The Minister of the Interior Luis Alberto Heber declared in Prosecutor’s Office for him Marset case, regarding the delivery of the passport to the leading drug trafficker of the First Uruguayan Cartel (PCU) when he was detained in Dubai for entering with false documents in 2021. Although he could not make public his conversation with the prosecutor in the case, he maintained that “what I said here is the same as what I said in the interpellation. There is no deviation or double speech.”
The controversy over the Marset case that involved senior officials of the national government – and involved the resignation of the then vice chancellor Carolina Ache— is being treated in Specialized and Complex Crimes Prosecutor’s Office; and today it was the turn of the Minister of the Interior, who declared from 11 a.m. before the head of the judicial department, Alejandro Machado.
At the end of his appearance, Heber explained to the press that there is reservation about the case, but that “the only thing new that there is now is the sentence of Arab Emirates where it shows that the Lord Marset was not released because of the passportbut he was released for the reason that determined it in the Arab Emirates.”
“Let it be clear that the granting of a passport in itself is not the liberation of anyone. There are people imprisoned today Uruguay “He has a passport and is still serving his sentence,” the minister concluded.
The investigation seeks to determine if there was any illegality upon delivery of the passport to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset —who remains a fugitive and has an international arrest warrant—, and already had the statement of the Undersecretary of the Interior, Guillermo Maciel. Tomorrow Ache will declare, while on Friday it will be the chancellor’s turn Francisco Bustillo.
Meanwhile, and on previous occasions, both Heber, Maciel and Bustillo have indicated that the delivery of the passport was in accordance with current regulations, and that at the time of requesting it there was no judicial case open against Marset in Uruguay, so there were no reasons to deny the document.
However, for the Prosecutor’s Office there is the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the delivery of official documentation.
Prosecutor’s Office points towards the Foreign Ministry for irregularities
In 2021, Sebastian Marset obtained the Uruguayan passport while he was imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Meanwhile, the ministries of Inside and of External relationships They blame each other for responsibility after having carried out the corresponding administrative audits.
However, according to El País, for prosecutor Machado there is only one person responsible: Chancellery. According to the magistrate, the culprit is the office that issues the passport and that is a function of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Machado is based on the third article of decree 129/2014 of the Regulation regarding the issuance of common passports, identity and travel titles. There, it is established that, if the passport is requested from inside the country, the responsibility for issuing the document corresponds to the Ministry of the Interior, through the National Directorate of Civil Identification. However, if it is requested abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through consular officials is responsible for its issuance.
Although in 2018 a modification was decreed establishing that passports requested abroad are the responsibility of both ministries, this provision was made after the issuance of the passport of Marset.
Source: Ambito
