The Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office decided to file the complaint for the construction of the Antel Arena in Montevideo, which had been presented by the board of directors of the state telephone company of Uruguay, then chaired by the now pre-candidate of the Colorado Party Gabriel Gurméndez. For the head of the judicial department, Alejandro Machado, there were no crimes.
The long cause around Antel Arena and against the management of the mayor of Montevideo and presidential candidate for the Frente Amplio, Carolina Cosse, It came to an end at the beginning of the election year after the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office decided to archive the investigation.
The news was first reported by the journalist Viviana Ruggiero from Channel 4, and was later confirmed by the same Prosecutor’s Office through its spokesperson, Javier Benech. Although it is still necessary to know the resolution of prosecutor Machado that bases the decision, it was announced that, after the analysis of the documentation corresponding to the case and the statements of those involved, it was not found that any type of crime had been committed.
The filed criminal complaint had been filed in October 2021 by the board of directors of the state company, which alleged alleged irregularities in the construction of Antel Arena. The writing prepared by Gustavo Bordes, who led the telecommunications company’s team of lawyers, was based on the conclusions of two audits that were carried out in the previous months and on the report of the Transparency and Public Ethics Board (Jutep).
At that time, Bordes pointed out that said report made “reference not only to irregularities and illegalities,” but that, based on what was concluded, it would be necessary to “analyze the civil and criminal liability of the people involved.”
Finally, and after more than two years of investigation, the Economic Crimes Prosecutor’s Office closed the case after finding no crimes.
A “political operetta” and a “half-asleep” investigation
After the complaint was filed in 2021, the then first-shift prosecutor specializing in Economic Crimes, Enrique Rodríguez, He summoned the complainants—who were members of Antel’s board at that time—and senior and former leaders of the Frente Amplio to testify; among them, the mayor Carolina Cosse.
After testifying at the Prosecutor’s Office, the current capital mayor and Broad Front candidate maintained that the complaint was “a political operetta” by the traditional parties.
In August 2023, he was the Minister of the Environment and former vice president of Antel From 2020 until his assumption of responsibility for the environmental portfolio, Robert Bouvier, who declared and maintained that he was convinced that the process of construction of the Antel Arena He had “a few important vices.”
However, after these statements the investigation would not have progressed any further. “We were doing very well until coincidentally the prosecutor was changed and Alejandro Machado was appointed, and nothing happened in a year,” Gurméndez questioned in January. “I feel that the cause was left half asleep,” the Colorado candidate had reproached, in dialogue with Telemundo.
“There are other causes that have dizzying speed, such as marset, among others, with another speed, another rhythm, leaks, a lot of publicity. I would have liked a case worth 120 million dollars from the Uruguayans to have the same speed, the same treatment, but I feel that this past year things have not progressed much and it is really half asleep, like it is going to an archive over a slow fire,” he added, then, anticipating the outcome of the case.
Source: Ambito
