Opinion Column by Juan Prandi
The secretary of the Presidency, Alvaro Delgado, has the support of a group made up of eight departmental mayors of the National Party to lead the Herrerista candidacy for the presidency.. On July 28, during a lunch with mayors and leaders in the center of Montevideo, Álvaro Delgado confirmed that he will be a candidate for the presidency during the 2024 elections. Although he preferred not to venture details.
According to the weekly Search, at the meeting “little or nothing was discussed about conjunctural issues, municipal or national daily management, and much more about electoral issues.” The secretary of the Presidency, who has never publicly revealed his presidential aspirations, made it clear that he will be a candidate in the white internal elections of 2024. The government official explained that he will not mention his ambitions for the rest of the year and that only in mid-2023 will he go to the Arena. He envisions that the “strength” of his candidacy will be the management of the government headed by President Luis Lacalle Pou and his figure should be seen “as the living image of continuity.” The Minister of Transport and Public Works, José Falero, the Mayor of Lavalleja, Mario García, the Mayor of Treinta y Tres, Mario Silvera, the Mayor of Rocha, Alejo Umpiérrez; the one from Flores, Fernando Echeverría, organizer of the meeting, the one from Florida, Guillermo López, the one from San José, Ana María Bentaberri and the deputy Armando Castaingdebat. In turn, the communal chief of Durazno, Carmelo Vidalín, participated via zoom. During the meeting, the leaders of the Todos sector conveyed their support to the Secretary of the Presidency, and pointed out that his profile should be different from that of President Lacalle, and his figure should transcend the sectors.
Chuck’s favorite
The mayor of Durazno, Carmelo “Cacho” Vidalín, publicly announced that he had asked the Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, Álvaro Delgado, to be the presidential candidate representing the Aire Fresco space for the 2024 presidential elections. For Delgado, “today is time to govern”, while Vidalí already sees him as a presidential candidate: he says that he “grew up” as presidential secretary because he had to “face hard, difficult and negative issues” that have allowed him to “nurture himself”. The soft mayor added that Delgado “is prepared” to “serve”, and added: “He is not a political swallow of those who come during electoral times to give you a hug, a kiss and then disappear,” he said.
Then he added: “it is ready and we want five more years of continuity of this excellent government that our president (Luis) Lacalle Pou is carrying out, we can no longer continue playing with the ball in midfield” and that it should be “put it in the area and kick”, said the Duraznense in statements collected by channel 10.
“Well, we kicked around and said, ‘Which of you doesn’t agree with Álvaro being our pre-candidate? They all agreed,” he concluded.
the russian connection
In addition to Delgado’s good image, there is an issue that is bothering the entire government and in particular now also the Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, who signed the exception during the pandemic for two men of Russian nationality to enter who would be part of of the criminal organization in which the former trusted custodian of President Luis Lacalle Pou is involved. It should be remembered that, in the months in which the borders were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, entry into Uruguay could only be done with express authorization from the government. Resolution S/N/021 exempts from the prohibition established in Article 2 of Decree No. 104/020, of March 24, 2020, according to figure on the website of the Presidency. According to reported on Twitter the journalist and writer Antonio Ladra, and replied M24, the two men have the surnames Dzhumelia and Kashtanov, who are accused in the case of the passport forgery structure led by Alejandro Astesiano. In the same resolution, which is signed by Delgado, 43 people entered from abroad, each with their respective procedure number. As the author of the administrative signatures that paved the way for the 43 foreigners during the pandemic, Delgado explained in statements to the newspaper The country that said signature was carried out “prior substantiation of the competent body”, in the midst of the already mentioned panorama of restrictions due to a health emergency. The official said that the reasons why those exceptions were requested were very varied. “There were thousands and thousands of admission applications, and many of them were approved, always having the corresponding sanitary safeguards,” said the secretary of the Presidency. “There were payrolls from companies like UPM, which brought a lot of workers from all over the world to work at the plant and they kept changing; there were also workers for refrigerators, from Conaprole, from various sports clubs, people who came to participate in events, audiovisual producers, shareholders or entrepreneurs in the hotel or gastronomic sector, ”he listed. “What I did was sign them so that Migrations would later analyze it, always based on a casuistry contemplated by the different decrees” that were put into force throughout the pandemic stage. In the case of the two Russians already mentioned, the resolution is dated June 11, 2021 and invokes “reasons of urgent need and of an urgent nature, which are understood to be justified,” he said.
The opposition claim
From the Broad Front, for its part, they point out that the hierarch should explain what documentation Dzhumelia and Kashtanov presented to be allowed to enter.
Front party deputy Lucía Etcheverry indicated through Twitter that “until a few days ago it seemed that the President (Luis Lacalle Pou) had been deceived. Now we have to think that Delgado was also cheated? The secretary of the Presidency “should clarify what was the exception by which these people were allowed to enter the country. That just to start clarifying something at least… Senator Enrique Rubio expressed himself along the same lines, saying that “what was the “urgent and urgent need” in the first recital of the resolution signed by Delgado authorizing the entry of the two Russian “citizens”? I guess they’ll clear it up quickly.”
Clearly, as Lacalle could not compete in the next elections, Delgado’s name prevails in Herrerismo, his performance giving a good image in public conferences during the pandemic, points were added to him, the issue will now be to know how much some others can subtract from him issues, for example, whether or not the passport affair comes out intact or the day-to-day wear and tear of the government itself, it will then be seen if it weighs more whether it is the one chosen by some or the one targeted by others, in the face of the next electoral race …
