The head of Uruguayan diplomacy, Francisco Bustillo, resigned on Wednesday, after the disclosure of records, proving that he tried to hide that the dangerousness of a drug lord who was applying for a passport had been discussed.
"Things are not exactly as they appear, but they are sensitive enough for me to submit my resignation to the president," Luis Lacaille Pou, Mr. Bustillo said in a statement.
Agence France-Presse's sources at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that he informed President Lacaille Pou, who is on an official trip to the USA, of his resignation.
Mr. Bustillo announced his decision after former Undersecretary of State Carolina Aceh testified yesterday morning as part of an investigation by the prosecutor's office into alleged irregularities in the procedures for the issuance of a Uruguayan passport obtained by drug lord Sebastian Marchet in November 2021.
Sebastian Marchet, a fugitive today, applied for a Uruguayan passport in October 2021 and received it at the end of November of the same year, while he was being held in the United Arab Emirates for trying to leave the country with a fake Paraguayan passport.
Leaving the prosecutor's office yesterday Wednesday, Ms. Aceh told the press that she went "to cooperate with the investigation in order to clarify the facts once and for all and to make the whole truth known."
Ms Aceh resigned on December 19, 2022, following the scandal caused by the revelation of a WhatsApp conversation on November 3, 2021, during which the interior ministry's second-in-command, Guillermo Maciel, had called Mr Marchet "very dangerous and important narco (s.s. drug trafficker)'.
What Mr. Maciel had told Ms. Aceh belies the line of defense of Mr. Bustillo, who, when asked about the case in the Senate on August 22, 2022, had said: “In November (of 2021), did any of us know who was it Marchet?'
In announcing his resignation, Mr. Bustillo once again denied that there was any illegality in the passport issuance process.
He is expected to testify at the prosecutor's office tomorrow, Friday.
Source: RES-EAP