The cars that are seized from criminals end up in various places. On premises of the Judiciary, the Ministry of the Interior and, in some cases, on the street. At the corner of Maldonado and Paraguay – where the General Directorate for the Fight Against Organized Crime and Interpol are located – the streets are occupied by cars without license plates, covered in cobwebs and banana fluff. According to the Montevideo Municipality, there are 24.
For almost two years they have been receiving complaints from residents, who cannot park their own vehicles or dispose of the street where they live at any time. In addition, according to what the general secretary of the Municipality Olga Otegui said to The Observer, “generates health problems, environmental hygiene problems due to the accumulation of waste around it”.
The mayor’s office currently counts 24 vehicles, but last year there were close to 60. Otegui explained that, since the solution to the problem was not coming fast enough, they understood that it was best to keep them on a mayor’s property, where they are also guarded by municipal officials while they found a definitive solution.
Although they had already had some contacts on this issue last year, this week Otegui met with the court prosecutor, Juan Gómez, and the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel, to insist on the need for a solution. Among the three, they agreed to generate a protocol to clearly determine how to act in these situations.
Ines Guimaraens
Many of these cars remain there while their owner undergoes the judicial process and if, for example, he is found innocent, the Justice must reinstate him.
For the Mayor it is important “that a protocol be made on how to proceed in this situation. Of course it is a provision of Justice to leave a car in custody, but it cannot be left in a public space to which all Montevideans have the right “said the Secretary General.
From the Ministry of the Interior they told The Observer that in the vicinity of Interpol there are 31 cars in this situation and that at the meeting they warned that they will be removed in batches and transferred to ministry premises.
They were also willing to formulate a protocol to avoid similar situations in the future. Otegui warned that they all promised to study different possibilities and that they will meet again to continue working on the issue.
In 2021, Joaquín Casavalle, from the Montevideo al Sur bar, told La Diaria that “part of what is detrimental to the neighborhood is that it not only makes it impossible to park in free areas, but it is also a gathering place of dirt, rats, the cars are stolen too.
