Uruguay

• Thursday, August 1st 2013 - 03:56 UTC

  Uruguay passes bill legalizing marijuana split on party lines; Senate discussion next October

  

  Uruguay's lower house passed a marijuana legalization bill on Wednesday which now must be discussed by the Senate, most probably in October. The vote brings Uruguay one step closer to becoming the first country to legally regulate production, distribution and sale of the drug.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 06:31 UTC

  Paraguay downplays Mujica’s warning calling for a ‘pragmatic’ return to Mercosur

  

  Paraguay’s incoming government foreign policy advisor Eladio Loizaga downplayed Mercosur veiled warning calling for a quick return of the country to the block because ‘Paraguay is landlocked and needs the Parana River and the River Plate to reach the sea’.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 06:23 UTC

  Paraguay president Franco congratulates Mujica on his knowledge of geography

  

  Paraguayan president Federico Franco replied to his Uruguayan peer Jose Mujica ironic remarks saying that ‘evidently he’s good at geography; I guess he passed with the highest grades’ since he is aware that Paraguay is a landlocked ‘Mediterranean’ country.

• Tuesday, July 30th 2013 - 03:54 UTC

  Mujica in veiled message tells Paraguay to return to Mercosur and remember it’s a landlocked country

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica was ironic about the conditions Paraguayan president elect Horacio Cartes demanded for his country’s return to Mercosur, but also in a veiled message called for ‘intelligence and pragmatism’ recalling that Paraguay is a landlocked country.

• Tuesday, July 30th 2013 - 03:07 UTC

  Uruguay needs ‘a dollar at 25 Pesos’ if it wants to remain competitive warn economists

  

  Uruguay is too expensive in dollar terms and needs to adapt quickly because the adjustment will come anyway ‘and will be painful’ unless inflation is brought under control and costs equilibrium is reached with Brazil with a competitive dollar at 25 Pesos.

• Friday, July 26th 2013 - 06:41 UTC

  Fifteen months ahead of presidential election, Uruguay’s ruling coalition continues to lead

  

  Fifteen months ahead of October 2014 presidential election, over 80% of Uruguayans are willing to reveal whom they will vote, ‘if elections were held next Sunday’, according to the latest public opinion poll from Cifra and released this week.

• Friday, July 26th 2013 - 06:11 UTC

  Mujica praises Fidel Castro as a brilliant man promoter of ideas

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica currently in Havana said he had an enlightening conversation with the leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro whom he described as “a wise old man who continues to be brilliant” and a ‘promoter of ideas”.

• Thursday, July 25th 2013 - 06:01 UTC

  Uruguay expects to launch its first broadcasting and infrared info satellite in 2014

  

  The first satellite of the Uruguayan AntelSat project will be launched at the beginning of 2014, according to the country's telecom authority Antel.

• Wednesday, July 24th 2013 - 07:15 UTC

  Mujica flies to Havana to meet the Castro brothers and celebrate 60 years of Cuba’s revolution

  

  Uruguayan president and former guerrilla Jose Mujica left Tuesday night for Cuba where he is scheduled to hold meetings with President Raul Castro, the revolution leader Fidel Castro and attend the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the assault on the Moncada military fort.

• Tuesday, July 23rd 2013 - 07:39 UTC

  Mujica praises the OAS and the report on the drug problem in the Americas

  

  The Organization of American States (OAS), Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, presented on Monday Uruguayan president José Mujica the Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas, prepared by the hemispheric institution following a mandate of the Sixth Summit of the Americas.