A center right president took office in Uruguay on Sunday, promising to crack down on crime and tighten government finances after a 15-year string of left-leaning governments. Luis Lacalle Pou, a 46-year-old surfing enthusiast and son of a former president, narrowly won the election in November, 37.000 votes, in his second try for the top office.
Wendy Morton, the foreign office minister of European Neighborhood and the Americas arrives this Monday to Buenos Aires to meet with members of the Kirchner government, who over the weekend announced a new more demanding and aggressive Argentine policy referred to the Falklands and South Atlantic Islands sovereignty claim.
Argentine president Alberto Fernandez held a very positive phone conversation on Wednesday with Uruguayan president-elect Luis Lacalle Pou during which they analyzed the bilateral relation and the regional integration agenda.
Argentina is again putting pressure on Uruguay, this time on the incoming government which takes office next March first, insisting no UK military aircraft linked to the Falkland Islands be allowed to land in the country's airports and Falklands should not be treated as state with which Uruguay has extensive trade and business exchanges.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday he wants a good relationship with Argentina and it is up to the foreign ministers of both countries to agree on a meeting with his peer Alberto Fernandez, since the announced summit scheduled for March first in Montevideo, had fallen through.
Uruguay's new Senators and Deputies which emerged from the general election results of last October were sworn in on Saturday during a ceremony held at the Legislative Palace. The ceremony not only confirmed 99 members of the Lower House and 30 Senators but also marked the opening of ordinary sessions of the XLIX legislative period.
This Tuesday the incoming Uruguayan foreign minister Ernesto Talvi will be in Buenos Aires on an invitation from his future peer Felipe Solá, which has been interpreted as the first formal contact between the Kirchnerite government of Alberto Fernandez and that of president-elect Luis Lacalle Pou, who takes office on March first.
Argentine president Alberto Fernández said he was not sure to attend the inauguration of Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou, next March first, when he was expected to meet his Brazilian peer Jair Bolsonaro. Anyhow Fernandez insisted he was most willing to have an interview with Bolsonaro whenever possible.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has proposed a meeting with his Argentine peer Alberto Fernandez on March first in Montevideo when Uruguayan president-elect Luis Lacalle Pou takes office. The information was announced by Argentine foreign minister Felipe Solá, after meeting president Bolsonaro for fifty minutes at his office in Brasilia.
Uruguayan ex-president Jose Mujica is well known for his eclectic statements, expressed in the most coarse language, and in these austral summer days, with much sun and hard-drinking, was again at it, this time mocking the Argentines and his Kirchner friends which he openly supported in the recent election that meant the return of the Ks' populism.