Pablo Caram, mayor of Artigas, was convicted of irregularly wasting money by paying up to 200 hours of overtime to officials. The complaint was furthered by the Colorado Party. The National Party accepted the resignation of former deputy Valentina Dos Santos from the party (see letter at the end).
The Frente Amplio believes that the case of Mayor Carlos Moreira is repeating himself. He resigned from the party after being accused of changing his sex for positions, and then returned to the National Party, and continued to run for office and be Mayor of Colonia to date.
Caram was sentenced to 14 months in prison on probation and two hours of community service per week for four months.
The cousin of Mayor Rodolfo Caram and his partner, a municipal employee, were also convicted of fraud for wasting overtime. The sentence handed down by the courts: 24 months in prison, to be replaced by community service. The woman had been one of the beneficiaries of the irregular payment of overtime.
Another politician involved, the now ex-deputy Valentina Dos Santos, Caram’s niece, was also sentenced for overtime of officials of up to 200 extra hours per month.
In summary, it is estimated that between 2020 and 2022, some 8 million dollars were paid for overtime; officials did not have enough hours to work so many overtime hours in the month, according to Daniel Argañaraz, a Colorado Party councilor who filed the complaint about the irregularities.
The Moreira case is back
Eduardo Brenta, senator of the Frente Amplio, said in the House on Wednesday 17 that the resignation of the leaders from the National Party is like the case of the mayor of Colonia, who resigned from the party and presented himself as a candidate for mayor again, the people voted for him, he won and he returned to the National Party.
He therefore argued that they should be disqualified as candidates as established by the Constitution of the Republic.
Letter from the National Party Board of Directors
