The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, appeared this Wednesday in front of the Senate, at the request of the Broad Front, to give explanations about the mega corruption scandal of the former custodian of Luis Lacalle Pou, Alejandro Astesiano, who is accused of leading a sales structure of false passports to Russian citizens, with operations in the Executive Tower.
The hierarch began justifying that, in all governments, there have been presidential custodians with judicial records, and cited the case of Joseph Fabrawho was the security chief of the first government of Tabaré Vázquez, who was prosecuted without prison for illegal use and retention of weapons. He mentioned other names such as Luis Ferreira, who was prosecuted for personal injuries and abuse of duties, and Diego Romero, who has a mark in his history for personal injuries and drug assistance.
Thus, Heber released in front of the Upper House a glossary of names that he brought among his notes, in order to slip that Astesiano’s case is one more. However, what differentiates the entire plot of the former custodian of Lacalle Pou is that he was operating his criminal organization in the very seat of the national government, whose building the president himself described as a place where he enters “any”.
About Astesian
Along with Heber, Álvaro Garcé, director of State Intelligence, was presented, as well as Rodrigo Ferrés, deputy secretary of the Presidency. The latter maintained in front of the legislators that Astesiano “was never the head of presidential security”, for a legal reason, despite the fact that a document bearing his signature contradicts him.
He recalled that the figure arises in 2005, being a dependency of the Pro-Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, “but a civilian cannot be appointed head of the presidential security service.” In the 2006 regulations, it was established that the position must be held by a chief officer or superior of the ranks of the National Police, and for this purpose, Commissioner Mayor Ricardo Martínez is appointed in this government period.
“What is not possible, as happened in March 2010, where Mr. Carlos Haller was appointed head of the presidential security service, who was not a police officer and did not require the requirement,” he said. “The President of the Republic tells the truth. We cannot allow it to pass in any way, that you want to insinuate or say, implicitly or expressly, that he did not tell the truth. We can all have mistakes, but never lie, ”he added.
But the senator from the Broad Front (FA), Alejandro ‘Pacha’ Sánchez, presented Ferrés with the document that contradicts his statements.
“Mr. Ferrés has just lied. I have decree PS / 1899… pro-secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, December 23, 2021 (…) in considering 3 of the decree sent by the pro-secretary who came here to tell us that he was not the head of the Presidency, ”Sánchez sentenced.
The official document, dated December 23, 2021, says in the Considering that “The delegation will be made up of the Head of the Military House, César Ifrán, the Air Force Edecán, María Etcheverry, and the Presidential Security Chief, Alejandro Astesiano.”
“They lie to Parliament’s face and then ask us to believe them,” ‘Pacha’ Sánchez fired.
A letter to Mujica
Going back in time, Heber also stated that the Russian surnamed Slivaev, charged in the Astesiano case, would have contacted then-president José ‘Pepe’ Mujica in 2013 asking him to speed up a passport that had been denied. “That’s when it starts. Pretending to get an identity card and a passport in our country, as the son of a Uruguayan. Civil Identification denies the passport,” said Heber. Another letter was supposedly sent from the Presidency to the DNIC.
“At that time, the Civil Identification Directorate received a letter from the Presidency of the Republic, asking for that passport. Sent rushing the false passport file. Were we saying that the organization started from the Presidency of the Republic? Could we generate that suspicion here today? ”, He limited, but accepted that, in any case, the official document was not approved.
In his reply, Senator Sánchez underlined that said passport did not exist: “Indeed, Mr. Silaev sent Mr. Mujica a letter claiming that Russian citizens were not given a passport due to discrimination. And what he did is transfer this demand to take notice. In addition, it must be said that this passport was not delivered.”
