Socialist Party on the Marset case: “One more pearl in a necklace of corruption and shielding”

2023-11-12 13:53:39

A little over a week ago, Uruguay was mired in a very serious scandal that exposed a hidden plot at the heart of the national government. In a statement to the public, the Socialist Party of Uruguay (PS) wrote that it was revealed that some figures in Luis Lacalle Pou’s government had lied or hidden information from Parliament and the citizens, and, to make the situation worse, documents were destroyed after a meeting led by the President of the Republic and in which his main advisor participated, in what some point out as an attempt to hide valuable and compromising information for the investigation.

“But this is one more pearl in an extensive necklace of corruption and shielding: a government that defends privileges and increases inequalities, by its own links and logic, uses the power of the State to benefit a few.. To be more precise, and as the socialists denounced early in the first questioning of this period about the tax exemptions that were granted among themselves: ‘they govern to benefit themselves’. That implies systematic corruption. And systematic corruption is not a coincidence but a political necessity of a lumpenbourgeoisie that has great weight in the government. Corruption is in turn accompanied by permanent attempts to cover up, divert, minimize what is happening. In short, to shield oneself, from the citizens, from the justice system, from the Legislative Branch,” adds the PS statement.

However, what makes this chapter different is its connection with drug trafficking, an actor until now apparently distant from the political sphere, adds the leftist sector that is part of the Frente Amplio. The irregularities revealed not only constitute a democratic wound, but also raise profound questions about how mechanisms and privileges that strengthen elites, both licit and illicit, are perpetuated..

Neighborhoods on the urban margins, especially in the metropolitan area, have become territories of dispute and resistance, where the sound of machine guns is common currency and daily life is in the hands of groups linked to drug trafficking. This reality, combined with food insecurity, the cutting of social and educational programs, and the growing informal economy, creates a breeding ground for drug trafficking to take hold and offer an economic and social alternative for survival..

The Socialist Party of Uruguay expresses its deep concern by the situation and highlights the selectivity of the justice and criminal system, where while prisons are filled with poor women for minimal drug possession, major drug traffickers enjoy certain benefits and prestige. In addition, they denounce government decisions that collaborate with the proliferation of drug trafficking by making controls on money laundering more flexible and cutting budgets for the justice system.

In this context, the PS calls for citizen mobilization against corruption and privileges, supporting the initiative of the PIT-CNT, FUCVAM and FEUU for a great mobilization for democracy and against corruption next Monday at 6 p.m. in Plaza Libertad in Montevideo. The voice of the people, expressed through mobilization, is essential to confront the power of illegal capitalism and build a popular and transformative politics.