President Luis Lacalle Pou said “Notoriously in the world there is an advance of organized crime” and that “there must be a coordinationbetween countries “because organized crime is international,” he said. The president was consulted about the region’s insecurity and acknowledged that, neither Uruguay nor Paraguay “are alien to this organized crime”.
Speaking to the press during his arrival in Paraguay on Friday night, he explained that both countries are affected by drug trafficking to “different degrees,” and highlighted the need for information exchange between countries to combat crime.
“Organized crime is international, especially when we are talking about drug traffickingwhere it is produced, where it is consumed and where the ill-gotten money is housed,” he summarized.
When asked by a journalist about the insecurity in the region, he clarified that it is not up to him to talk about local issues in each country. “Presidents don’t do it when they go to my country, I don’t do it when I come to another country,” he said at a press conference.
Lacalle Pou visits Paraguay to meet with his peer, Mario Abdo Benítez, for the Independence celebrations (211th anniversary) of that country, and in the midst of an agenda for the Mercosur which will be fulfilled in the next few hours and until Sunday.
The president traveled on a plane from the Uruguayan Air Force, which landed at the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción. Upon his arrival, he was received in a protocol manner, and verses of the Uruguayan National Anthem were sung.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julio César Arriola, was waiting for him; the director of the State Ceremonial, Julio César Echague and the Uruguayan ambassador, Fernando Sandin Tusso.
The schedule includes a bilateral meeting this saturday at the Government Palace, in addition to an official day on Sunday, at the same venue, where Lacalle Pou will be decorated by the Paraguayan government.
