The approval of Uruguayan president Jose Mujica in Montevideo continues to slide and has plummeted eight points between February and May according to a Mori public opinion poll released this week.
Uruguay’s support for the re-election of Mr Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General is based on his decisive efforts to impulse multilateralism since taking office in 2007, said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro.
Peru is interested in regional integration, security, education, combating narcotics but full membership of Mercosur is “distant” said president elect Ollanta Humala during a one day visit to Uruguay, before leaving late Monday for Argentina.
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”
Visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping signed Wednesday in Uruguay 17 cooperation agreements and trade contracts for the purchase of 530 million US dollars in Uruguayan goods before leaving for Chile the third leg of his tour of Latin America.
The Uruguayan government is trying to decide how to implement a controversial new tax on land holdings involving approximately 60 million dollars per annum and which has exposed deep differences in the ruling coalition, is rejected by farmers and feared by investors.
Uruguay sees China as a ‘strategic partner’ and has kept good relations with Beijing since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1988, said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro, a former ambassador to China from 2007-2009. Almagro made the statement as Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping begun his official visit to Uruguay.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica warned that several abattoirs will run into deep trouble and might have to close down because of the lack of livestock ready for slaughtering. He also cautioned that “there is not much more the Executive can do”.
Uruguay made a long list of objections to the environment impact assessment study presented by the Aratiri mining project which plans open-pit extraction of magnetite (ferrous component) from vast resources in Valentines, the heart of the South American country.
Uruguay and Brazil pledged Monday to continue strengthening the bilateral relation and regional integration through Mercosur and Unasur, after presidents Jose Mujica and Dilma Rousseff delegations signed fifteen cooperation agreements in Montevideo.