Uruguayan Defense Minister Javier García confirmed Germany’s decision regarding ship’s captain Marcos Saralegui, who is due to take office in March for a two-year term.
“We do not share the position, but it is the host country and we respect its opinion,” García told the newspaper El Observador.
Both the Uruguayan Navy and the German embassy here declined to comment on the matter.
The appointment of the naval officer provoked opposition from Uruguayan organizations linked to the defense of human rights, including the group of former political prisoners Crysol and the group of relatives who disappeared during the dictatorship.
These organizations question Saralegui’s participation in the 2018 Navy Court of Honor, which heard the case of the late frigate-captain Juan Carlos Larcebeau, who was cleared of responsibility for acts that dishonored that military corps.
Larcebeau was convicted in 2009 by the Uruguayan judiciary along with General Gregorio Álvarez of 29 murder crimes committed during the dictatorship.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Rome in 2021, which found him responsible for 38 murders in a trial for the Condor plan.
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