The former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica criticized the government of Luis Lacalle Pou and assured that the Covid-19 pandemic “helped” to improve his image. ”The pandemic is white (in reference to the color of the ruling party)“ and ”brought a big help“ to the government, said the former president in a radial interview on Wednesday. ”He has no responsibility, but he positioned himself well in the situation and knew how to take advantage of it”, he assured.
Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou addressed Congress on Tuesday to report on his first year and one day in office, underlining the extraordinary 2020 pandemic year which surprised the world, and Uruguay, but he also made several announcements referred to future activities and investments.
The Red Ensign trawler Argos Pereira finally left on Saturday evening for the Falkland Islands to begin the squid season after spending 16 days in Montevideo because of an outbreak of Covid 19 on board, as reported by the Uruguayan Chamber of Foreign Fishing Vessels Agents, CAPE.
Without a great media hype, the first 192,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac arrived in Montevideo in the early hours of Friday morning. However, a police operation was deployed throughout the day to begin distributing the vaccines, which will begin to be administered on Monday, March 1, to a small group of essential workers in different parts of the capital and the interior of the country.
Uruguay will be receiving the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines next Thursday evening and the official inoculation campaign will begin on Monday March first. Over the weekend those in charge of vaccination will be the first to receive the shots, according to president Luis Lacalle Pou.
Uruguay and Paraguay presidents, Luis Lacalle Pou and Mario Abdo Benítez will be holding an open agenda meeting on Wednesday in the Uruguayan international seaside resort of Punta del Este, where the Paraguayan leader arrived late Tuesday.
One of the crew members from the Falklands bound trawler Argos Pereira, currently retained in Montevideo with 28 Covid-19 cases tested positive, had to be evacuated Monday afternoon and taken to a local hospital, because of further complications to his health situation.
Red Ensign flagged trawler Argos Pereira which was heading for the Falkland Islands squid season, has been retained in the port of Montevideo after 28 of its 54 crew members tested positive to Covid-19, despite having complied with the expected protocols in the high seas before docking for bunkering in the Uruguayan capital.
Argentine ambassador in Brazil, Daniel Scioli, has confirmed what was advanced by Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou during this week's meeting with his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, a meeting of Mercosur heads of state, sometime at the end of March. The summit will coincide with the thirtieth anniversary of the trade block, which also includes Argentina and Paraguay.
Uruguay leads as one of four full democracies in the Americas, according to the Democracy Index 2020, published by The Economist. Uruguay scored 8,61 points out of a possible 10 and ranked fifteenth at world level, while the other full democracies in the region are Costa Rica, 8,16; Chile, 8,28 and Canada with 9,24 points.