“Excuse me, do you have a pink one handy?” Senator Mario Bergara’s request was addressed to an official of the Broad Front and was intended to solve a certain problem in the color of his mask, which the legislator considered inappropriate to appear publicly. “The other is to turn this one around,” he said, pointing to his light blue mask. Finally, Bergara was assisted and was able to be together with his bench mates, who almost fully and wearing all the colors of the Yes, held a strong Monday “political pronouncement” against the Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber.
Although the instance had been set for announce a series of political and parliamentary actions from what the opposition understands were “undue pressure” that the hierarch made to the Justice, finally said measures will be considered for after the referendum of March 27.
“Now it’s not the moment”, was the majority comment The Observer could collect on the bench. “It is not the axis that we want to give to the campaign,” added one of those consulted.
In the Broad Front it is understood that actions such as an interpellation or a call to a general commission would contribute to “generate a political fact” what “I would focus too much” the focus of attention just in the final stretch towards the referendum of the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC).
What happened this Monday was, they say in the Broad Front, simply a “dose” so as not to “raise the electoral climate.”
This position was later publicly ratified by the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira. “We are not going to take actions before the 27th that could alter the normal functioning of a day like the referendum,” said. Thus, the opposition will take its time to analyze its actions, although with a deadline. “The Broad Front does not work at the speed of Twitter”, remarked the head of the political force, using one of his header phrases so far in his mandate.
“Minister Heber has had actions in recent times that must be looked at with special attention,” said the president of the FA. In particular, he referred to what happened in Durazno, when Heber went to a courthouse to “support” two policemen, there accused of homicide and abuse of functions in the case of a young man who died in 2020 when he collided with his motorcycle while trying to avoid a control. “It was a strong interference with an independent power, such as the Judiciary,” Pereira estimated.
The president of the FA echoed the rejection that the event generated among the different actors in the judicial system, and considered that “all those who defend democracy, the Republic, equality and fraternity” should see the “seriousness” of what happened and forcefully reject these “unacceptable” excesses.
The referents of the opposition coalition rejected in turn the “profound error” of President Luis Lacalle Pou when support Heber’s decision to appear before the court. “A bad action by a minister cannot be defended by a president”, Pereira estimated. “Although, as the president said, the judges are not pressurizable, what you should not do is pressure them,” pointed.
young and poor
Hand in hand with Pereira, the Broad Front publicly disseminated 50 complaints about alleged police abuse. According to the president of the FA, these complaints are the ones that the political force “was able to relieve” of the almost 100 complaints that came into the hands of the National Institution of Human Rights (INDDHH).
Pereira said that they are mostly “Serious or very serious events that have occurred so far in this government, with detained men and women, mostly young, mostly poor,” what “They probably don’t have lawyers to follow up on complaints.” Being poor, argued the president of the FA, cannot be a condition for not respecting human rights.
Of all the complaints, he chose to dwell particularly on three of them.
One, from Tacuarembo, refers to an alleged “police mistreatment upon being detained,” which included a “hit in the ear with an open hand by an officer,” and a “medical examination that determined ear perforation.”
The second complaint refers to the fact that a “defendant detained by order of the judge stated that he had been beaten by the Police during his detention.” “At the hearing, he was seen to be visibly injured on his body and face. A forensic certificate confirmed injuries. He said he did not want an investigation,” the complaint states. Regarding that case, Pereira said that “The whole court saw it.”
The third complaint highlighted by the president of the Broad Front refers to the case of a person who, while detained, received “blows to the ribs and back by the officers, as well as kicks to the legs.”
There the president of the Broad Front alluded ironically to Heber’s questioning of the INDDHH. “Is a broken rib an electoral whiff? Is a perforated eardrum?.
Pereira summoned Heber to carry out a “serious and urgent” investigation to clarify the facts. According to the president of the FA, the minister is aware of the complaints but, despite this, he did not act accordingly.
The term set by the opposition to investigate the facts is one month. If he does not have an official response in these thirty days, Pereira promised that the Broad Front will carry out “all kinds of actions”although he expressed his wish that the government “take note”.
Pereira also charged against the fact that Heber, as Minister of the Interior, is the one who technically has to ensure the normality of the act of March 27. In the Broad Front they question that the hierarch “not only campaigns” defending the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC), but also “places the Police against those who want to repeal it.”
For the president of the left-wing coalition, what is being done with these complaints is, in reality, defending the “good police”, who are the majority. “What cannot happen to us Uruguayans is to feel fear of the Police,” he asked. “We are all responsible for that not happening.”
Pereira went on to list the number of “militants harassed” by demonstrators in favor of the No. Lastly, he questioned the young man who this weekend “in some way offended” militants of the National Party on the Hill, who were “exercising their right to defend the maintenance of the law”. “We don’t have a double standard to measure,” Pereira said.
“as we like”
“We are in the eye of the storm, as we like. Welcome to the storm”, said Heber in an act in defense of the LUC organized by its List 71.
The minister accused the alliance between the Broad Front and the PIT-CNT of “lie” to “create fear to see if they can get a vote”.
For Heber, this attempt seeks to generate the feeling that the LUC “is responsible for a wave of police abuses throughout the country.”
In this context, he said that the data from the Ministry’s Observatory on Violence and Crime “headed by authorities appointed by the FA” documented that in 2019 there were 152 “accusations”, which in 2020 were 158 and 136 in 2021. “Where are the announcements that there was going to be an exponential growth of the stick and the stick?” he asked.
Heber added that the Broad Front “is very angry that the data shows that what they announced was not true.”
On the figures provided hours before by the opposition, the interior minister said that all complaints are being investigated. “We are not sitting idly by.”
On the other hand, once again supported the police officers accused of homicide and abuse of duties in the Durazno case, and differentiated that case from that of the officers accused of raping three women. According to what he said, in that case the police officers were immediately expelled, beyond the fact that there is still no police resolution. “There nobody accused me of pressuring Justice,” he said.
The minister ventured “hard times” until March 27, although he said he hoped that these days peace and tranquility reign, “without pressure or patronage.” “If anyone believes that these things are going to stop the National Party, they are very crazy. No one stops us,” he exclaimed..
The minister closed his speech by paraphrasing Wilson Ferreira Aldunate: “Let the wind come, let the storm come, and let it sweep what it has to sweep.”
