MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan political crisis: Opposition demands accountability amid passport scandal

“We cannot allow drug trafficking to get into politics,” Pereira argued

Uruguayan opposition chairman Fernando Pereira insisted Sunday in Montevideo that the political crisis over the issuance of a passport to notorious drug trafficker Sebastián Marset is not over, despite the cabinet reshuffle announced Saturday by President Luis Lacalle Pou, who broke a two-day silence on the political crisis that began with leaked audios between the former foreign minister and his vice minister.

“The president is convinced that he has turned the page, but the page has just begun,” Pereira said after a meeting of the Frente Amplio (FA), the party he chairs, to discuss the case.

Read also: Major cabinet reshuffle in Montevideo amid scandal

Pereira said the resignations of ministers Francisco Bustillo (Foreign Affairs) and Luis Alberto Heber (Interior) and other lower-rank officials were something good because “they remove from the government people who clearly acted at the margin of an adequate public performance.”

However, he stressed that what the leftist coalition had asked for was “the dismissal“ of the arguably unruly officials.

”The president is convinced that he turned the page. The page has just begun (...) Neither the Uruguayan society nor the Frente Amplio were satisfied with the president's words. We expected a greater forcefulness in terms of political responsibilities and to assume with modesty the mistakes that were made,“ Pereira said.

He added that he was ”surprised“ that Lacalle said there was nothing wrong but then accepted the ministers’ resignations. ”One of the two things is wrong: Either they complied with the law and then he does not accept the resignation or they did not comply and he accepts their resignation,“ Pereira noted.

”We are very concerned because it is said that the passport had to be given even to a narco. Governments have the discretion to give or not to give passports,“ Pereira said. ”We see a society that is upset. Uruguayans expected something more than resignations. They expected the president to say what happened. So far no Uruguayan has been told why we gave the passport“ to Marset, he stressed.

”The political and government crisis is so great that in a single day, there were changes in four ministries and that in the current government, practically 60% of the minister and undersecretary positions have been dismissed due to different scandals,” Pereira also underscored.

“We cannot allow drug trafficking to get into politics and this implies clear parliamentary actions. There is no longer any doubt that we must have a law for the financing of political parties. There is no doubt that the Jutep (Transparency and Public Ethics Board) must be strengthened. The law on access to public information must be improved. There is no doubt that we must legislate on transparency,“ Pereira elaborated.

Former two-time President and Secretary General of the Colorado Party - a member of the ruling Multicolor coalition - Julio María Sanguinetti replied that ”they demanded resignations, the resignations are there,“ while insisting the government had done nothing illegal.

”The ministries did not act with clarity and artificially generated a situation of conflict where there should not have been,” Sanguinetti also explained.