The senator of the MPP 609 (Broad Front) sector, Alejandro ‘Pacha’ Sánchez, criticized the reaction of the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou, regarding the case of the passport granted by his administration to drug trafficker Sebastián Marset -now a fugitive from international justice – and believes that the president “wanted to get off the subject quickly” with his recent statements.
Lacalle said a few days ago that he was “annoyed, angry and hot” for what happened but that, “legally, it was what had to be done.”
In statements given to the daily The country‘Pacha’ Sánchez stated that he hoped that the president “was going to take charge in a more forceful way” and that it is not “just about being outraged” because “the important thing is that there were alarms that were not heard.”
He added that “many doubts remain about political responsibility” in the series of events that led to the Uruguayan drug trafficker obtaining a passport in a questionable manner and managing to escape.
He added that he would have preferred that the government “recognize the mistake and start working on generating concrete actions” to avoid similar events in the future.
The latest from Marset
Between March and October 2020, Sebastián Marset -leader of the First Uruguayan Cartel- faced an indictment in Uruguay by Interpol for an investigation of his whereabouts, which did not give effect. At the request of the Paraguayan government, the Uruguayan Police managed to find in that year activities classified as suspicious, related to money laundering involving Marset and his wife.
From then until September 20, 2021, not much had happened until that day he was arrested in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for using a false Paraguayan passport. A week before, Mauricio Schwartzman had been murdered, who is linked to a criminal drug trafficking structure and in whose death Marset would be related.
According to the newspaper ABC from Paraguay, Marset would have found out that Schwartzman was giving information to the authorities, which facilitated the seizure of drug shipments, for which he ordered the murder.
On the following October 28, the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry begins the process to issue and deliver the passport to Marset through the consular section of the Uruguayan embassy in the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry gave the drug trafficker the travel document valid until 2031.
The passport was withdrawn by his lawyer, Alejandro Balbi, although current regulations do not allow this type of transaction.
On November 25, 2021, the Ministry of the Interior printed the passport at the National Directorate of Civil Identification. With this it was that he managed to get out of the Dubai prison and is now a fugitive from international justice.
Since then he has an international arrest warrant and a red alert from Interpol.
The criminal is also linked to the death of the Paraguayan prosecutor, Marcelo Pecci, who was murdered while vacationing on Barú Island, in the Colombian Caribbean. Pecci was on his honeymoon with his wife last May when he was shot multiple times by assassins.
According to the Colombian authorities, six people are involved in this event: a man with the surname Correa, identified as one of the ideologues of the crime, who would have mentioned Marset in a statement.
