|
1250 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite
1C, Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: 202-223-4975 Fax: 202-223-4979
Email: coha at coha.org Website: www.coha.org
|
|
Council On Hemispheric Affairs
|
|
Monitoring
Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
|
|
Memorandum to the Press 04.76
|
|
Word Count: 1200
Weekend Release
Friday, 22 October 2004
|
COHA OPINION:
This essay was authored by COHA Senior Research Fellow Rebecca Evans,
PhD. Dr. Evans is also on the Politics and International Relations faculty at
Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA.
|
Presidential Elections in Uruguay on October 31
• On October 31, Uruguayans vote for a new President and Broad Front
candidate Tabaré Vásquez is
on the path to become the country’s first leftist president.
• Vásquez’s
election would mark a shift towards a left-of-center government, which would be
in large part due to the failed economic policies of his conservative
predecessors. Most Uruguayans are weary of privatization and other neo-liberal
reforms, an issue which Vásquez has come out strongly
against.
• While the conservative Blanco candidate
Jorge Larrañaga is his main competitor, Vásquez’s promise to fight poverty and act pragmatically,
while pursuing leftist social policies, makes him likely to come out on top.
Last-minute, down-to-the-wire campaigning … controversy over presidential
debates … polls that swing back and forth in their estimates of the outcome of
upcoming elections … Although the U.S. electorate and the eyes of much of the
rest of the world are focused on the race between George W. Bush and John
Kerry, another election is heating up in the Southern hemisphere as Uruguayans
head to the polls on October 31. The elections in Uruguay, of course, will not have huge global repercussions, but
they do hold out the possibility that Uruguay may join the long list of Latin American countries that
have elected left-leaning presidents to power. The front-runner in Uruguay’s upcoming elections is Tabaré
Vázquez of the Encuentro Progresista–Frente Amplio (Progressive Encounter- Broad Front), a coalition of
social democrats, communists, social Christians, radicals and ex-Tupamaro guerrilla fighters. If Vázquez
wins on October 31 - or, in the event that he fails to secure an outright
majority, in run-off elections scheduled for November 29 - he would be the
first left-wing president in Uruguay’s history.
TO READ THE ENTIRE TEXT OF
THIS PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE
This analysis was
prepared by Rebecca Evans, Ph.D, COHA Senior Research
Fellow.
October 22, 2004
The Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan,
tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the
Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected bodies of scholars
and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at
www.coha.org; or contact our Washington offices by phone (202) 223-4975, fax
(202) 223-4979, or email coha at coha.org.