The plenary of the leftist coalition Broad Front concluded on Sunday with a motion that postergates de decision over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Chile, defining to leave the decision on whether or not to support the agreement, delaying the debate to a future plenary whose date is not yet defined. The decision was voted after counting an erroneous sum of the votes in the first instance in which the motion to debate the issue in the plenary had won. However, the votes of the Communist Party of Uruguay (PCU) had been put on the wrong side.
While Chilean President Sebastián Piñera started a commercial tour in Brazil last Thursday, in which he avoids Uruguay because the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Chile is blocked in the Uruguayan Parliament since 2016, ex-president José Mujica explained that he supports the FTA with Chile in order to look for “the best incentives to ensure commercial stability.” The bench of former president Mujica and the communist party refuse to approve the commercial agreement.
A controversy over land taxes inside the Uruguayan government exposed claims from President Jose Mujica that “meetings are taking place to debilitate his administration and even possibly remove him”
A closely divided Senate has passed legislation to overturn an amnesty for human rights crimes committed by the military and security forces during Uruguay's 1973-85 dictatorship, overruling voters who in two referendums upheld the law in 1989 and 2009. The decision triggered strong controversy in the Uruguayan political system.
Brazilian former president Lula da Silva underlined the significance of Latin America’s left and its responsibility as a model for developed countries in crisis, during a political rally in Montevideo to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Uruguayan ruling coalition, Broad Front.
Uruguay’s ruling coalition is celebrating its fortieth anniversary with a massive political rally in downtown Montevideo where the main speaker will be the former Brazilian president Lula da Silva.