The bench of legislators of the Broad Front will summon the Minister of National Defense, Javier García, to Parliament to explain the flight plan of the Venezuelan-Iranian plane that tried to land in Montevideo and was finally held in Buenos Aires.
The invitation was presented this Tuesday by the three members of the opposition Defense Commission (Mario Bergara, Sandra Lazo and Alejandro “Pacha” Sánchez) to the nationalist Carlos Camy so that he sends the summons to García, with the intention that this report on what happened.
“It seems to me that Parliament cannot be avoided in the face of such relevant information. We cannot find out (about the flight) through the press; we want to know what the steps were. We are on alert in the face of something that worries us and we want to be part, for least, of that information,” he explained to The Observer the senator from the Front Amplio Sandra Lazo.
“The flight plan is something that is presented beforehand. Nobody defines these things so quickly. We think the issue is serious and we want to know what happened,” he insisted.
The minister announced on Sunday that it was he who disallowed the landing of the aircraft last Wednesday at Carrasco Airport. “We had information that the Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, gave us. Based on that information that was given at the time, it was decided not to authorize this plane to enter the airspace,” he said.
García clarified that he did not consult President Luis Lacalle Pou about this case, but preferred to “assume responsibility” on his own: “I, as Minister of Defense, (…) ordered by virtue of that information and the peremptory times of all the information that could not be checked should be returned, if there was no humanitarian reason, and that entry into Uruguayan airspace not be authorized”.
From the Broad Front they preferred not to make a judgment on the actions of the Secretary of State until hearing his explanations in the Defense Commission. However, they understand that the responsibility is on their own.
“He assumed that responsibility. Here there are other issues that have to do with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, but, in principle, the minister, as an old legislator, should have picked up the tube and called the members of the commission -in this case of the opposition -, as members of the parliamentary comptroller, to report on an issue that is so relevant for what, apparently, the media are showing at the international level,” Lazo said.
