With New Chief, Uruguay Veers Left, in a Latin Pattern

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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Feb. 28 - When tiny Uruguay inaugurates its new president here on Tuesday, it will make a clear break with the country's past. After 150 years in which two moderate parties alternated in power, Uruguay's five million people will have turned decisively to the left.

But more than that, the moment is fraught with symbolism for the region. Uruguay's shift consolidates what has become the new leftist consensus in South America. Three-quarters of the region's 355 million people are now governed by left-leaning leaders, all of whom have emerged in the past six years to redefine what the left means today.

They are not so much a red tide as a pink one. Doctrinaire socialism carries the day far less than pragmatism, an important change in tone and policy that makes this political moment decidedly new.

From Brazil to Argentina to Ecuador and Venezuela, while demonstrating important differences in style and substance, these new leaders are united in their conviction that the free-market reforms of the 1990's have failed and by a renewed focus on egalitarianism and social welfare, but not to the point where it breaks the bank.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/international/americas/01uruguay.html?oref=login