MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay and Chile agree to coordinate against organized crime after an Orsi-Kast summit

Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime”

The presidents of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, and Chile, José Antonio Kast, agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation against transnational organized crime, following a meeting held on Wednesday at the Suárez y Reyes presidential residence in Montevideo. In a joint statement, the leaders announced understandings on security, fisheries, Antarctica, the bi-oceanic corridor and economic integration, as part of Kast's official visit to Uruguay.

As a first step, the two governments signed two agreements between their foreign ministries: one on the mutual recognition of digital signatures and another on cooperation between their diplomatic academies. Orsi said that in the coming months new agreements, still being drafted, would be finalized on security and infrastructure. “I am sure that in the coming months we will be closing the security agreement and others related to infrastructure, which we agreed to finish designing,” the Uruguayan leader said, thanking Chile for putting “concrete proposals” on the table.

Security dominated much of the meeting. Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime” and noted that his foreign minister, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, had invited neighboring countries to sign the so-called Santiago Agreement, an initiative promoted by Chilean diplomacy to coordinate the fight against organized crime at a regional level. The Chilean president welcomed Uruguay and Paraguay's willingness to join: “Organized crime can be rooted out of one nation, but it needs the same rules in all nations to end that scourge,” he said.

Both leaders stressed that the bilateral relationship has remained solid despite their ideological differences —Kast belongs to the right and Orsi to the Frente Amplio, of the center-left. “Relations between presidents of Uruguay and Chile, beyond the political sign each may have, have been permanent and very fruitful,” Kast said, adding that the two countries are united by “the defense of democracy” and their citizens' well-being. Orsi agreed that the bond reflects “a long tradition” and respect for democratic institutions.

The meeting came two days after the Mercosur summit in Asunción, where Uruguay assumed the bloc's pro tempore presidency and where Kast had already raised the need to build a regional “security architecture.” Orsi framed the meeting within that process and said Uruguay's leadership of Mercosur and of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States places Montevideo in a key position for regional coordination. Kast, who acknowledged that Chile is going through a “critical situation” in employment and growth and praised Uruguay's stability, is scheduled to take part on Thursday in a business gathering before concluding his visit.