The former vice chancellor, Carolina Ache He testified before the Prosecutor’s Office and said he had not done anything illegal, within the framework of the week-long investigation into those responsible for the delivery of the Uruguayan passport to the drug dealer Sebastian Marset, which is in a stage of interrogating top government officials.
The hearings began this Monday, when Guillermo Maciel He went to the Prosecutor’s Office to give his statement to the prosecutor for Economic and Complex Crimes, Alejandro Machadowhich was followed on Tuesday by the Minister of the Interior himself, Luis Alberto Heber. After Ache’s words, the chancellor Francisco Bustillo will declare on Friday.
The investigation seeks to determine if there was any illegality upon delivery of the passport to Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marsetwho remains a fugitive and has an international arrest warrant.
The release of Carolina Ache
At a press conference, after testifying at the Prosecutor’s Office, ache expressed: “I was the only politician in this government who resigned and went home.” The former leader stated that “it was neither because I had done something wrong nor because I had done something illegal,” but rather she said that she did it “because for not having been willing to hide communications from Justice and for having refused to commit a crime.”
Specifically regarding the accusation, the former vice chancellor stated: “I had no participation, no interference in the processing of the passport of Sebastian Marset”. In that sense, he clarified that “it was not within my powers and I never acted outside of my powers” and insisted: “I did not rush anything even for the doctor Alejandro Balbi not even for “Marset.”
Even, ache He assured that he notified the Directorate of Consular Affairs of the Chancellery. “When the undersecretary Maciel He told me that it was someone dangerous, I notified that address, which depends on Bustillo,” he said.
What did Heber say in the statement?
Yesterday, at the end of his appearance, Heber explained to the press that there is reservation about the case, but that “the only new thing that exists 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 position of the Prosecutor’s Office regarding the delivery of the passport to Marset
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 prosecutor, the culprit is the office that issues the passport and that is a function of the Ministry of External relationships. 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 issuance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Consular Officials.
However, in 2018 a modification was decreed establishing that passports requested abroad are the responsibility of both ministries. Meanwhile, the provision of this decree was after the issuance of the passport of Marset.
Source: Ambito
