Starting at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, the double interpellation will be carried out in the Senate
to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Bustillo, and of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber for issuing the passport of the Uruguayan drug trafficker, Sebastián Marset. The questioner will be Senator Mario Bergara (Call Seregnista-Progresista).
The interpellation will focus on issues related to the issuance of the passport for drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, focusing on the actions of the ministries and not on Marset’s alleged involvement in the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor.
“We focus on why, in these complex circumstances, when a person is imprisoned abroad for a false document, they were prosecuted in the past, they have a long criminal record and they were being investigated at an international level with the participation of the Ministry of the Interior. Uruguayan, the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Administration), the Paraguayan authorities, receive in this way, so easily, so quickly, a sui generis shipment of the passport to Dubai, which allows you to leave from Dubai and being a fugitive from international justice today”; Bergara said.
In addition, the legislator added: “It is not true that the passport was given to Marset, not even that it was given in this way, by the 2014 decree. The decree did not disqualify it from being given, but it did not force it to be given either.”
“Clearly the decree is saying that in unforeseen circumstances, the respective ministries have to make the considerations of the case. Wow, this is a complex circumstance (…). Go if it had merited additional considerations and a more cautious, deeper and more prudent evaluation, as suggested by the professionals of the foreign service, because not in vain the embassy of the Arab Emirates and the opinion of the former consul and the consular service ask for explicit instructions, to the extent that they consider that this is a case that deserved greater prudence and greater caution”, stated the senator.
From Open Town Hall
“From Cabildo Abierto the expectation is that the conditions under which the passport in question was issued be clarified. We are going to listen to the questioner and the evidence that he can provide. Then, we will make the composition of the place of the case”, Senator Guillermo Domenech (Open Council) told Diario La R.
Asked about Heber’s statements regarding the lack of international alerts that prevented the delivery of the passport, Domenech said: “We will be to what is said in the interpellation. We are not going to be guided by any statement collected in the press. It is a matter sensitive enough for us not to prejudge.”
“I don’t think it’s good to issue any judgment before the parties are heard,” said the lobbyist legislator.
As for what image he has of the secretaries of state, Domenech stated that “I cannot pass judgment (on the chancellor) because I have not had a conversation with (Bustillo) and the Minister of the Interior is a person I have known for many years, but I have no link. I can’t say I’m friends with any of them.”
“I am going to see what the tenor of the accusations of the questioner can be and what is the defense of those questioned,” he asserted. The parliamentarian expressed that the other lobbyist senators agree on the position, both Guido Manini Ríos and Raúl Lozano.
“We are convinced that we must have a frontal fight against the organizations that act in drug dealing and we are going to support all the efforts that are made in this regard at the police and judicial or prosecution level.”
“There was no express treatment”
“We had some information a few days ago when the ministry began working on the issue, which brings us closer to the fact that the procedure that was carried out was adjusted to the law: there was no express treatment or anything unusual. Everything was within the norm”, Senator Jorge Gandini (For the Homeland) told Diario La R.
“Everything was processed in the usual times. Therefore, it does not deserve formal questioning. It may be curious or strange, but it is within the regulations. They are not things that call one’s attention from legality.”
“This is not questioned by the Broad Front either. We will see how the interpellation goes and the explanations that can be given in detail by the ministers”, affirmed Gandini.
The porlapatrista indicated that “we found out about all this once it came out in the media. We had not done a survey of this matter, it was not relevant for Uruguay as it had no recorded history and its passage through justice and its convictions, some of which were acquittals, had been fulfilled. We weren’t paying attention.”
“Now, we know that he was being investigated, that he had actions in other countries, but with the partisan and political control that we carried out in the opposition, we had no observations, nor do we have them now.”
“We see that the information is now more armed than we had before. We’ll see how everything turns out tomorrow. Now, we have more than anything press versions and information that come from abroad, due to the investigations that were made about this person abroad, “said the porlapatrista.
For the FA, “the country owes an explanation”
“We believe that the country owes an explanation, Uruguay owes an explanation and there are two ministries that are key to knowing a little about this dark subject that left the country in such a bad position, clarify it,” the senator told Diario la R. José Carlos Mahía (Seregnista-Progressive Call).
“The question that one asks oneself, how many Uruguayans are there in Dubai or in the United Arab Emirates, just a few, right? How many can be imprisoned? much less. The question is why at no time did the alarms sound in the government, which ends up expressly giving a passport to a Uruguayan drug trafficker.”
“An ordinary person would clearly wonder why a citizen with these circumstances ends up receiving a passport so quickly from the Uruguayan government,” he added.
“We have to wait for the interpellation because there is information that the government has to give. The objective fact is that Uruguay gave a passport to a drug trafficker under unclear conditions and in this sense, the government should have an opinion and give explanations to the citizens.”
Hard to understand
“The Marset case, to the extent that new elements emerge and new questions are published every day, it is increasingly difficult to understand that Uruguay, despite multiple consultations made from Dubai to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ended up making a express passport to a drug trafficker,” said Senator Enrique Rubio (77).
“The country is placed in an annoying and compromised situation because this issue is not a national issue but rather an issue of international scope,” he added.
Asked about the lack of international alerts indicated by the Minister of the Interior, Rubio noted that “there were several queries, from what has transpired, saying if it was done or not. They were carried out from there, it was a person with a history of drug trafficking.”
The legislator recapitulated that Marset “was detained in Dubai for carrying a false Paraguayan passport and as far as we know, the Paraguayan ambassador in Qatar had warned the Uruguayan that this was very strange.”
“When in doubt, one has to be extremely cautious and, in any case, take the necessary time. But this was super fast and super fast according to what we know as of the date of December 10 the three months of detention ended and then he would be expelled, ”he concluded.
How to process a passport from abroad
To apply for the Uruguayan passport abroad, you must contact the Consular Offices. In the case of theft or loss, it is required to provide the corresponding report. To do so, you must enter “start online procedure” with a user from the www.gub.uy and enter the requested data.
At the same time, it is important to comply with the requirements. In the case of legal citizens, the following is required: Uruguayan identity card, valid or expired, for this corresponding category of citizens, the citizenship card and Civic Credential. This occurs in the event that more than three years have elapsed since the letter has been granted.
A sworn declaration of not having had a third citizenship is also required.
This applies in the case of residents abroad. Judicial background (both inside and outside of Uruguay).
For Uruguayan nationals born abroad, it will be required to deliver: Identity card that has been issued under protection, proof of affiliation with testimonials of birth certificates.
If the idea is to appear in the passport with the surname of the spouse, the presentation of a marriage certificate will be required, which must not be more than 30 days after being issued, something that also happens with the identity card.
