Uruguayan Navy in Minustah, beyond the scandal (Part 1)

A few weeks ago the Uruguayan Forces at Minustah (Haiti) were involved in an unfortunate scandal.

Five Uruguayan marines were accused of abusing a 18 year old Haitian boy, named Jean. A video with the alleged abused boy was taken and later viewed all around the world.

Since the beginning, everyone who watched the video talked about the images as “a joke”, a disgusting one, but none the less a joke. Immediately, Uruguayan authorities (President and Defense Minister) forbid using the word “joke” in reference to what happened in Haiti, and sent a letter to the Haitian President apologizing for the acts.

The UN began an investigation, the Uruguayan Navy and the Uruguayan Ministry of Defense did the same, the result of the three different investigations was that there were no signs of sexual abuse.

The marines and the local boy were friends, and the boy did not denounce the acts that appeared in the video until the video was in the media about one month after the acts were filmed.

Watching the video will give you an opportunity to draw your own conclusions, but be advised that the video is sexual in nature and not for everyone to be able to digest.

The sailors were repatriated to be judged for those acts here in Uruguay. The Military Justice was the first in judging the marines and after 48 hours had the verdicts and sentenced them to prison.

On September 18, the military Judge Washington Vigliola, indicted the five sailors that appeared in the video. Of the five defendants, one was charged with “failure in service.” The remaining were charged with “disobedience” and one of them was additionally charged with the crime of “abandoning his post.” For these crimes under the Military Penal Code, they face sentences of between four months and four years in prison.

Yesterday the Ordinary (not Military) Criminal Justice began the investigations, and the five sailors answered questions for almost five hours. All of them, according to his lawyer,  agreed that what happened in the video was only a “joke”.

The prosecutor said that the victim’s testimony is critical in the investigation.

The judge and prosecutor understood that if the young man says if he could not testify that they could not continue with the investigation, which must be filed, according to Uruguayan Law.

The video is below which shows the actions of those involved.  Post your comments or thoughts below on this.