Alexander Astesianoformer head of the presidential custody of Luis Lacalle Pou, abused the surveillance system of the Ministry of the Interior to monitor the movements of union leader Marcelo Abdala the day of his accident in Punta Carretas. Astesiano then shared the images with the executive director of the Police, Jorge Berriel, and sent an audio to Nicolás Martínez, private secretary of Lacalle Pouwhere he is heard saying: “You have to kill this son of a bitch.”
What was narrated above is derived from audios and chats between Astesiano and Berriel that were leaked to the press, and are part of the folder that is about to be analyzed by the prosecutor in the case, Gabriela Fossati.
Marcelo Abdala, current president of the PIT-CNT, crashed on February 4, 2022 in the Montevidean neighborhood of Punta Carretas and, after performing breathalyzer spirometry, tested positive.
After receiving the information from Commissioner Héctor Ferreira, who at that time held the position of National Deputy Director of the Police, Astesiano informed Nicolás Martínez of what was happening. He sent her some images and wrote: “Drunk this press at the scene of the accident” (sic).
Astesiano would have threatened Marcelo Abdala
this is the conversationaccording to newspaper publications The Observerwho claims to have accessed the chats and audios.
“What are you doing, Fiber? Was this now? Did this suck?” Nicolás Martínez responded by audio.
“Yes, now I am having an aspirometry done now” (sic), he replied by Astesiano text.
“Ok,” Martinez told him. And he added: “X now nothing in the press” (sic).
A few minutes later, Astesiano sent him a new audio saying: “Nico, I have everything set up by the general (you don’t understand what he says). I have two traffic police officers there too.”
And in another voice message he commented: “The cameras don’t let me see much, see. But I’m with all of that now. I’m already asking for the spirometry result and everything”.
And finally he shared the information he received from the police authorities: “Nico, 1.53 is giving you the spirometry. Now the police chief ordered the coordinator to go there and the area chief to the place, ta? 1.53 spirometry”.
Immediately afterwards, he forwarded the images that Ferreira had sent him: among them are photos of Abdala’s private vehicle, the driver’s license with sensitive and personal data, the result of spirometry, among other documents related to the event.
“It’s in the oven,” Martínez wrote to him. “In addition, he fled, they caught him two blocks away.”
And Astesiano tells him on audio: “Nico, it’s time for us to kill him. You have to kill him, bo. Let’s get the batteries: you have to kill this son of a bitch”.
And close: “I’m in order, Nico.”
Use of cameras to spy on Abdala
On February 5, Astesiano contacted Berriel and sent him images from the Interior Ministry’s surveillance cameras, which he had access to both in the Executive Tower and in the residence of Suárez and Reyes due to his position as head of presidential security. These images documented Marcelo Abdala’s movements on the day of his accident in Punta Carretas.
It had previously been reported that Astesiano used the cameras for matters that were not related to his work. In an audio that he sent to Berriel, Astesiano explained that he had sent four images with all of Abdala’s previous movements on the day of the accident and mentioned that one of the images was blurred due to the sun.
