MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Julio María Sanguinetti becomes corresponding member of Brazilian Academy of Letters

Sanguinetti highlighted the shared history of Brazil and Uruguay

Former Uruguayan President Julio Maria Sanguinetti was inaugurated as a corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) last Monday. In his acceptance speech, he emphasized the shared history of Uruguay and Brazil and how territorial disputes evolved into unity and brotherhood.

Sanguinetti also highlighted the contributions of Brazilians like the Barons of Rio Branco and Mauá to Uruguay's history and recalled his friendship with former Brazilian President José Sarney, who spoke about their shared moments during Brazil's democratic transition. Sanguinetti now occupies Chair 8, dedicated to Sebastião da Rocha Pitta, an early historian of Portuguese America.

The former two-time Uruguayan head of State, aged 89, highlighted the two countries' “history of territorial disputes between empires, which over the years has become one of brotherhood, peace, and fraternization.”

“We were a province of the River Plate, we were a Cisplatine province of the Empire, we swore to all the constitutions, that of Cádiz, that of Pombal, until in 1830 we swore to ours. And our history is implicated because our families are implicated, our political life is implicated,” he also pointed out.

The Colorado Party leader also recalled two Brazilians who were important to Uruguay's history: the Baron of Rio Branco, who was responsible for defining the borders of the two countries, and the Baron of Mauá.

Sanguinetti also recalled his friendship with former president ABL Dean Jose Sarney and the dramatic moments before he took over the presidency of Brazil after the death of Tancredo Neves.

“Forty years ago, at the culminating moment of a long journey to regain democracy, a bolt of lightning struck Tancredo Neves in his martyrdom. Julio Maria Sanguinetti had come as president of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, alongside other heads of state, to endorse the symbolic start of Brazil's democratic transition,” he stressed.

ABL President Merval Pereira highlighted the importance and coincidence of the moment of Sanguinetti's inauguration when Brazil celebrates 40 years of re-democratization.

Sanguinetti was elected to chair number 8, whose patron is Sebastião da Rocha Pitta, author of an important history of Portuguese America in the early 18th century. The chair's first occupant was an American, John Fisker, who in his essay on the discovery of America had also studied the discovery of Brazil. (Source: Agencia Brasil)