MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Uruguayan president says criminals would celebrate LUC repeal

”The Frente Amplio (Broad Front) is degrading the most sacred causes,” Sanguinetti stressed.

Former two-time President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti Friday said the National Human Rights Institution (INDDHH) was “helping criminals” by opposing certain provisions within the Law of Urgent Consideration that may end up repealed through a referendum later this month.

In addition, he also referred to the Frente Amplio, which he accuses of “having lost autonomy” to the PIT-CNT and of degrading “everything it touches”.

“It is really an open interference in the referendum campaign. The arguments are rude,” wrote Sanguinetti in his weekly column in the Correo de los Viernes, regarding the National Human Rights Institution's stance against the LUC.

“They start from an implausible accusation of the Association of Public Defenders who [have] denounced ... a hundred possible abuses, without any judge having paid any attention to them. In a word, nothing serious; in other words, a trap, a defamatory construction, an attempt to demonize the police when it begins to reverse the curve of crimes”, the Colorado Party leader added.

“The Human Rights Institution, even if it hurts to hear it, is helping criminals. They are the ones who would celebrate the repeal of the law,” he explained.

Sanguinetti also spoke out against the Frente Amplio, a party which he believes “has lost all autonomy and is led by the [unionist] PIT-CNT.”

”The Frente Amplio (Broad Front) [of former Presidents José 'Pepe' Mujica and Tabaré Vásquez] is degrading the most sacred causes. It deforms everything. The excesses in the feminist march fertilize the opposite cause,“ Sanguinetti stressed.

He added that ”feminist women who are not frentistas“ felt ”rightly subjugated.“

At age 86, Sanguinetti continues to be a leading figure in Uruguayan politics. As the leader of the Colorado Party, which is behind the coalition that led Luis Lacalle Pou to the presidency, he is often consulted on the appointment of ministers as well as on any other controversial issue.

”The LUC is a good law,” Sanguinetti has been quoted as saying in the past few days.