Uruguay’s foreign minister, Francisco Bustillo, has tendered his resignation shortly after leaked audio messages surfaced in which he seems to request a former official not to provide evidence in an investigation related to a passport issued to a suspected drug trafficker.
In a statement, Bustillo explained that he resigned “to eliminate any doubts that, in my capacity as an authority figure, I might improperly influence third parties while enjoying the privileges of my position.”
His resignation followed the revelation of audio recordings in which he appeared to urge the former deputy Foreign Minister, Carolina Ache, not to surrender her phone to investigators.
The audios suggested that Bustillo aimed to prevent investigators from accessing conversations between Ache and another official regarding the issuance of a passport to Sebastian Marset while he was detained in Dubai in 2021.
Authorities have linked Marset, 32, to the establishment of a criminal organization spanning Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, involved in exporting cocaine to Europe.
He is also accused of masterminding the murder of Paraguay prosecutor Marcelo Pecci in Colombia in 2022. Marset has managed to evade capture multiple times, including a recent escape in Bolivia, where it was revealed that he had been living under a false identity for months.
In response to the leaked audios, opposition leaders called for President Luis Lacalle Pou, who is in the United States, to dismiss several high-ranking officials, including Bustillo and Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber, among others.
Bustillo, who had served as foreign minister since July 2020, maintains that Ache “took conversations out of context and acted in bad faith,” asserting that there was “nothing illegal” in the passport granted to Marset.