Yes, Uruguay Does Exist

Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

They are usually small in area and population, ethnically and religiously homogenous, well-off, and situated in a peaceful part of the world, alongside neighbours who have no designs on them.

What are they? Countries which go virtually unnoticed internationally. Yet they can be quite interesting. The quintessential example? Uruguay. 

A settler state like its big neighbour Argentina, which lies across from it, separated by the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, Uruguay’s population of 3.32 million is composed almost entirely of Spanish and other European immigrants.

At 176,215 square kilometres, it is the second-smallest country in South America. Its only other neighbour is Brazil, and it has historically served as a buffer between these two South American giants. 

During the 19^th century wars of independence in South America, the country was briefly occupied by Brazil, but gained its independence in 1828, with the help of Argentina. 

Over the next decades, Uruguay became wealthy from the export of livestock to Europe, and it became the world’s first welfare state. The capital, Montevideo, became a major economic centre of the region.

But in the late 1950s, partly because of a decrease in demand in the world market for agricultural products, Uruguay began having economic problems, which included inflation, mass unemployment, and a steep drop in the standard of living for Uruguayan workers. 

This led to student militancy and labour unrest. An urban guerrilla movement known as the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional-Tupamaros was formed in the early 1960s, robbing banks and distributing food and money in poor neighbourhoods, and undertaking political kidnappings and attacks on security forces. 

The filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras drew inspiration for his 1972 movie, “State of Siege,” from their abduction and execution in 1970 of Daniel Mitrione, an American adviser to Uruguay’s security forces.

Democratic institutions could not withstand the strain. In 1968, President Jorge Pacheco brought in a state of emergency; his successor, Juan Maria Bordaberry, repealed all constitutional safeguards in 1972 and brought in the army in to combat the guerrillas. 

They not only defeated the insurgents but mounted a coup in 1973; the dictatorship would last twelve years.

The new regime suppressed all political activity, including the traditional parties and the left. Many people were imprisoned, tortured and killed. 

Unions and political parties remained illegal until a general strike in 1984 forced the military to accept civilian rule and the restoration of democracy in 1985.

Though democracy was re-established, a controversial “Expiry Law,” passed in 1986 by the Uruguayan parliament, prevents the prosecution of police and military officials for crimes committed under military rule.

The country has in recent decades returned to its progressive orientation. In 2004 Uruguayans elected Tabaré Vazquez as president, while giving his Broad Front, a coalition of numerous left-of-centre movements, a majority in both houses of parliament.

As president, he presided over improvements in education and working conditions and a significant expansion of the welfare system.

He was succeeded after the 2009 election by José Mujica, who had been a Tupamaro himself. He had been captured by the authorities on four different occasions, was tortured, and was also shot once. He spent 14 years in captivity, 10 of them in solitary confinement.

Like many other former Tupamaros, Mujica re-entered politics and became a member of a movement which is a member of the Broad Front. He was minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries in Vazquez’s administration.

Eschewing the opulent presidential mansion, the 79-year-old former guerrilla and his wife, Lucia Topolansky, live in a modest house on Montevideo’s outskirts. His net worth upon taking office in 2010 amounted to about $1,800. He gives almost 90 per cent of his income to low-income housing organisations.

Topolansky is also a former guerrilla who was imprisoned for 13 years. Today she is a senator.

Last December, Mujica signed into law a plan to create a regulated, legal market for marijuana. Legislators have argued that the legislation forms part of a tradition in Uruguay of searching for progressive solutions to social problems.

Indeed, under Mujica, Uruguay has emerged as a laboratory for socially liberal policies. The country has also enacted a groundbreaking abortion rights law, legalized same-sex marriage and is becoming a centre for renewable energy ventures.

As well, poverty has fallen by almost half, unemployment is at a historic low, and there has been a substantial redistribution of resources.

Why is Uruguay so liberal? “We’re a country of immigrants, anarchists and persecuted people from all over the world,” Mujica explains.

It turns out there’s plenty of news from Uruguay!