President Luis Lacalle Pou sent a document to the General Assembly of Parliament giving his reasons for vetoing the three articles of the final Accountability, approved by the Legislative Branch.
The document dedicates almost all its pages to argue the partial veto of article 636 of Accountability, which establishes restrictions on former prosecutors to practice law for periods of one to three years, depending on the rank. Regarding this, the Executive said that this article “is partially guarded for reasons of convenience.”
Next, it details that part of the vetoed text refers to prosecutors, except for the “Court Prosecutor and Attorney General of the Nation.” In the case of these tasks, the text says, “the merit is found in the establishment of the expected legal restraint.”
However, in reference to prosecutors with criminal jurisdiction, the Executive Branch considered that, “considering the scope and nature of their function, it is not possible to see what reasons of general interest would justify a limitation of a right protected by the constitution. is the right to work.” The document also says “the freedom to exercise the profession.”
Similarly, the veto also includes the section that deals with lawyers “who do not establish grounds for early retirement during the removal of their positions,” and said that it “has the right to receive for the period of restraint of a subsidy equal to 85% (eighty five percent) of the total salary of the active position.”
The Executive Branch understood that these words were unconstitutional and referred to articles 86 and 215 of the Magna Carta, both of which refer to additional costs for the Executive, proposed by the new laws. Specifically, it says the latter “establishes that the Legislative Branch cannot make changes that require greater spending than those proposed by the Executive Branch.”
In conclusion, the article 636 of Accountability remains only in its first paragraph, which reads: “The prosecutor of the Court and Attorney General of the Country and the Deputy prosecutor of the Court shall be prevented for three years, from their cessation, from intervention in the objects processed. before the organizations in which they carry out functions, sponsoring or assisting third parties.
