Uruguayan Environment Minister Adrián Peña will resign after the discovery that the politician lied to have graduated, when in fact he did not finish the course.
Peña made the public announcement after meeting with leaders of Ciudadanos, the party of President Luis Lacalle Pou. “I’ve had this decision for days and I’ve already talked to the president, who hasn’t asked me to resign. But a few days ago I told him: ‘I want you to stay without me because that’s how I feel comfortable’.”
Peña pointed out that individual error does not tarnish management at the head of the Ministry of the Environment, created in 2020 under the Urgent Consideration Law (LUC), drafted by Lacalle Pou.
“The big issue here has to do with the big mistake I made, which I recognized and which has to do with having lied about that title for some time. When you are in public office, you have to be up to the task and, in the In my case, it’s true, I have to be an example,” added the former minister.
Peña claimed to have completed a degree in Business Administration on his resume. With the resignation, Lacalle Pou registers six ministers removed from the Government Cabinet, the fourth being from the president’s political party.
The first occurred with the resignation of former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the most voted candidate for Ciudadanos in 2019, Ernesto Talvi. Then, in May 2021, the Minister of Social Development, Pablo Bartol, from the National Party (PN) resigned, who was replaced by Martín Lema.
Twenty-one days later, Luis Alberto Heber (PN), who until then headed the Transport and Public Works portfolio, was appointed Minister of the Interior following the sudden death of Jorge Larrañaga (PN) on May 22. José Luis Falero, until then deputy director of the Planning and Budget Office (OPP), took over from Heber.
On June 27 of the same year, Lacalle Pou announced that the then president of the National Meat Institute, Fernando Mattos, would replace Carlos María Uriarte (PC) as Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries.
And in August, Germán Cardoso (PC) announced the resignation of the Ministry of Tourism amid a series of complaints of irregularities in the bidding of advertising contracts.
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