Guardian/AP: Uruguay Inaugurates First Leftist Leader

[Anarcho-Socialist]

Wednesday March 2, 2005 2:46 AM

By KEVIN GRAY

Associated Press Writer

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) - A doctor took office as Uruguay's first socialist president Tuesday, joining the ranks of left-leaning leaders in Latin America - now six in all - governing a majority of the region's people with a cautious approach to U.S.-backed free-market policies.

In one of his first official acts, Tabare Vazquez restored full diplomatic ties with communist Cuba, more than two years after a diplomatic row divided the countries.

Thousands of Uruguayans - many waving flags and chanting ``Ur-u-guay!'' - filled Montevideo's streets for the inauguration of Vazquez, a 65-year-old cancer specialist whose swearing-in ended more than 170 years of power by two moderate parties.

Vazquez, elected Oct. 31 to replace Jorge Batlle, is part of a reinvigorated - but far less ideological - leftist movement in Latin America whose leaders have come to power amid economic turmoil. He took the oath of office for his five-year term with many of South America's new generation of leftists leaders looking on.

More at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4835068,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

It seems to be a trend in Latin America that countries are electing left-wing governments.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. "It seems to be a trend in Latin America........

that countries are electing left-wing governments."

Given that Latin America has the greatest disparity of wealth and poverty in the World, it's not surprising that people are electing left-wing governments.

What is surprising is that they are being allowed to elect candidates who are sypathetic to their poverty.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

2. That is right, in years gone by...

the U.S. would act to overthrow the governments with adherence of a strongman in the military: who would be favourable to U.S. business interests.

[MisterP]

3. what? they're learning from the failures of policies? but Brutus Thatcher

said "TINA"! how can this be!?

[paineinthearse]

4. It seems to be a trend in Latin America that countries are electing left-w

Not if * has anything to do with it.

[Patrick Henry]

5. Remember Costa Gavras's "State Of Siege?"

It was about Uruguay. It's a true story.

[cliss]

6. Interesting story.

Methinks there is a backlash going on.....right in our own back yard.

The US has been meddling in its back yard for a long time now....causing untold grief in areas where we should stay out.

I'm sure the Einsteins in Washington want to get going here and oust a few leaders. I'd like to see them pull off all these, though.

We're a little......outdone here.

[Judi Lynn]

7. AP story on Uruguay's new President.

March 2, 2005, 1:32AM

Uruguay's first socialist leader takes oath of office
Ties with Cuba are restored as he joins the ranks of leftist presidents in Latin America
New York Times

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY - Culminating a long and divisive struggle, the left took power Tuesday for the first time in the history of this small South American nation as Tabare Vazquez, a 65-year-old physician, was sworn in as president.
Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the streets to celebrate the sharp break with the past, many carrying Uruguayan flags or banners of the triumphant Progressive Encounter/Broad Front/New Majority Coalition. Until Vazquez, a Socialist, won a narrow victory in balloting last October, two traditional parties that had become increasingly difficult to distinguish from one another had alternated in power for more than 150 years.
(snip)

As his first official action, Vazquez announced a sweeping "Social Emergency Plan" that contains food, health, job and housing components. The program, whose cost is estimated at $100 million, is to be aimed at the hundreds of thousands of Uruguayans who have fallen below the poverty line as a result of economic crises of recent years.
(snip)

Vazquez's inauguration came exactly 20 years after the restoration of democratic civilian rule in Uruguay. From 1972 through early 1985, this nation sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina was ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship that killed, jailed, tortured or forced into exile thousands of Uruguayans in order to fight off what it described as a Communist threat.

Vazquez alluded in his inaugural speech to the widespread abuses of that era, saying there are still "dark zones in the area of human rights" that his government intended to investigate. "For the good of all, it is possible and necessary to clarify" such issues, he said, so that "the horrors of past eras never happen again."

In his inaugural address, Vazquez vowed that Uruguay would now adopt "an independent foreign policy," in contrast to the closer ties with the United States that Batlle had sought. "We will tolerate no outside interference in our internal affairs," Vazquez said to thunderous applause.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3063835
(Free registration is required)



Vasquez on the right side of the photo.

[LynnTheDem]

8. The vast majority of the world would be leftwing, if the US stopped

overthrowing democratically elected governments to install rightwing dictators and arming & financing them.