The presidential candidate for the Colorado Party, Andres Ojedaassured in an interview with Búsqueda that the government of Luis Lacalle Pou, of which he feels part (at least semantically), There were no acts of corruption.
“What we did not have in this period of government, unlike the previous ones, are acts of corruption, and this is very important,” said the lawyer and right-wing politician.
And he went on to explain: “Because I understand by ‘act of corruption’ – you have a chapter in the Penal Code, linked to acts of the Public Administration – the only political leader, accused of a crime, taking out what happened to (Pablo) Caram and all that, I am referring to the Central Administration, the only political leader, accused of a crime, was Gustavo Leal.”
Ojeda has been a staunch defender of the Lacalle Pou government, with which the Colorado Party formed a government to defeat the Frente Amplio in the last campaign.
Corruption and questionable facts in the Lacalle Pou government
Despite Ojeda’s rhetoric, the file says that there are cases of dubious ethics, some of which could be subject to criminal charges.
One of the most notorious, and which has not yet reached a definitive stage, is the case of the delivery of the passport, by the national government (through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to the dangerous Uruguayan drug trafficker. Sebastian Marset.
For this reason, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Bustilloand the former vice minister, Carolina Achethe latter being a former presidential candidate for Ojeda’s own Colorado Party.
The former undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, and the former advisor to Lacalle Pou, Roberto Lafluf, also resigned due to the delivery of this questioned passport. Lafluf is said to have told Ache that certain information regarding the case should be hidden.
The highest ranking official involved in this scandal has resigned from his post. Luis Alberto Hebera long-time friend of the Lacalle family and a historic leader of the white right. He immediately took up a position in the Senate for the National Party.
The whole plot of the apocryphal passports issued from the illegal framework set up by Luis Lacalle Pou’s personal bodyguard would deserve a separate chapter. Alexander Astesianowho accepted responsibility in a summary trial and received a lesser sentence.
Without being a criminal case per se, the resignation of the former Minister of Housing occurred, Irene Moreirawife of the ultraconservative senator Guido Manini Rios. It was found that she directly awarded housing to members of her party Cabildo Abierto. She currently holds a seat as a senator for that political force.
There was also the case of Santiago Gonzalezformer director of Coexistence and Citizen Security of the Ministry of the Interior, who was treated at the Police Hospital when it was not his turn. Currently, he leads a group within the National Party called List 87 – Together for Montevideo.
