In dialogue with the press, the Secretary of State stated that Uruguay was left in a bad light before the world for the delivery of the passport to Marset.
“Uruguay is left in a bad light because of who ultimately drafted a decree that does not give sufficient guarantee to grant passports abroad, because it is granted without knowing if the person who is receiving it committed a crime abroad. We would have to do an investigation within the country to find out if there is a record and we should have the obligation to request a record abroad, in order to be able to grant a passport,” he said, referring to decree 129/014, of May 2014, which approves the passport issuance regulations.
Heber assured that he also feels outraged by the situation. “How can I not be outraged? It is the outrage of the whole world, of all of Uruguay, but I was also outraged in 2014 when this type of incident was covered by legislation that I do not understand why it was not changed.
He recalled that before 2014, background information in the country and background information abroad were requested, especially in the country where it was being requested. “We are going to discuss to know what modifications we have to make to the current decree.”
Comparisons
On the other hand, he rejected that the Marset case can be compared to the escape of the Italian mobster Rocco Morabito, who escaped from the Central prison in June 2019.
A few days ago, the senator of the Cabildo Abierto Guillermo Domench said that the cases of the Italian mobster Rocco Morabito and the drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, “are somehow twins.”
“We are very concerned about the advance of drug trafficking and the facilities that drug traffickers have had to evade the action of Justice, first it was Morabito, now it is Marset,” Domenech said.
However, for Heber the cases are “diametrically different”.
Heber argued that Marset “did not escape anywhere”, while “Morabito escaped from prison on foot and is being investigated, he was also connected with Gerardo González Valencia, the most dangerous drug trafficker in America (he was part of the Jalisco cartel and also he was imprisoned in Uruguay), and he did it with total impunity that he was transferred by the Police of the time and he had two or three hours of meetings with Morabito in the Central prison”.
“What does that have to do with the Marset case? It seems diametrically different to what happened with a passport. No?” asked the Secretary of State.
