Uruguay - Modern History
Political stability came about in the first two decades of the twentieth century largely through the efforts of the dominant figure in the Colorado Party. Jose Batlle y Ordonez (president, 1903-07, 1911-15) brilliantly promoted the social, economic, and political modernization of the country until his death in 1929, guiding a social transformation that reordered virtually every aspect of national life. His programs included the establishment of a comprehensive social welfare program, the encouragement of domestic industry, the improvement of working conditions, the expansion of education, and the separation of church and state.
Batlle y Ordonez's Colorado successors did not uniformly or consistently share his commitment to economic and social reform, but progress toward political, social, and economic modernization nevertheless continued.
There was a curious mixture of lofty idealism and Tammany tricks in Uruguayan politics. Politically, the Uruguayans were divided between the blancos and the colorados, the "whites" and the "reds." It was a splendid distinction for several reasons. For one thing, the parties can print their arguments and their lists of candidates in posters of their own color, and even the stranger has no difficulty in deciding which side is talking. Townsmen can announce their political affiliation by wearing a red or white cravat or a bit of ribbon in their lapels, countrymen by the color of their neckerchiefs.
In theory at least the "reds" are "advanced," the "whites" somewhat conservative. There were apparently no neutrals in Uruguayan politics, no "nonpartisan leagues," and the like. Every one was either "red" or "white" from the cradle not because Uruguayans take a greater interest in political matters than the average republican societies, but because it is bad form, as well as lonesome, to be outside the ranks; moreover, men who do not vote were fined.
How a Uruguayan becomes attached to the party of this or that color was a mystery; almost none of them can give any real reason for their affiliation, except the equally fluent flow of curses at the other side. Evidently, like Topsy, they are just born in their natural colors. This, however, made the two parties none the less ready to engage in fratricidal strife at the behest of their politicians, and probably as capable of exterminating one another for no real cause.
Between 1946 and 1956, Luis Batlle Berres (president, 1947-51), a nephew of Batlle y Ordonez, was the leading political figure. Espousing neo-Batllism, he attempted to further industrialize the economy, develop its agricultural sector, and expand the state apparatus, as well as to renew social progress. But the process came to a halt in the mid-1950s as a result of economic difficulties and ended with the triumph of the National Party (the Blancos) in 1958, after more than ninety years of Colorado government.
During the eight Blanco administrations (1958-67), instruments of state-directed economic policy were dismantled, relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) became closer, and the livestock sector became increasingly important. Nevertheless, the economic crisis continued, and political and social turbulence increased. Unions formed a centralized organization in which the left had a dominant influence, and an urban guerrilla group, the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros (Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional-Tupamaros—MLN-T) was formed.
In 1967 the Colorados regained power, but President Jorge Pacheco Areco (1967-72) enforced a limited state of siege throughout most of his tenure. He applied a price- and wage-freeze policy to fight inflation, banned leftist groups, and called in the military to repress the Tupamaros, whose acts of urban terrorism posed a major national security threat.
In 1972 Pacheco's successor, President Juan Maria Bordaberry Arocena (1972-76), supported by the military, declared a state of "internal war," closed the General Assembly, persecuted the opposition, banned unions and leftist parties, and curtailed civil liberties. The military dictatorship that he instituted also implemented a neoliberal, monetarist, economic policy that sought to reverse years of capital flight and economic stagnation by increasing exports and controlling inflation. Although it scored some economic successes, the military suffered a defeat in 1980 after submitting an authoritarian constitution to a plebiscite. From then on, civilian political leaders returned to the political scene, and in 1984 the majority of the political parties and the military agreed to call for elections in November 1985, thus allowing for a transition to democracy.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
