The The Chamber of Deputies approved on Wednesday night the entry of the US Coast Guard ship Cutter Stone, that will arrive in Uruguay on February 19 and will remain in the country until March 1.
The request – materialized in a bill – was sent by the Executive Branch to Parliament and now it must go through the Senate. In the Chamber of Deputies he was approved by 54 votes in 86with the opposition from the Broad Front and deputy César Vega, from the Radical and Intransigent Ecologist Party (PERI).
At first the bill had a single article, but later it received a additive proposed by Cabildo Abierto and accompanied by the rest of the legislators of the coalition.
Specifically, the Chamber of Deputies approved a text that establishes the following: “Authorize the entry into jurisdictional docking waters for the ship Cutter Stone of the Coast Guard of the United States of America from February 19 to March 1, 2023 in order to carry out training exercises in search and rescue operations at sea and control of jurisdictional waters with the National Navy”.
For its part, the additive clarifies that these control exercises They can only be done with “National Navy ships as ships of interest.”
The Cutter Stone –the most modern of the US Coast Guard– was in Montevideo two years agoat the end of January 2021. At that time, however, the executive power did not allow him to carry out tasks against illegal fishing.
This was the first visit by a ship of this type in more than a decade, within the framework of the operation called “Cruz del Sur”, which sought to expand the alliances against illegal fishing.
The interest of the United States was to carry out patrols and controls against illegal fishing in Uruguayan jurisdictional waters, but the Uruguayan government refusedTherefore, the actions that the ship ended up carrying out were considerably less than those initially planned.
The discussion for sovereignty and “Yankee interests”
U.S. Embassy
The Cutter Stone in January 2021 during his previous visit to Uruguay. Archive
The bill was opposed by the representatives of the Broad Front, who expressed their doubts about the interest of the United States with the arrival of the ship Cutter Stone.
One of the most critical voices was that of the deputy Micaela Melgarwho asked “stand up against foreign interests.”
“They are telling us to our faces, we are opening the door to our water, to our territory!” he exclaimed. “Are they going to open the door to the coastal patrol that had to be told last year not to patrol our waters?” she wondered.
“Which we don’t have to do is buy a story and then receive donations ‘Cause it’s the only thing we end up ‘picking‘. Are we going to do this so that later they donate three planes to us because we don’t have anything to fly with?” he stated.
Finally, he asked to “appeal” to the “heart” of all Uruguayans. “To tell the Yankees that they are not going to enter here,” concluded.
Deputy Carlos Rodríguez He criticized the attitude of the Executive Power for not going to Parliament to explain the reasons behind the arrival of the ship.
“It’s not just any ship, it’s the best ship, the most modern that the Coast Guard has, it came two years ago,” described Rodríguez, who highlighted the attitude of the Uruguayan government in 2021 when it prohibited the ship from carrying out activities against illegal fishing.
“Now changed, there is an authorization that is not clear. That is why it would have been convenient for the Executive Power to come to report,” he said.
One of those who supported the affirmative vote was the Colorado Felipe Schipani, who accused his opposition colleagues of live “anchored in the past with outdated ideas”.
“I am surprised how it can be said that we are at the end of a US invasion, that with this bill national sovereignty is at stake, that the marines are going to arrive to take over Parliament…”, he said. “There are legislators who are still in the Sierra Maestra planning the overthrow of the Batista dictator.”
The nationalist Javier Radiccioni, meanwhile, recalled that during the mandates of the Broad Front there was a rapprochement with the George Bush government. “Today they forget that the Broad Front also authorized US forces to enter the Republic and that on other occasions these forces were allowed to enter without authorization, like when Bush came to Uruguay.”
Eduardo Lust, from Cabildo Abierto, questioned the attribution of hidden interests on the part of the United States. “Here a scenario was raised as if that ship came to an invasion,” he said.
