Uruguay president's ex-security boss jailed in passports for Russians scam

[peppertree]

The former security chief to Uruguay's president was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in prison, the prosecutor's office announced, in a scandal involving the issuing of fake passports to Russians.

Alejandro Astesiano, who was the head of right-wing President Luis Lacalle Pou's security detail, was found guilty of an array of crimes including influence peddling, criminal association and revealing state secrets, the office said in a statement.

He had also been investigated for allegedly spying on opposition politicians.

A judge on Wednesday ratified a plea agreement and sentenced Astesiano to four and a half years in prison and a fine of some $4,000.

Astesiano, 51, was arrested in September, accused of participation in a scheme to falsify documents to allow the issuing of Uruguayan passports to Russians, according to prosecutors.

At: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230215-uruguay-president-s-ex-security-boss-jailed-in-passports-for-russians-scam

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou (right) and his disgraced former head of presidential security, Alejandro Astesiano.

Astesiano, who has worked for the Lacalle family since 1999, is also facing a extortion probe after evidence of political spying and blackmail against opposition politicians was published in the Montevideo press.

[samplegirl]

1. Isn't Uruguay where Dick Cheney

bought property?

[peppertree]

2. That might be the Bushes and Paraguay you're thinking of

The Bushes, in 2006, allegedly bought 100,000 acres in Paraguay's Chaco flatlands - extremely hot, inhospitable scrubland but for one thing:

It sits right in the middle of the Guaraní Aquifer - said to be the world's third-largest fresh-water aquifer, as well as one of the purest and most-accessible.

It's long been known by elites that humanity's greatest threat isn't a future shortage of food (save for extremely afflicted areas like the Sahel countries in Africa) - but of potable water.

I wouldn't put it past them.

[samplegirl]

3. Yes your right.

Thanks for jogging my memory.

[peppertree]

4. You're welcome

It's a mad, mad world.

All the more so when people - particularly elites - sense an impending shortage of something important.