idea in the form of a shell that tries to shield the president from his environment, with only those directly involved in the eavesdropping and messages being blamed in the various cases. However, at this point it is already difficult to believe that the president is surrounded and rather seems to be the center of the issue. But this will be decided by the judiciary. What is clear is that Uruguay, however serene and orderly, is not an island. (OR)

* Jerónimo Giorgi, founder and director of Latinoamérica21