The Minister of Defense, Javier García, ratified this Tuesday the departure of the head of the Defense General Staff (Esmade), Gustavo Fajardo, who requested days ago the pass to retirement due to differences with the hierarch that led him to “a wear in the relationship”.
Consulted at a press conference, the minister stated that “in any area of professional life, discrepancies, different approaches, far from doing harm, make growth”.
“In the particular case of Defense and the Armed Forces (FFAA), the discrepancies have a limit, which is the Constitution and the law. And the limit is the superior command constituted by the president and the minister”established.
In this sense, he stated that “The Armed Forces do not function in a state of assembly, nor is their leadership collegiate”.
“I am the highest command of the Armed Forces and I take responsibility for their leadership,” Garcia settled. “We owe obedience to the minister. If one does not agree, he has to go ”the general had said for his part when consulted by The Observer days ago.
This Tuesday The country reported that the transfer of Fajardo’s wife – from Piriápolis to a warehouse in Aiguá – carried out by means of a military truck and personnel from the institution was one of the triggers for the crossing between the two.
“There are legal provisions of the Code of Public Ethics and provisions that we established on October 14, 2020 in which, given these circumstances that, let us recognize, existed, we ask that no more be carried out,” García said on Tuesday in this regard, confirming the facts. The case is in the Prosecutor’s Office after Fajardo denounced the undue exposure of his relatives and the disclosure of misleading information about the episode.
“I made the move with a military truck like all the military do when we move from one place to another. I paid for the fuel. There is absolutely nothing strange about this. Did you see that sometimes photos appear on WhatsApp? They named my wife, my brother of my wife and they said that I was building a mansion, when it was just a move,” he told El País about it.
Minister García assured that the talk between the two was a “particular and private conversation”, so “it would be very bad” if he “revealed what was discussed”. The white leader emphasized “the proper use of public goods” and stated that “it is not to be used for personal benefit.” “I assume that when there is a provision, it is fulfilled,” he said when asked if these situations were being captured in the Armed Forces.
García also confirmed that Fajardo had requested a meeting “before the end of the year” with President Luis Lacalle Pou. “In military life there is something called the conduit of command. That is what corresponds,” he finished with respect to the hierarchies to which to turn in case of making proposals.
The minister said that “there is no type of imminent urgency” to designate Fajardo’s position, who will remain in the position until his replacement emerges.
