MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lacalle leaves Presidential residency

Lacalle has less than a year left in office and is unable to seek a consecutive term as per the Constitution

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou left the traditional Suárez Y Reyes residency and moved into an apartment in Montevideo's exclusive Carrasco area citing proximity to where his ex-wife Lorena Ponce de León and the couple's children live.

“I want to be close to my children and you have to prepare. The preparations have to be done with time,” Lacalle told local media. He is due to leave office early next year since the Uruguayan Constitution does not allow back-to-back terms.

Regarding Sunday's primary elections, the National head of state said that whenever people say whom they want for president “the sum of that expresses the majority of his country.”

Lacalle Pou and Ponce de León officially divorced on June 17 after parting company in May 2022 following a marriage of nearly 22 years. They reconciled in early 2023 but they did not live together again. During a short spell, they were seen together at official engagements but later that year they broke up for good.

In one of his latest measures, Lacalle signed a decree whereby foreign drivers would have to pay up their traffic tickets before leaving the country unless they had Uruguayan residence papers. The only exceptions were “ambulance vehicles, duly registered, generated in strict compliance with the service of transferring patients in order to comply with medical treatments inherent to a potential risk of life, both in national and departmental jurisdiction.”

The new regulation sets the amount due for speeding offenses at around US$ 440.

The change was implemented because, under the previous mechanism, most drivers left Uruguay without ever paying their fines, it was explained.