He Army announced that he will have an active role in the upcoming electoral campaign in Uruguay, as long as “they lie or forcefully offend”, and only through judicial mechanisms and public responses to the defamations that, as they foresee, will originate in the Frente Amplio (FA).
When the former deputy and current leader of the People’s Victory Party (PVP), Luis Puigquestioned practices that would occur within the Military High School —which would even incur the violation of human rights and torture—opened a new political battle front for the opposition in a year that will have many topics of debate on the table, as reported by the weekly Busqueda.
The leftist leader said on Teledoce that “there have been a significant number of complaints,” which is why the PVP was going to propose the elimination of the Liceo Militar in the Congress of the Broad Front.
The immediate response was a criminal complaint for defamation and insults filed by the minister Javier García, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. But also the commander in chief of the Army, Mario Stevenazzi, entered the public discussion and pointed out that “the concepts show ignorance of the reality that exists in the aforementioned educational institute.”
The Army, an issue that is emerging for the campaign
Stevenazzi’s response, through a statement, was not an isolated position but rather a summary of the majority position in the institution. And he seems to anticipate what will be an intense year in discussions that have to do with forces.
It is not causal: in addition to Puig’s comments about the Liceo Militar – a topic that, finally, is not part of the programmatic bases for a government from 2025 to 2029 – some sectors of the Wide Front They reject the peace missions of the United Nations, considered elementary by the Army but as “foreign occupations that enable abuses of various types,” for space Left and Freedom —which groups together PVP, Big House, he Socialist Party and the List 5005.
For its part, the reform project of the Organic Law of the Armed Forces and the economic cost of acquiring new equipment for the Navy and Air Force are also a point that currently generates discord.
For the internal Broad Front and the four pre-candidates, the fact that the issue was put on the table is, in principle, uncomfortable. The opposition understands that the relationship with the Armed Forces is delicate in the face of the elections, not only because of the link in the event of gaining access to the government again, but also because of the flow of votes that the military family represents—especially, with a match like Town meeting that directly disputes this percentage of the electorate.
For his part, Stevenazzi announced that he is willing to respond publicly to the defamations that come from the left coalition, which is why the topic of debate seems to have been strongly installed. “The country will be immersed in an electoral campaign, one more,” he noted in the statement, and assured that “when people lie or forcefully offend, we must look for mechanisms that allow us to repair this damage to the internal public, but also to the external public”.
“This is how we will do it, in the way we choose within what the law allows us, at the opportunity we define, but with the firmness as always,” added the commander in chief of the Army.
Source: Ambito
