Reuters reported that Uruguayan Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber, a deputy cabinet chief and a presidential adviser, Luis Lacalle Pou, had resigned. The decision was announced by President Lacalle Pou on the evening of November 4 and will take effect from November 6.
Uruguayan Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber (left) is the second minister to resign over the passport issue to wanted persons.
This week, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo also resigned shortly after former Deputy Foreign Minister Carolina Ache testified against him, related to the issuance of passports to a suspected drug trafficker.
The passport holder, Sebastian Marset, is wanted in Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and the United States on drug charges. In 2021, Marset was detained in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for using false documents but was later granted a Uruguayan passport and eventually released.
In December 2022, Ms. Ache resigned after a WhatsApp conversation from November 2021 was released, in which a Uruguayan Interior Ministry official described Marset as a "very dangerous and big drug trafficker," according to AFP.
Uruguayan Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo resigned on November 1.
According to recordings of calls and text messages provided to investigators by former Deputy Minister Ache, Mr. Bustillo told her to “throw away the phone” and called the Interior Ministry official who texted Ms. Ache an “idiot,” threatening to “shoot him in the leg” if she revealed the content of the conversation. “Things are not as they are,” Mr. Bustillo said after resigning.
However, the information in the chat contradicts the statement of the former foreign minister, who stressed that he did nothing wrong and said he did not know who Mr. Marset was when he issued the passport. "That is the job of the Ministry of the Interior," Mr. Bustillo said at a two-hour press conference, stressing that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had done the right thing in issuing Mr. Marset a passport.
At a press conference on November 4, President Lacalle Pou said he did not want a drug trafficker to have a passport but that the law had to be followed. The leader insisted that the officials who resigned had “no legal responsibility” in the passport issue, but could have to defend themselves in court if a case were opened.
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