Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

URUGUAY: New Government Defines Its Political Identity

Diana Cariboni

MONTEVIDEO, Mar 4 2005 (IPS) - New Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez stated that his government is not “socialist”, but rather a national “democratising” project aimed at reducing social and economic inequalities.

Vázquez, the first leftist president in this South American nation’s history, appeared to be responding to a comment made by his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, who came to Uruguay for the presidential inauguration Tuesday, along with a number of other presidents and dignitaries from Latin America and other regions.

At a special event held Wednesday in Montevideo City Hall, where he spoke for over two hours, Chávez said “there is no solution within capitalism. The only road is socialism, but we need to design it ourselves.”

On Thursday, at a press conference for the foreign media (his first meeting with the press since taking office), Vázquez pointed out that Latin America has more unequal distribution of wealth than any other region in the world.

“And at this moment in time, many of us who are in the position of governing Latin American countries believe that the region as a whole needs to develop a political blueprint that finally addresses the needs of the Latin American people,” he added, reflecting the common ground shared by the new Uruguayan administration and other left-leaning governments in the region.

Meanwhile, “the subregion: Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia – in other words, the southern cone of Latin America – is currently in the middle of a truly historic period of change,” said Vázquez.

For the first time in years, governments in the subregion see eye to eye on many aspects involving the economy, human rights, and energy integration, the new president noted.

Vázquez recalled that when the left-wing Broad Front coalition he led to power was founded in 1971, it took only 18 percent of the vote, as compared to more than 80 percent for the country’s two traditional parties. “Just 34 years later, our political force was backed by over 50 percent of the electorate,” he commented.

“Our growth cannot be attributed entirely to the errors of the traditional parties,” but also to the fact that the left has shown itself to be a responsible, democratic force, which has consistently defended the constitution, even during tough moments like the 1973-1985 military dictatorship and the 2002 economic and financial crisis, he said.

Throughout the news briefing, Vázquez repeatedly highlighted that his administration would be democratic and reformist in nature.

“The changes we are going to usher in will have to be Uruguayan-style changes, or they will not happen at all. Uruguayan-style change is peaceful, gradual, carefully thought-out change,” he said.

“If you were to ask me if our government programme is socialist, I would say no,” stated Vázquez. “It is a national programme, it is a programme aimed at profoundly democratising the country.”

In addition, the new Uruguayan authorities have already shown clear signs of the emphasis they will place on greater integration with the rest of the region.

In the midst of the climate of euphoria in Montevideo over the change in government, left-leaning presidents Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva of Brazil, Néstor Kirchner of Argentina and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela agreed in a meeting to adopt common positions towards the international financial institutions and work towards strengthening energy and industrial integration.

Another issue addressed at the same meeting was the support that fellow South American governments could give to Argentina in its efforts to deal with its massive foreign debt, through the purchase of the new bonds it is offering as part of a debt swap plan. Hours later, Chávez announced that his country would be buying 500 million dollars worth.

Uruguay and Venezuela signed an agreement for the purchase of Venezuelan crude under favourable terms, as well as others establishing Uruguay as a minority shareholder in the new Televisión del Sur (Telesur) regional network and a future regional oil company tentatively named Petrosur, both of them Venezuelan initiatives.

In addition, the Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA will cooperate in the modernisation of ANCAP, the Uruguayan state-owned oil refinery.

In the meantime, Vázquez and Argentina’s Kirchner signed an agreement for sharing information aimed at investigating and clarifying the fate of individuals who were forcibly “disappeared” during the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s in both nations.

The new Uruguayan government has also re-established full diplomatic relations with Cuba, which were broken off by the previous conservative administration of Jorge Battle (2000-2005), and has promised to study Cuba’s request to become an associate member of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) trade bloc, whose full members are Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

But the Vázquez administration has already begun to clearly define its own particular identity within this new context of political and economic affinities in the region.

Regarding the possibility of jointly negotiating the foreign debts of the region’s countries, Economy Minister Danilo Astori said that “agreeing on approaches” with the other nations would always be considered, and that “it is always good to seek out points of view that might be shared.”

Nevertheless, history shows “that our countries have been following their own particular paths in dealing with their debts” and in their relations with the multilateral financial institutions. “And this has to be respected as well,” he added.

Moreover, “Uruguay is a country that has earned a great deal of respect for its conduct until now, and this is a very significant and important asset that we must preserve,” Astori said.

In his opinion, this image will be especially beneficial in the coming months, when the government issues public debt bonds to obtain financing for projects not contemplated in the current five-year budget (in effect until the end of 2005).

One of these projects is a social emergency plan, which will address the needs of the roughly 200,000 Uruguayans (out of a total population of 3.2 million) living in extreme poverty today.