Uruguay FM resigns over leaked calls on fugitive drug trafficker

Uruguay's foreign minister resigned abruptly Wednesday, after the release of recordings in which he allegedly seeks to cover up information involving Sebastian Marset, an accused cocaine trafficker and subject of an international manhunt, Report informs via France 24.

"Things are not as they have been presented," the ex-diplomat Francisco Bustillo claimed in a statement obtained by AFP.

He nonetheless said the situation was "sufficiently sensitive" that he offered his immediate resignation to President Luis Lacalle Pou, who is currently in the United States.

Bustillo's decision followed testimony Wednesday morning by former deputy foreign minister Carolina Ache, as part of an investigation into the circumstances around Marset's ability to receive an Uruguayan passport.

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

Authorities accuse him of being one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the Southern Cone region, transporting multiton shipments of cocaine through Uruguay.

He was the subject of a massive search effort in Bolivia in late July, with thousands of officers deployed to hunt him down, but was apparently able to evade capture.

In late 2021, he was detained in the United Arab Emirates on charges of using forged documents, but managed to ultimately receive an authentic Uruguayan passport.

Ache resigned in December 2022 amid a scandal over the dissemination of a WhatsApp chat from November 2021, in which an Interior Ministry official described Marset as "a very dangerous and weighty narco."

Ache told reporters that she had testified Wednesday "to collaborate with the investigation so that once and for all the facts are clarified and the whole truth is known."