The senator and leader of Cabildo Abierto, Guido Manini Riossaid he himself would not have handed over the house to a member of his party without a lottery, as he did his wife, former minister Irene Moreira. The decision caused President Luis Lacalle Pou to ask Moreira to resign, which upset the Cabildo to the point that it considered leaving the coalition.
Manini Ríos pointed out that the ministry acted with “crystallineness” and in accordance with regulations. “But if I could go back, I wouldn’t have done it myself”he said in an interview with Montevideo Portal.
“However, I think that they acted well; these data are taken from the file that the minister herself signs. There was no concealment of anything. Besides, it is a case that no one can say that she cost the State a single peso or that the minister was left with a peso. I say because sometimes it is intended to leave hovering that they are cases of corruption compared to this or the other that created a hole in the State,” the senator continued.
Regarding what will happen to the house delivered to the Cabildo Abierto militant, he said he does not know. “In other words, it is not up to me to define it, but I understand that if the measure complied with the regulations and the person is in a state of fragility, the only thing that corresponds is to give him the house”.
Manini Ríos also referred to another of the at least five housing deliveries that Moreira made in the same way. one of them was to his former domestic worker. The woman worked for a year (between July 12, 2013 and July 10, 2014) in Moreira’s house. Before, between 2010 and 2013, She was linked to the National Herrerismo Association of the National Party.
“First of all, this beneficiary is not a lobbyist,” said the senator.
“10 years ago he worked with Irene. Present a situation of fragility, present a request… why does that person have to be inhibited? We are talking about five cases: one is a lobbyist, the other is related to Irene from 10 years ago and it can be deduced that Irene knew her, nothing more,” he claimed.
Manini said that “Irene received the request and she forwarded it.” The ex-minister “send her to social services”. “Honestly, I think that the social services are not lobbyists, they are technicians from the ministry,” she said.
Neither Lacalle Pou “nor the Pope” give him orders
Manini Ríos had blamed President Lacalle Pou for the situation in the coalition. “This crisis was created by the president himself with an incomprehensible attitude, with a clear injustice to the weakest link. If he wanted to collect accounts from the Cabildo, it was not with Irene Moreira that he had to collect them, “he said on Monday, May 8, on Radio 41 in San José.
In an interview with Montevideo Portal, he said that the argument that Lacalle Pou gave him to request Moreira’s resignation was that “it was going to be difficult” to defend politically. “I don’t even remember the words anymore, but something like that,” said the minister. “For me totally insufficient for the measure that was taken,” he said in the interview, although he said he did not want to “pour more gasoline on the fire”.
In any case, he said that neither the Pope nor Lacalle Pou give him orders. “You can suggest me, propose. If I agree, yes; If I don’t agree, no. But no one gives me orders,” he said regarding the president.
“He does give orders to the ministers, because they depend directly on him. That is something else,” he pointed out and assured that Moreira At no time did he “think about not resigning” after Lacalle Pou called him.
“From the moment I told him: “The president tells me that you have to resign.” period, it’s over. It was a matter of when: “I’m going to say goodbye to the people and after I say goodbye…”, declared the senator.
“Constitutionally he could not resign, but in Uruguay, when a president asks a minister to resign, I think there are not two readings,” continuous.
Finally, when asked if the coalition will live beyond this period of government and if in a supposed ballot in 2024 the Cabildo would support a white candidate, Manini replied:
“The essence of politics is to interpret its voters, its people. If we interpret that the lobbyists want or understand that it is better to support the white candidate in the ballot, we are going to support him decisively. Today, I would tell you that the sentiment of the lobbyists is in that direction, but there is a year and a half to go and it is an eternity. It depends on the candidate, on the campaign that is being carried out, on what is said in the campaign, on the tone of the campaign; it depends on many things. In October 2024, when there are two candidates left, if I am not one of the two, we will see who we are going to support.”
