The 13 senators of the opposition Broad Front (FA) filed a complaint at the District Attorney’s Office against the leasing by the government of the monopoly of the container port terminal of Montevideo to the multinational Kataoen Natie for 60 years.

To the plaintiffs, the agreement implies a series of very serious crimes, with national economic damage because it benefited a private company with more than a billion dollars and usurpation of functions.

They held several government officials accountable for this: current Minister of Interior and former Minister of Transportation, Luis Alberto Heber; Deputy Secretary of the Presidency, Rodrigo Ferres; President of the National Port Administration (ANP), Juan Curbelo; and Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Public Works, Jose Olaizola.

Legal action followed after a nearly 20-hour interpellation at the House of Representatives that ended with the validation of Heber by the majority ruling party, despite the fact that questioner Lucia Etcheverry concluded that the answer to 65 of the questions asked were ‘elusive, inconclusive and contradictory.’

The Single Port Workers’ Trade Union of Uruguay (SUPRA) went on a 72-hour strike for insured wages and against the monopoly granted by the government to the company Katoen Natie, by which it secured a collective labor bargaining as of next week.

Meanwhile, the Union Federation of the National Fuel Administration of Uruguay (FANCAP) went on a 24-hour strike against the decision of the company’s board of privatizing the cement industry.

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