The undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (vice chancellor), Carolina Ache, presented her resignation on Monday night after the scandal over the WhatsApp chats in which it would have been exposed that both she and her counterpart in the Ministry of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, knew that Sebastián Marset was a dangerous drug trafficker, even before the government of Luis Lacalle Pou agreed to give him a passport that allowed him to escape from a jail in Dubai.
This is Ache’s resignation letter:
Montevideo, December 19, 2022
Mr. President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Dr. Luis Lacalle Pou
Present
The controversy arose around the conversations held between myself and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior.
With the peace of mind of not having had any intervention or interference in the process of issuing and delivering the passport to Sebastián Marset.
Being that the Uruguayan State was obliged to grant the aforementioned document and that the established procedures were jealously complied with, the MRREE even taking precautions beyond those required by the norm, such as having timely sent the information to Interpol.
Also with the conviction that formally there was nothing that I, nor the MRREE, could have done to prevent or even delay access to said passport. Today I understand that perhaps my mistake was sticking to duty and legality, also trusting in the certainty that in any case the Ministry of the Interior had in its possession all the information to act, if that had corresponded.
The circumstance that the Ciudadanos sector of the Colorado Party is currently evaluating the possibility of withdrawing my confidence, determines that I come to present my resignation to the position of Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
My gratitude for having honored me with the opportunity to accompany your administration since March 2, 2020 together with the then Chancellor Ernesto Talvi.
I dedicated my best efforts to serve the Uruguayans and the coalition government.
My special thanks to you, Mr. President of the Republic, to the Secretary General of the
Colorado Party President Dr. Julio María Sanguinetti and all the members of my Colorado Party, for their confidence to this day.
Without another particular, greets you very Atte., expressing the most distinguished considerations of personal esteem.
Carolina Ache Batlle
