– The Ambassador of Uruguay in Argentina Carlos Enciso came out at the crossroads of criticism and questions for the celebrations held on August 25 in the framework of Independence Day.
– Enciso regretted that the effort made by the diplomatic mission he heads to save costs and leave the country standing well before public, business, artistic and cultural personalities from the neighboring shore is not valued.
– In this sense, he informed that he will gladly and quickly respond to the request for information that was transferred to the Foreign Ministry, to avoid generating public unrest due to excessive spending, which is clearly far from reality.
The head of the diplomatic mission in Argentina acknowledged that he was surprised by the political reactions to the event he led last Thursday, August 25, which, he said, “are far from what the majority of Uruguayans have expressed about how the country positioned itself before public, social, political and business actors”.
Ambassador Carlos Enciso pointed out that the event was covered by the label item designated for the quarter, for which, in addition, donations of various products were received.
In response to a request for information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regarding the financing of the reception for the Independence Day celebrations, Enciso indicated that the event involved an expense of less than US$10,000, a figure that is less than the budget assigned for the label for the quarter, which is US$12,000.
“It is traditional that the quarter in which August falls is the strong one of the year. And even with the quarter underway, we can say that we are below US$ 10,000. We are investing the game even with a surplus of the quarter itself for the whole theme of the celebrations for August 25, ” Enciso said.
According to data provided by the ambassador, the catering meant an expense of US$ 2,027.15; the drink, $698.25; contracted and own personnel for the service, US$2,944.40; photography, $251.17; and furniture rental, US$ 2,874.17. The total was US$8,795.14.
Many products that were served in the entertainment were donated by public organizations and by Uruguayan and Argentine companies. “With skill, perseverance and support we have managed to have contributions in Uruguayan products such as beverages from Uruguayan wineries and INAVI, Uruguayan meat from INAC, Uruguayan cheeses and dairy products from Conaprole and Lapataia and donations of coffee, sparkling wine and others. The number of donations is important and quantifies the virtues of this event in terms of caring for the public treasury”, Enciso pointed out.
Regarding the reception itself, the ambassador recalled that it is a traditional celebration at the Embassy in Buenos Aires every August 25 and that the Broad Front held it until the pandemic came. “He did up to two: a reception at noon and another at night,” he said. And he added: “We returned to the original format by which we target Argentine society in general, the diplomatic corps, the national authorities of Argentina and obviously people with business, social, cultural and artistic ties to Uruguay. We had a special moment with the very important presence of the president that had never happened before”.
In 2020, the year in which Enciso took office as ambassador, he celebrated the 195th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Uruguay in Buenos Aires only accompanied by the military attaché and one of his minister advisers. There was practically no activity like the one on August 25 in the last two years due to the health emergency.
“Between 2020 and 2021, between the pandemic and the Foreign Ministry’s spending cuts, almost nothing was done,” he remembered.
“If they want to talk about expenses, we talk about expenses. It is clear that before (with previous governments) more money was spent. When it comes to positioning the country, for us it is an investment and even so we made an effort with the entire team of the Embassy and the Consulate to save as much as possible”, Enciso concluded.
For this reason, Enciso entrusted his team to look for the budgets arranged in parties held at the Ambassador’s Residence in previous years to demonstrate that the expense of 2022 was lower than those events.
