Argentina and Uruguay signed an agreement on the recovery of assets seized in cases of money laundering and organized crime

This is the first bilateral agreement signed by the country to establish cooperation and negotiation mechanisms to "recover badets located in the territory of a country and obtained through corruption offenses, illicit drug trafficking and transnational organized crime in the other country, "says the statement issued today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The agreement reached is framed in a central objective of the Argentinian government, such as the fight against corruption, money laundering and transnational organized crime, "sources at the Argentine Foreign Ministry told the agency. Telam.

The agreement is based on Articles 12, 13 and 14 of the United Nations Convention against Organized Crime transnational which refer to the distribution of confiscated property.

"This is an agreement that has a general framework, without specifying how the distribution of the goods is made, that it will be treated by the intervening authorities such as the prosecutor's office, the Attorney General's office and it is they who will determine the percentages of distribution ", explained the Minister of Foreign Affairs Uruguayan after the signing of the agreement.

While remaining the percentage that corresponds to each country has not been determinedthe negotiating mechanism that the two countries will establish has been agreed.

The head of the financial information unit (FIU), Mariano Federici He also stressed the "great importance" of the agreement for bilateral relations.

"It aims to strengthen the partnership with Uruguay in the fight against money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking and other manifestations of organized crime, by pledging to confiscate the proceeds. of crime and share between the two countries when the effort to investigate and strip the criminals of their property were shared, "said Federici.

Faurie explained that President Mauricio Macri and his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabaré Vázquez They had addressed this issue at the Mercosur Summit in Montevideo.

"You are Uruguayan and you know the life of Argentina and you know that We have been deeply affected by the corruption mechanisms this has prevailed for a long time in our recent politics and that many of these cases have reflected the daily life of Uruguay, "Faurie told the press.

The Balcedo affair as a backdrop

At the meeting in Montevideo, the foreign ministers called as witness the trade unionist Marcelo Balcedo and his wife, Paola Fiege, both arrested in Uruguay.

Balcedo, Secretary General of Union of Workers and Employees of Minorities and Education (Soeme), was arrested in January 2018 in Punta del Este, Maldonado Department, accused of tax evasion and money laundering.