Weekly Report - 17 May 2012 (WR-12-19)

President José Mujica has pushed the commander of the Navy, Alberto Caramés into retirement for his alleged links to a corruption scandal from 2010 which accounted for his predecessor. The change at the top comes at a very delicate time in relations between the Mujica administration and the armed forces after the First Lady, Senator Lucía Topolansky, told an Argentine national daily last month that the military should be loyal to the political project of the ruling left-wing coalition Frente Amplio (FA) [WR-12-18].

Mujica said that Caramés, 59, had retired voluntarily to allow the government to restore confidence within the Navy. Mujica underlined his “total conviction that the chain (of corruption) would be cut here”. Rear Admiral Ricardo Giambruno replaces Caramés, who is being investigated for two irregular purchases in 2007 while he was head of the directorate of naval materiel (Dimat).

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