After the Astesiano scandal, who has been prosecuted with prison for adulterating documents, among other crimes, it was also learned that he had more than twenty police notes, for different crimes. However, the President of the Republic, Luis Lacalle Pou said that he had no criminal record.
After the president’s statements, it transpired that, in 2013, Astesiano had completed a judicial process that led to his imprisonment for four months for a “continued fraud” crime. Likewise, in 2002, he was prosecuted without imprisonment, for another crime of fraud.
Lacalle assured that he told the truth when he stated that Astesiano had no criminal record. “I’m not lying, I’m telling you the truth. I can be wrong, but I’m not lying. They will not have a president who lies. That he can be wrong, yes, but not lie. They didn’t inform me.”
For its part, the Ministry of the Interior affirmed, in a statement, that the file with all the information on the former custodian had been adulterated; that when it reached the hands of the president it did not show the convictions and prosecutions.
Separation of charge
This Friday, September 30, the Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, reported that an urgent internal investigation had been launched, after which it was determined that, on September 8, 2021, one day after the president had been informed that there was no record, the director of Criminal Identification, Chief Commissioner Gonzalo Vázquez, associated information in the file, ran the situation and all the records appeared.
For this reason, the Ministry of the Interior initiated a summary and removed the director of Criminal Identification, Gonzalo Vázquez, from his position, reported Heber.
As explained by the Secretary of State, Vázquez carried out such an action, “after learning of news in the press that affirmed that this person had a record, for which he checked his file, observed that the ID number was not registered and proceeded to complete the information to keep the data updated”
“This, which could have been a correction of a strange, strange, surprising error for the Scientific Police, was not communicated by Vázquez to his superior, nor to the national director of the Police, nor to the Minister of the Interior, and less so to the president. Heber detailed.
It is also investigating who “previously adulterated the file, when in 2015 antecedents were hidden by dissociating the name from Astesiano’s ID. Fact that led to not all the information appearing when the Presidency of the Republic was informed, in 2020 and on September 7, 2021.
Heber said that some leaders of the time are retired, but will be summoned.
He remarked: “The President of the Republic told the truth. The President of the Republic was given the wrong information by the Ministry of the Interior and, above all, by the Directorate of the Scientific Police, which carried out the background investigation.”
