In November 2021, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, exchanged WhatsApp messages with his equivalent in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Ache, to warn that Sebastián Marset was a dangerous drug trafficker, contradicting versions of the government leadership that reached to deny that they knew he was a high-profile criminal.
“Hello Caro, we can know what happened to this criminal arrested in Dubai for a false document. He is a very dangerous and heavy drug trafficker, ”Maciel wrote to Ache on November 3, 2021 at 5:36 p.m.
“(I want) to know if he is still in custody or if he was released, which would be terrible. Thank you, kiss,” added Maciel. “Hello, let me find out for you. Kiss,” Ache replied.
On November 5, after a missed call that Maciel left him, Ache replied that he was still detained up to that point. Previously, she had sent him several files allegedly related to the false documentation that Marset would have used, which was sent to her from the Directorate of Consular Affairs.
“Carolina, I am sending you to the undersecretary all the information that we received from Dubai. That’s the fake document you used. There are 3 emails”, Ache forwarded to Maciel. The documentation had come to the vice chancellor from Dubai, where Marset was detained for having a false Paraguayan passport, according to publications by The Daily.
In conversation with the newspaper The country, Ache compensated himself of all responsibility by denying that he had any relationship with all that scandal. “I had no participation in the entire process, neither in the application, nor in the processing, nor in the issuance, nor in the delivery of the passport,” and added: “At the time the passport was processed, Marset had no criminal record no national or international arrest warrant.”
Heber and Bustillo denied knowing
In August of this year, the Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, and the Foreign Minister, Francisco Bustillo, had been questioned by the Broad Front in Parliament. Bustillo said that “in November (2021) nobody knew who Marset was” and that the delivered Uruguayan passport was an administrative procedure like so many others that are carried out regularly.
The Broad Front has reacted immediately to the revelations. Senator Mario Bergara commented on Twitter: “At least Carolina Ache and Guillermo Maciel were aware since November 3, 2021 that Marset is a ‘very dangerous and heavy narco’ and that it would be ‘terrible’ if he were released. Even knowing this, they continued with the passport delivery process, which turned out to be the key element for Marset to be released, as he is currently a fugitive. Moreover, they delivered it by hand to a representative of the interested party, which is absolutely exceptional. Unfortunately, we confirm that the Uruguayan government delivered a passport in express processing to the drug trafficker Marset, with a process that works for his own interests.”
“As the president of the Broad Front says [Fernando Pereira]This government lives very well with lies. Here again it is evident that an authority from the Foreign Ministry lied to Parliament,” wrote Sebastián Valdomir, MPP deputy, who also shared part of Ache’s statements.
