MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's Ambassador to Buenos Aires cautioned for attending party event in Montevideo

Carlos Enciso (right) with Presidential candidate Álvaro Delgado (left). For as long as he is an Ambassador, Enciso may not engage in party politics.

Uruguay's Foreign Minister Omar Paganini cautioned his country's Ambassador to Buenos Aires Carlos Enciso for attending a meeting at the National Party headquarters in Montevideo hosted by former Presidential Secretary Álvaro Delgado as part of his bid to reach Torre Ejecutiva next year.

Paganini told Enciso it was inappropriate for him to participate in political events. Law 19.841 bans Foreign Ministry officials from engaging in activities or making statements on party politics since they must have “complete independence from persons, political groups or parties” to serve the general interest with impartiality, it was explained.

The Foreign Ministry is analyzing whether to take disciplinary measures against Enciso, who also said in January last year that Argentine businessmen could “reconsider” investing in Uruguay if the opposition Frente Amplio wins in 2024. For that, he was already given a warning by then Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo.

Paganini ordered Enciso to refrain from further participating in any party events after he briefed Delgado's faction on the situation in Argentina.

“Ambassador Enciso must make a decision, if he cannot keep out of party politics he should resign his post and devote himself to the electoral campaign, but not to both things since it is a serious breach of the foreign service statute,” Frente Amplio Senator Daniel Caggiani wrote on X, who insisted diplomats were “at the service of the Nation with complete independence of persons, political groups or parties.”

Their “loyalty and obedience is owed only to the Nation and its Government, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws,” which also require civil servants to discharge their duties “with impartiality.”

“Ambassador Enciso must make a decision; if he cannot stay out of partisan politics, he must resign from his position and dedicate himself to the electoral campaign, but not both, since it is a serious violation of the foreign service statute,” he wrote. The participation of an ambassador in a partisan political meeting of this type collides with the law because - Caggiani argued - Enciso was “mistaking the Nation for the Party.”

Enciso was also pictured conferring with former Frente Amplio President José Pepe Mujica at the latter's farm. “Let him meet with the pope if he wants to. The problem is that he cannot do party politics, let alone participate in the electoral campaign,” said Caggiani.