Parliament spends thousands of dollars on legislators' unnecessary trips

In Uruguay, being a legislator, deputy, or senator is quite a business. In addition to receiving the highest salary in Latin America, parliamentarians enjoy fully paid trips abroad. 

They receive a per diem according to the number of days they will spend abroad and the destination to which they will travel.

In theory, these per diems must be returned if not spent, but in practice, after the trip, legislators pocket the remaining money and almost never return it. 

It is a true waste paid for by all Uruguayans through their taxes.

Many of these international trips provide absolutely nothing to the country and seem more like a tourist stay than a parliamentary work trip. 

The case of Rodrigo Goñi

The Blanco deputy has traveled since taking office on February 15 to multiple destinations such as Switzerland, Italy, and the Dominican Republic, for several days, which has cost thousands of dollars in per diems.

During his trip to the Caribbean country, he attended a ridiculous congress on digital parliaments. 

It is something completely useless that brings no positive outcome to Uruguay.

Julieta Sierra, the traveling Tupamara

Another who has traveled is deputy Julieta Sierra from the MPP, Frente Amplio.

Sierra, a young woman who has neither education nor experience in any government position, has excessive prominence in the Chamber of Deputies. 

Although she has no academic training whatsoever, she comments on every topic and is one of those who has traveled abroad the most with taxpayers' money. 

For example, she traveled to Lima, the capital of Peru, to a meeting about young parliamentarians of the continent. 

It is something completely useless for Uruguay, which looks more like a graduation trip than a work trip for a legislator. 

Sierra is the typical legislator who is elected through a "closed list"; otherwise, no one would have voted for her.

Decadent Parliament

These trips reveal that State money, that is, taxpayers' money, is wasted in the worst way, with senators and deputies who, far from contributing anything to the nation, travel in first class and stay in the best hotels with public funds.

Legislators invent absolutely useless trips and collect the corresponding per diems, while in Uruguay crime and business closures are on the rise. 

Parliament is turning its back on the population. Since the Frente Amplio government took office, there have been about 180 homicides, and there has been a massive closure of businesses.

However, legislators are more concerned with traveling with taxpayers' money than with solving Uruguayans' problems.