Uruguay government members resign over passport scandal probe

Uruguay's interior minister and two other members of the government resigned on Saturday over a case that has already prompted the foreign minister to quit, involving a passport issued to an internationally wanted drug-trafficking suspect.

Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber, a cabinet undersecretary and a chief adviser to President Luis Lacalle Pou will no longer be in the coalition government from Monday, the president announced on Saturday evening.

Uruguay's presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Heber's resignation.

The investigation is examining how Sebastián Marset, the alleged drug trafficker, received a Uruguayan passport while detained in the United Arab Emirates over forged documents in late 2012. He was ultimately released by UAE authorities.

Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo resigned on Wednesday after the publication of a November 2022 phone call in which he appeared to suggest that his undersecretary withhold evidence related to the passport investigation.

Marset is wanted in Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and the United States on drug charges.

At: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/uruguay-government-members-resign-over-passport-scandal-probe-2023-11-05/

Uruguayan Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber and Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo testify during a recent hearing in the country's Senate over their involvement with drug kingpin Sebastián Marset.

Amid plummeting approval for right-wing President Luis Lacalle Pou, the two were forced to resign in recent days.

The Lacalle Pou administration was already reeling from the Alejandro Astesiano scandal - a wide-reaching extortion, surveillance, influence peddling, and passport sale web allegedly run by Lacalle's longtime family head of security.