Juan Castillo pressured the prosecutor investigating corruption in the Communist Party

The Minister of Labor and Secretary General of the Communist Party (PCU), Juan Castillo, asked Prosecutor Gilberto Rodríguez to be more "careful" and "prudent" with his public statements. 

This Wednesday the 18th, during a press conference, the leader of Uruguayan communism sent a message that was absolutely out of place and inappropriate in a democracy.

Misusing his position as a minister of the Executive Branch, the Secretary General of the PCU told criminal prosecutor Gilberto Rodríguez, who is in charge of investigating the illegal financing of the Communist Party and the massive fraud in Sunca, the construction union always led by the PCU, to remain silent. 

Dangerous statement

Castillo sends a message to the prosecutor that can easily be interpreted as pressure.

He doesn't want Prosecutor Rodríguez to speak publicly about the ongoing criminal investigation. 

This is not just anyone; this is a government minister who sits next to the President of the Republic.

He took advantage of a press conference full of reporters and photographers to send a message to the prosecutor. 

Rodríguez, prosecutor for Economic and Complex Crimes of the 3rd shift, is investigating the diversion of money from the Social Housing Fund for Construction Workers (Fosvoc). 

He secured the criminal conviction of Santiago Bernaola, Bruno Bertolio, and Víctor Rivero as co-perpetrators of embezzlement, fraud, conspiracy to commit a crime, and aiding money laundering, with sentences of more than two years in prison.

All of them had been members of the PCU for several years.

Million-dollar fraud

After the hearing, the prosecutor estimated the fraudulent scheme at 1,200,000,000.

He stated, "Initially, it appears quite solid, consolidated, that part of that money, we don't really know what percentage, was going to the financing of the Communist Party and Sunca."

It should be noted that the money diverted from the Construction Fund belonged to the workers, to the laborers who in good faith deposited the money in the Fund.

Antidemocratic conduct

What Juan Castillo is doing is totally antidemocratic, but in reality, it is consistent with his totalitarian ideology. 

Communists, everywhere in the world, don't know how to live in a democracy, don't respect the separation of powers, and want to overwhelm independent judges and prosecutors. 

If it is true that the PCU is not involved in illegal financing, Castillo should be calm.

If he goes to the press to pressure the prosecutor who is investigating the case, he surely has something to hide.

Why is he so nervous? Why does he take advantage of a press conference to ask the prosecutor in the case not to speak publicly anymore?

Everything is very dark, very murky.

For a minister of the Executive Branch to publicly pressure a prosecutor who is investigating him is serious for democracy.