Yearbook 2005
Uruguay. On March 1, new President Tabaré Vázquez, leader of the left-wing coalition Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio (EP-FA), was sworn into office. High hopes for a transformation of Uruguay had been linked to him, but already after two months he was subjected to internal criticism from Tupamaros, a former guerrilla group that makes up a third of the EP-FA, to pursue a concession policy against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and for to forget their social policy promises. On May 8, however, the coalition strengthened its general political position in the country by winning in the local elections in nine of the country’s 19 provinces and, above all, by winning for the fourth time in a row in the capital Montevideo. The formerly dominant Colorado Party won only in one province, while the Blancoparty, the other of Uruguay’s traditional parties, won in eleven.
According to countryaah, Montevideo is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Uruguay. One of Vázquez’s first steps as president was to order the investigation of such human rights violations, committed by the military against leftists during the 1973–85 dictatorship, which fall outside the current amnesty law. This led to increasingly strained relations with the military. Army chief Angel Bertolotti admitted, in August, a report in which it included. was revealed where the executed left hangers were buried. But on the one hand, Juan Córdoba, commander of the army’s most important division and one of the highest-ranking military commanders in the country, opposed the excavations and even declared himself willing to protect all officers who were identified as guilty of the disappearances, which prompted him to be fired.. On the other hand, the excavations in the designated areas produced no results, which in turn caused general skepticism about the military’s sincere willingness to investigate human rights violations. Changes in the amnesty law would easily go through in the congress, where the EP-FA has a majority in both chambers.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym UY stands for the country of Uruguay and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
