Lacalle Pou says he is not related to the spying scandal | News

The president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, on Thursday distanced himself from the content of the chats that link his former custodian Alejandro Astesiano with the illegal monitoring of his ex-wife, as well as union and student leaders.

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Lacalle Pou said that the revelation of the conversations of his former security agent, Alejandro Astesiano, is due to the fact that there is "a political background on the part of the media that have spread them"

According to the Uruguayan president, “these media, daily or weekly, depending on the political reality, are filtering information. They put on the music and all of us who are here, you and us, dance to the rhythm of the music put on by two media outlets”.

However, Lacalle Pou disassociated himself from the scandal, particularly with regard to the illegal monitoring of opposition leader Marcelo Abdala: “What does that involve me in? What is the question to the government, when there is a person who is in preventive detention and submitted to Justice? What is the link?

When asked about Abdala's request for a condemnation of the monitoring that Astesiano did with video surveillance cameras of his journey prior to a traffic accident in February of last year, Lacalle defended himself and justified his position: “Condemnation of what? Of what fact? Because a person asked for a certain thing that is being judged, I have to condemn what? A follow-up that existed or did not exist?

Regarding the participation of his personal secretary, Nicolás Martínez, in the conversations with Astesiano, he said that "he is a top-level public official and obviously if I have had him by my side for so many years, almost like a brother, it is because I fully trust him." .

The case against the former presidential custodian, which began with the investigation into a criminal network dedicated to falsifying documentation for Russian citizens to obtain Uruguayan identity cards and passports, led to different lines of investigation based on the revelations that emerged on Astesiano's cell phone. .

According to these findings, he would also be involved in the falsification of documents, irregularities in public tenders, parastatal intelligence tasks, and "favors" to police officers are the main topics of investigation.