Finally on Monday the Uruguayan government sent an official message congratulating the Brazilian people for their civic display on Sunday which elected president Jair Bolsonaro. Likewise the Uruguayan government confirmed its willingness to continue working and developing the bilateral relation with its large neighbor and strongest economy in Latin America.
Latin American leaders congratulated Brazilian president elect Jair Messias Bolsonaro for his Sunday victory. Be it via twitter, official releases or direct phone calls, the next president of Brazil was well wished even from neighboring Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.
One in Sao Paulo and the other in Rio de Janeiro; the candidates Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad cast their votes this morning with the confidence that the surveys give to Bolsonaro, and the hope of the latter to reverse this advantage, warning Bolsonaro's threat to Brazil's democracy in the most polarized presidential elections in the recent history of the country.
The controversial Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, expressed his complete support for the decision of the presidents of Argentina, Mauricio Macri; of Chile, Sebastián Piñera; of Colombia, Iván Duque; of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez; of Peru, Martín Vizcarra; and of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the investigation into the existence of crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
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.
The wave of corruption that has spread throughout Latin America has shaken regional institutions, disillusioned populations and should define the electoral cycle that many Latin American nations are going through.
Protesters interrupted the start on Monday of an election campaign tour by former Brazilian president Lula da Silva, who leads opinion polls but faces a lengthy jail sentence for corruption. Police had to intervene to separate some 150 protesting farmers and Lula's supporters in Bage, where the populist leader was starting a bus tour of southern Brazil ahead of October 7 elections.
It has been a long standing consensus-secret in the Uruguayan political system that when you are elected or have been nominated to a political post, you must not forget the family or friends particularly if they are in distress. This means in practical terms that the generous Uruguayan state will incorporate you to the burgeoning bureaucracy be it at national or regional level.
Anywhere between 8.000 and 50.000 people are expected to convene on Tuesday to Durazno, central Uruguay, to protest and demand solutions to what is seen as an over bloated government, fiscal strangling, incompetent management of government companies and an overall dissatisfaction with the results of these policies and deaf political ears to the ongoing complaints.
Uruguayan farmers with their tractors, harvesters, trucks, vans and on horseback took to the roads to protest the cost of fuel, power, increased taxes and an over bloated national budget and bureaucracy which they blame for making several farm activities unprofitable, and have had an overall negative impact for the different camp activities.