MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan Foreign Minister resigns amid scandal involving well-known drug trafficker

Uruguayan Foreign Minister resigns amid scandal involving well-known drug trafficker

Francisco Bustillo Wednesday turned in his resignation as Foreign Minister of Uruguay after audios of a conversation he had with then Deputy-Foreign Minister Carolina Ache about internationally-wanted drug trafficker Sebastián Marset went viral, it was reported in Montevideo. President Luis Lacalle Pou is on an official trip to the United States as this crisis unfolds.

“To dispel any suspicion that as hierarch I could exercise some interference over third parties, protected by the prerogatives of the position, I am pleased to inform you that I am so calm that I have presented the respective resignation,” said Bustillo in a statement after it went public that he tried to hide messages between Ache and the Deputy Minister of the Interior Guillermo Maciel about Marset.

Audios of Bustillo suggesting Ache “to lose her [mobile] phone” went public this week. In August 2022, Ache had denied “any participation” in the issuance in the United Arab Emirates of a passport to Marset.

”Let Maciel go to the front, you lose your cell phone, I'm imagining scenarios (...) we have to go through this step by step,“ Bustillo said in one of the wiretaps. ”Let's find a way around so that you don't have to give that (the WhatsApp chats) because you'll be stitched up there,“ he added.

Bustillo also argued ”that there was nothing illegal in the processing of the passport processed for Mr. Marset, in which instance I also had no participation or knowledge whatsoever.“ He also claimed that ”Ache, decontextualized conversations and acted in bad faith.“

”Things are not as they have been shown, but they are sufficiently sensitive to have presented her immediate resignation to the President“, he said.

”After I testify before the Public Prosecutor's Office, I will be available to the media to shed light on the veracity of what has been done and on the distorted account that has been given,“ Bustillo insisted. He is due to testify on Nov. 3 before the prosecutor of Economic and Complex Crimes, Alejandro Machado, who is investigating whether crimes were committed in the issuance of the passport to drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, while Ache testified Wednesday.

”I was the only politician of this government who resigned and went home and paradoxically it was not for having done something wrong, nor for having done something illegal, on the contrary, it was for not having been willing to hide communications from Justice and for having refused to commit a crime,“ said Ache.

Opposition Frente Amplio leader Fernando Pereira called for the president to return to the country to handle the situation. The ”president must return to Uruguay and must summon the political parties to recompose the institutional strength as soon as possible,“ he stressed.

”For a long time the Frente Amplio has been saying that both Bustillo and [Interior] Minister [Luis Alberto] Heber should have been removed,“ said the FA chairman, who insisted the government should ”take responsibility for voting full support to the management of these two ministers.“

”If the President decides well, they will leave in the worst way,“ Pereira ventured. ”There cannot be people who have participated in an activity that damages the institutionality“, expressed Pereira, and added that ”it is logical“ that one of the measures to be taken is that all those involved do not remain in their positions.”

Asked if Lacalle should also resign, he replied that the FA hopes that the president “will come back as soon as possible” from his trip to the United States and “reinstate dialogue.”

“That also supposes a call to the political parties to discuss institutional and democratic strengthening”, he stressed. “We cannot see this as an anecdote, it is a serious issue, with few precedents in Uruguay and that must be treated with sobriety”, said Pereira.

Besides Ache, Heber and Maciel also testified this week.