Uruguay: Lacalle Pou leaves with his figure on the slopes | The Marcet and Asteziano scandals hit the right-wing ruler

The right to good practice embodied by President Luis Lacalle Pou is in its last months in the Uruguayan government. An assessment of his administration leaves his brand of political power, the National Party, with a clear deficit on social and economic issues – for the majority – in any mandate. The approval ratings of voters who will vote this Sunday for his successor prove this. A famous surfer from a wealthy family in Montevideo and a yuppie profile as the second head of state, the president retires in 2020 with an image nearly 20 points less positive than when his country hit the pandemic. According to pollster Cifra, it has fallen from that 63 percent to the current 45%.

Compared to the approval of the governments of former presidents of the Frente Amplio, such as Tabaré Vázquez in his first term in 2009 and José Mujica in 2014, Lacalle Pou has its index very low. One of the more pointed criticisms was made by PayPal. “He went forty months without a raise.”

But in the debit column will appear the unresolved pension issues, which will also be defined in the vote this Sunday the 27th. The current pension reform law affects one million workers who will receive lower salaries in the future, stay in the system until age 65, and face difficulties in retirement. In the active sector, there are half a million wage earners with incomes of less than $500. A situation not alien to other neighboring countries.

The Lacalle Pou government owed Uruguay another 15 billion dollars and gave up key resources of the economy, such as the management of the port of Montevideo. A Belgian multinational, Cotton Nettie (KN), has provided it for over sixty years. This is the distribution of a key sector that has been strategically important to the lives of all Uruguayans for centuries. Sections of the opposition called the decision “neocolonial”.

The approval points the president has lost since 2020, Frente Amplio candidate Yamandu Orsi, is the same as his lead over his political dolphin Alvaro Delgado today. When Mujica, angry at his social policies, questioned him for not increasing the incomes of the working class, he added one of his favorite phrases: “We had our flaws, but there is a different philosophy: we distribute downwards, they always distribute upward.”

The socioeconomic decisions taken by the right-wing coalition government gave the Frente Amplio the most promising prospect of returning to government. Lacalle Pou finished second in the first round in 2019. Only thanks to the support of the far-right forces of the Colorado, Independiente and de la Gente parties and the Cabildo Abierto, he was able to gain access to the presidency in a contest with the candidate of the FA, Daniel Martínez. His percentage of the vote rose and his image improved due to health policy in the first year of the pandemic. Even today, when it comes to health, survey data is best disaggregated.

Lack of security is another thing that has been criticized as crime is on the rise. They rose during his tenure due to drug trafficking in Uruguay. Cocaine smuggling rates led the government to ask the United States for cooperation. The DEA withdrew in 2019 and will now return to tackling the problem, according to Heid Fulton, the US ambassador in Montevideo. Of course, it sent a representative to Buenos Aires to “pay particular attention to Uruguay,” the ambassador announced.

In relation to drug trafficking, Lacal Boo was involved in a scandal involving Uruguayan drug lord Sebastián Marcet. His government issued him a passport when he was on the run from justice and with an arrest warrant from Interpol. Coalition officials fell into contradictions and lies. Resigned Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo, when questioned in Congress on August 22, 2022, said he did not know who the first Uruguayan Cartel (PCU) leader was. He also commented that “he is one of many footballers in the world”. Laughably true, but half true. Marcet played for two clubs under a false identity, one from Paraguay and the other from Bolivia, and he lost that public exposure.

Lacal Poo was also hit by the scandal of his security chief, Alejandro Astesiano, who was jailed for influencing and spying on opposition leaders. Today he remains free under a much-maligned probation regime.

In international politics, the president – like many politicians who have taken office before – balanced between the two giants of South America: Brazil and Argentina, which have governments of opposite signs. In an interview with CNN in Chile four months ago, he avoided comparing himself to the far-right Javier Milei. With Nayeb Bukele and his security policy, he said: “This is not a model for Uruguay.”

In March 2025, Lacalle Pou will be cheering because the constitution prohibits him from running for re-election and he has already announced that he does not plan to run for re-election in 2029.

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