MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan Ambassador to Sweden suspended for serious irregularities

Perazza is due back in Uruguay on Oct. 15

Uruguay's Foreign Ministry announced Friday it was recalling Ambassador Federico Perazza from Stockholm, who was handed down a 6-month suspension without pay after it was determined that he had incurred “very serious” administrative offenses which included the use of mission money for personal expenses, in addition to the inappropriate use of the official car and the mistreatment of Embassy officials.

The disciplinary measure against Perazza was signed by President Luis Lacalle Pou and Foreign Minister Omar Paganini, it was also reported in Montevideo. The document stressed that Perazza's remaining in Sweden was “inconvenient” because it generated “distortion in the functioning of the Embassy.”

The diplomat had already been summoned in February, and since then he was forbidden to enter the embassy, to use the legation's credit card, and to manage the mission's bank accounts.

In February this year, an investigation was launched into Perazza's misdeeds after complaints from Embassy clerks. It was determined that the diplomat, appointed by Lacalle Pou's government in 2022 to represent Uruguay in Stockholm, had withdrawn cash and made payments for personal expenses with the embassy's credit card in a “systematic” manner. The ambassador had also failed to reimburse these funds in time.

He was also found to have disregarded the “duty of respect” by adopting “conduct contrary to a harmonious working environment” in the embassy, including “particularly violent and hostile” acts, such as breaking furniture and making “inappropriate and uncomfortable situations of his personal sphere” to female officials.

Perazza had also stopped living in the Ambassador's residence and never reported it, although the rent and operating expenses were paid by the State. In addition, he drove the Embassy's car without a driver's license.

The diplomat's overall good record and his admission of guilt served as mitigating factors. Nevertheless, he has been excluded for six years from representing Uruguay abroad, which results from a 4-year ban plus the usual 2-year spell all diplomats must serve at home before a new assignment in a foreign country.

Perazza, who had also served as Director of International Cooperation under then Foreign Minister Ernesto Talvi and as Ambassador to Paraguay, must return to Uruguay by Oct. 15, 2024.