The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, has announced that he will accept the proposal of the Ciudadanos sector to appoint Robert Bouvier as the new Minister of the Environment, replacing Adrián Peña, who fell into disgrace and resigned this Monday due to the controversy after having lied for years claiming that he had a non-existent college degree.
Bouvier, 57, is a public accountant and has worked in several public companies, including Ancap and UTE. He also has a long political experience, being linked to the Colorado Party. Senator Carmen Saguinetti described Bouvier as a man with “vast political experience.”
Bouvier began his political career on List 15 in the department of Lavalleja and has participated in the founding of the Ciudadanos sector. He has also served as mayor for three terms and has provided advice on tax issues and on investigative commissions.
The Minister of Tourism, Tabaré Viera, has described Bouvier in the past as a “good man” and said that his training and experience make him widely trustworthy. Bouvier is active on Twitter and has defended ANTEL’s current management on the social network. On Tuesday he tweeted: “There is management, there is direction, there is professionalism, there is social sensitivity and transparency.”
Adrián Peña’s university degree novel began with revelations from the weekly Búsqueda that revealed that he had said at least since 2015 that he had a degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU), but in reality he had obtained it in 2022. Over the weekend it turned out that in that year, in reality, he had not obtained the document that certifies him as a graduate either, because he still needs to take a mandatory seminar to graduate.
