This Monday, March 21, the debate was held between the member of the Commission for Yes, the former senator of the Broad Front Rafael Michelini, and the current senator of the National Party Gustavo Penadés, organized by Channel 5. The two issues that were on the table were: Citizen security and financial freedom.
In this framework, Senator Penadés defended the articles referring to citizen security because they represent “the frontal fight against crime.” He assured that the LUC protects honest citizens, fights crime and supports the police”.
“Since the beginning of the government, crimes have been going down permanently. We know about the challenges, not everything is fine, but everything is better”, said Penadés.
He stressed that these are articles that are linked to very serious crimes such as: “rape, sexual harassment, kidnapping, especially aggravated robbery and drug trafficking.”
He added that the fight against crime is done with the Police and Justice. “In that sense, one cannot speak of police overflow or easy triggering, because citizens are guaranteed that they are heading in the right direction.”
For his part, Michelini questioned that the LUC was an “outrage of more than 40 issues put into a single Law on which, if Parliament did not pronounce, it was approved anyway.”
“The government insists that the robberies went down, but they went down during the peaks of the pandemic and went up outside of it. The same thing happened with the homicides. We challenged 33 of the 117 security articles, because most of them affect rights and freedoms”.
The member of the Commission for Yes said that in the arrests “prosecutors are removed.”
“If someone is arrested, I want the police to report the procedure immediately to the prosecutor. I want a State that is responsible for the physical integrity of the person. Do we ask so much? Freedom is essential”, stated the former legislator.
Penadés explained that there was a drop in crime in the world in the first five weeks of the pandemic; later, in all the countries of the continent and in several of Europe, the crimes grew. “In Brazil they increased 5%, in Argentina they grew 3.8% and in Chile they shot up 33%, while in Uruguay they fell 16.3%”.
“It would seem that the FA does not trust the action of the police, but the police are part of the State. In addition, the participation of the Justice is established by Law. The LUC extends from two to four hours the time that the police have to communicate with the Prosecutor’s Office, after an arrest, ”he said.
He also defended the possibility of being able to request the identity card on public roads, because thanks to this “a murderer fell and there are 600 people charged.”
While Michelini indicated that it is okay to trust the police and the powers of the State, but there must be controls. “Overnight they change the rules for us on very delicate issues related to freedom and people, because the police that immediately communicated to the Justice about an arrest, now may or may not communicate in four hours. Now they ask for documentation, and if I go out for a walk with my dog and I don’t have my identity card, they can take me to the police station. The fight against criminals is barbaric, but not restrict rights and freedoms of people.
Penades added that “freedom is defended with the Law that is there to control, monitor and prevent excesses of all kinds and in this case fight crime.”
Rapists, robbers and murderers will spend less time in prison if these articles are repealed. The LUC establishes guarantees for the honest citizen, guarantees for the police and to combat crime. The criminals will go out to celebrate if the Yes wins ”, he sentenced.
Given this, Michelini expressed that “Penadés has to go to a psychologist, because in the world of technology, where DNA, cameras or wiretapping can be available, Uruguay goes to the rough, to ask for the ID and to seize it. ”
But Penadés replied that Michelini “doesn’t understand anything and that it is he who has to go to a psychologist, because he sees ghosts and the LUC has been in force for two years and nothing of what he says happened. In his parallel world, in the conspiracy theory, he can go through anything. Here guarantees are not affected, crime is fought, and no rights have been violated.
The white legislator stressed that with respect to legitimate defense that extends to different areas of people’s property.
However, Michelini questioned that the article on self-defense “is poorly written” and described it as “marracho”.
“If an unfortunate event occurs in one of the areas of a property, which is not specifically detailed in the article, we do not know what happens. There cannot be an article that names all the places in the house and that is a mistake”, he remarked.
Financial freedom, economy and public companies
Michelini said that during the electoral campaign, the multi-colored coalition jumped into the pool, they said they were not going to increase public rates and fuel, but there was no water in the pool.
Regarding the fiscal rule, he stated that at a time when the European community ends up removing the clauses referring to the fiscal rule, the Uruguayan government resorts to it and in the midst of a pandemic.
Regarding financial freedom, he said that “it opens the door to bad employers, because when they go to hire someone they will tell the worker that they will be paid in cash. Does anyone believe that this worker is going to tell him that he wants to collect from the bank? No, he will accept what the businessman proposes.”
“If there is no strong union in that company, they will charge as the employer wants and that will lead to informality and mechanisms that will not allow transparency. Money laundering will damage the reputation of Uruguay”, warned the former MP from the Front.
While Penadés questioned that “verbal terrorism does not contribute anything.” In this sense, he lamented that the questions come from “those who are responsible for having founded ANCAP, closed PLUNA, and having done lousy business with the regasifier.”
He said that “the fiscal rule gives citizens peace of mind that the State will not spend more than it can and that benefits the population,” he added that “Uruguay begins a path of economic growth, in the midst of a pandemic and attending the needs of the population, and within this framework it has been possible to achieve objectives in fiscal matters, reduction of inflation and growth of the economy”.
On the other hand, he pointed out that “there is a commitment to freedom and to ending the mandatory nature of financial inclusion. The worker has the possibility of choosing how to collect his salary, because when he moved away from Montevideo the problems began ”.
The white legislator said that “bank accounts in the public and private sectors increased, informality fell and there are more people working in the formal market.”
While Michelini questioned that Penadés says that the FA governments were a disaster and now everything is magnificent, except the pockets of the people, “because retirees and workers lost purchasing power.”
“Financial freedom in Montevideo and the interior of the country was already there, because you could go to the bank and withdraw everything, and in towns with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants there was no obligation to pay through a bank. Now they have invented something that leads to losing traceability”, he indicated.
He asked: Why do we open the door for a person with $120,000 in their pocket to buy a property or several cars? Where does he get the money? Why don’t you do it for the banking system? Does someone have $120,000 in the house and it occurs to them to buy an apartment and they go with a bag of money? Why do they insist on that?
Penadés questioned that Michelini moves in a “parallel world”. He assured that today there is more formality, people working formally, more accounts linked to salaries in the public and private sectors. “It is true that before you could pay with money in small towns, and that we did not see it badly, so why is it bad to extend it?”
“What’s wrong with the fact that the collection is no longer mandatory? We do not understand that relationship between the FA and the banks that won like never before in the history of Uruguay”, he stated.
The nationalist parliamentarian acknowledged that both in 2020 and 2021 the real salary fell by 1.6%, but the “commitment is to grow and having more Uruguayans working the basket grew in values within the family economy.”
Michelini responded that Penadés’ statement about “the friendship of the FA with the banks does not hold up for a second.”
He stressed that the labor regulations try to make the worker equal to the employer, but what the LUC does is “unprotect the workers.”
Penadés indicated that a week after the FA left the government, “it was shown that 400,000 Uruguayans were in the informal sector. Today there are more people working formally », and he said that the FA fiscal rule only increased the external debt. He added that reports of suspicious money laundering operations have increased and a specialized Prosecutor’s Office will be created for such issues.
Michelini insisted that the serious governments of the world are back from the fiscal rule. “The best fiscal rule is reputation. We shouldn’t have gotten into that, and even less so in a pandemic.”
