Uruguayan female diplomatic officials denounce harassment, verbal abuse and discrimination

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Uruguayan female diplomatic officials charge that they have been victims of “different situations of harassment, verbal abuse and discrimination for a long time,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Wednesday, March 10th, in a press release.

The complaints were summarized in a letter sent by the Association of Foreign Service Officers of Uruguay (AFUSEU) on Monday to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Ache, who forwarded it to Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo on Wednesday.

“This Ministry of Foreign Affairs administration has been working on the gender issue on an ongoing basis and the allegations cause deep concern,” the Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

“As a result of this situation, Foreign Minister Bustillo this morning made contact with prosecutor Jorge Díaz, the director of the National Women’s Institute (InMujeres), Mónica Bottero, and with María Noel Vaeza, regional director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, in order to report the denounced situation,” the statement added.

So far, the Prosecutor’s Office, InMujeres and Vaeza have not publicly commented on the case.

The Foreign Ministry did not confirm how many female officials have lodged complaints. However, El Observador newspaper, which reported having had access to AFUSEU’s letter and was the first to report on the complaints, announced on Wednesday that there were over 65.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Bustillo and Ache, who chairs the institution’s Gender Commission, will proceed to “assess short-term measures for the definitive eradication of this type of conduct.”

The type of measures to be taken has not been specified.

Source: CNN Esp