Yearbook 2004
Uruguay. In the first round of the presidential elections on October 31, the left candidate Tabaré Vázquez, a 64-year-old doctor, won the Encuentro Progresista – Frente Amplio (EP-FA). Thus, the development of recent decades has been confirmed away from the bipartisan system that has ruled the country ever since independence in the early 1800s and which with short interruptions was dominated by Partido Colorado.
The total population in Uruguay is 3,473,741 people in 2020. The candidates for the two traditional parties, Jorge Larrañaga for Partido Nacional (popularly called Blancos) and Guillermo Stirling for Colorados received no more than 34 and 10% of the votes respectively. Vázquez’s EP-FA party also got a majority in Congress. The main points of the Vázquez program are the maintenance of state electricity, water, telephone and oil monopolies on the grounds that Uruguay is too small for competition in these markets and a transition from consumption tax (VAT) to income tax. To appease the critics on the right, however, Vázquez appointed one of the critics within his own party, the market-friendly Senator Danilo Astori, as finance minister. Vázquez assumes office in March 2005. See smartercomputing.org for emigration to Uruguay.
In October 2002, the former Secretary of State’s military dictatorship, Juan Carlos Blanco, was put on trial for his abduction in the abduction of teacher Elena Quinteros from the Venezuelan Embassy 26 years earlier. Blanco was the only official from the military dictatorship who had been brought to justice for his human rights violations during the dictatorship. The former minister was released eight months later by President Batlles representative in the Peace Commission, Carlos Ramela. He approached the judiciary with the information that the teacher according to. investigations had been murdered without the knowledge of the military or government.
2002 was characterized by growing screens between Argentina and Uruguay. Not only because of the president’s famed statements about Argentina, but also the difference in the two countries’ handling of the economic crisis and their way of dealing with human rights violations during the dictatorships of the 1970’s. The Argentine government made the “Gelmansagen” a state issue. It traded, among other things. to clarify the circumstances of the disappearance of María Claudia García and locate her earthly remains. Batlle promised to investigate the young woman’s disappearance in Uruguay, but filed the case a few months later.
In August 2003, the Supreme Court handed down a historic verdict that opened to prosecution of former dictator Bordaberry for his charge of the coup d’état in June 1973 and for the murders of 8 communist workers in April 1972.
In December 2003, a referendum was passed to repeal a law that would abolish the state-owned company ANCAP’s monopoly on imports of oil and gasoline and involve the possibility of selling the company abroad. The law was voted down by 63% of the vote and the state retained its control over energy imports. It was the first time a bill backed by both Partido Nacional and Partido Colorado was voted down.
In April 2004, the Senate began the consideration of a bill on free abortion, which had already been passed in the Chamber of Deputies two years earlier. Since it was impossible to obtain a majority for the proposal and since the president had in any case threatened to veto, it was decided to send it for a referendum.