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The situation was quite damaging to begin with. Last September, there was Alejandro Astesiano – the main guard of the president of Uruguay on the right, Luis Lacalle Pou. arrested in the president’s residencesoon after returning with his manager from a family holiday abroad.
According to prosecutors, Astesiano used his privileged position to sell fake birth certificates to dozens, and possibly even hundreds, of foreign nationals seeking to claim Uruguayan passports by ancestry – particularly Russians who wanted to escape their country after the invasion of Ukraine. Although Astesiano appears to have inherited the racket, which is said to date back to 2013, the vast majority of fake documents were issued while Lacalle Pou was president.
Lacalle Pou looked shocked and blindsided. After all, he insisted Astesiano – a close friend of decades – had no previous criminal record. But reports in the media revealed afterwards the 47-year-old former driver and police officer has had more than 20 brushes with the law, including alleged acts of fraud, theft and property damage.