Being at a distance from the U.S, and benefiting from being a buffer State between competing Colonial Powers France and Spain in the 19th century, Uruguay had become one of the most inclusive democracies in South America.
The early 20th century saw the introduction of pensions and unemployment benefits by President José Batlle.
It is interesting, but unsurprising, that we hear nothing of the democratic traditions within the Americas and that the story is introduced to us through a popular culture that only shows us tinpot dictatorships and banana republics, leading us to the false conclusion that Latin Americans are unable to do democracy – at least, not without our “assistance”.
And so the U.S. run to the aid of the hapless Latins in the usual manner. In the early 1970s, as part of Operation Condor, a murderous CIA-sponsored Campaign across six countries in the southern Americas, a military coup installs a Military Dictatorship on June 27th, 1973. It lasts until 1985.
Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, who was the incumbent Uruguayan conservative with the largest number of votes, leaves. He recounts the destruction of Uruguayan democracy and gives as the sole explanation “foreign intervention”.
The Tupamaros resistance is destroyed. Real wages by 1977 have gone backwards to 60% of the 1962 level.
25,000 people are systematically tortured, counting only the most severe cases. They began by torturing the Tupamaro guerrillas but then followed up with union activists, political militants and intellectuals and finally “the entire population without consideration of ideology, out of habit” according to Aldunate.
On its return to democracy in 1985, following massive popular protests the year before, the Expiry Law created an amnesty for previous crimes. Uruguay struggled to overcome State silence on this period, but held a March of Silence every year from 1996.
The left-wing “Frente Amplio” (Broad Front) were elected to government, in 2005 and again in 2009 and 2014. They overturned of the Expiry Law in 2011.
Referenda have rejected the Privatisation of both petrol and water. Participation in Trade Unions has rocketed in the 21st Century with Uruguay now among the best in South America for workers’ rights. Uruguay also became the first country in the world to legalise marijuana in 2013, ahead of various States in the U.S.
On this basis, if you had to guess how the people’s health is faring, what would you say? We use the same scheme that we employed previously in “National Prosperity”.
Uruguay N.I. = 0.18
148dd + 134nd + 81pen + 180hiv + 56tb + 9h + 17m + 0ma =625 /3.46m
Uruguay performs only fractionally worse than the U.S. and comfortably beats all other U.S. client States in Central America. It performs identically with another left-leaning Government in the region, Nicaragua.
Uruguayans will be hopefully taking the necessary steps to insulate their Institutions from foreign interference. They’ll keep an eye on NGOs that are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy; keep a careful watch on any of their military personnel trained at the School of the Americas; form a Republican Guard to protect the President from unsolicited armed visitors; check CEOs of large corporations for any history of involvement with the CIA; legislate to prevent the widespread reporting of factual inaccuracies by the Press, and vigourously pursue the sources of weapons supply to armed militias.
Having done all of that, a country should find itself relatively free to govern in the interests of its people, free from foreign interference. Anti-imperialism is a set of tools.