Letter from Carolina Ache:
In light of the article published yesterday by El Observador, I consider it necessary to make some clarifications. Regarding my actions, the article reveals nothing new and omits relevant background information. The facts that are now presented as new are, precisely, those that I timely reported to the Prosecutor's Office.
During the administrative investigation initiated after the interpellation before the Senate in August 2022, I was receiving pressure from then-Minister Francisco Bustillo, my hierarchical superior and the highest authority of the Ministry, to not present the communications with Undersecretary Maciel.
In that context, in a note dated November 16, 2022, which was timely added to the proceedings, I stated that, while I understood that it was not appropriate to add communications between officials in the terms they had been requested, I expressly established: “If the minister who ordered this investigation requires a copy to comply with the requests of justice or for other reasons, they will obviously be delivered immediately as appropriate.”
The messages were thus made available to the minister to be delivered immediately if he required them. But Bustillo, who, as he has acknowledged, was aware of them, did not order their incorporation.
Two days later, on November 18, 2022, I had those messages notarized before a public notary, leaving a notarial record of their existence and content and formally ensuring their preservation.
Finally, on November 24, 2022, I incorporated the documentation into the file (GEX) and it was delivered to the minister himself. When I was informed that this documentation had been destroyed, on November 28, 2022, I submitted it for a second time to the Legal Coordinator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This entire sequence is documented and what occurred was timely reported to the Prosecutor's Office.
It is hardly sustainable to claim that I intended to hide messages that I preserved, incorporated, and, when I was informed that the first documentation had been destroyed, I resubmitted.
The complete background shows something very different from what might be suggested. Bustillo was aware of the existence and content of the messages, did not request their incorporation when I made them available, and, with the proceedings in view, approved the result of the administrative investigation. For my part, despite all the pressures I was receiving, I preserved those messages, sought to incorporate them, resubmitted them when I was informed that the first documentation had been destroyed, and finally reported everything that occurred to the Prosecutor's Office.
Carolina Ache Batlle
