The Marset case: the shame that Lacalle Pou will carry forever

In politics, as in life, there are mistakes that are paid for with positions, others with elections, and some—the worst ones—with history. The scandal of the passport issued to Sebastián Marset in Dubai was not a bureaucratic slip or an administrative coincidence.

It was a political decision made at the top of power, endorsed and defended by the President of the Republic himself, Luis Lacalle Pou. Its consequences are so serious that they turn that procedure into one of the most indelible stains of his administration.

Let us review the facts without anesthesia. Marset, a Uruguayan with a long and dangerous criminal record, leader of the First Uruguayan Cartel, linked to the trafficking of tons of cocaine, to the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, and to money laundering networks that move millions, was detained in the United Arab Emirates in October 2021.

They caught him with a fake Paraguayan passport. At that time, there were already red notices against him, arrest warrants from Paraguay and Bolivia, and open cases in Uruguay since 2019-2020. The Uruguayan state knew it. Police intelligence knew it. The diplomats in Dubai knew it and warned about it in writing.

Even so, the Foreign Ministry sped up the procedure and issued him a legitimate Uruguayan passport on November 30, 2021. With that document in hand, the Emirati authorities regularized his situation and released him in early 2022. Marset vanished.

He became an international fugitive. Thanks to that "involuntary" help—or not so involuntary—from the Uruguayan government, he was able to continue operating, expand his criminal network, and go on to occupy, in 2026, third place among the most wanted by the DEA, only behind figures of the caliber of the remnants of the Mexican CJNG after the fall of "El Mencho".

Former Deputy Foreign Minister Carolina Ache stated it clearly at the time: the rush came from above. "It was a request from the President". When the scandal broke, Lacalle Pou did not hide behind his officials. He came out to defend the decision: "The passport had to be issued. There was no other chance". He argued that the law did not allow it to be denied without a formal judicial impediment.

However, that technical explanation doesn't cover up the obvious: the government had all the information to know that it was facilitating the freedom of a high-risk drug trafficker. It prioritized the procedure over regional security, over international cooperation, over common sense.

What came next was a slow-motion collapse. Resignations in a chain: Ache in 2022, then Bustillo, Heber, Maciel, Lafluf in 2023. Deleted chats, destroyed documents, attempts to conceal information from the justice system and from Parliament. Administrative inquiries, criminal ramifications. The former President summoned to testify once out of office. In all that time, Lacalle Pou kept repeating that he had "a clear conscience". Clear, yes. However, history is not so forgiving.

Today Marset is a global priority for the DEA, with a two-million-dollar reward. He is linked to seizures of more than 16 tons of cocaine. He remains a fugitive, with Interpol notices and extradition requests from all sides. The passport that freed him bears the signature of the Uruguayan state under Lacalle Pou's presidency.

This is not an isolated error. This is a systemic failure in the handling of power: when the Presidency decides to speed up a procedure knowing who the beneficiary is, when it defends that decision in public despite the evidence, when the entire government goes into damage-control mode instead of assuming responsibilities, the result is this: an elite drug trafficker who, thanks to Uruguay, became one of the most wanted targets on the planet.

Lacalle Pou wanted to be remembered as the President who modernized the country, who lowered taxes, who confronted the left. However, history, relentless, will also record that during his term a Uruguayan passport opened the door to freedom for Sebastián Marset. That can't be erased with speeches or with memoirs.

The international shame is already written. The question is whether there will ever be genuine self-criticism or whether we will continue to hear that "it had to be issued". Because in politics, as in life, there are decisions that define who we are. This one, without a doubt, defined his government.