Uruguay

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 11:36 UTC

  Growing frustration and recriminations in Uruguayan cabinet over economic policy

  

  Relations inside the Uruguayan cabinet remain tense with some ministers in non-talking terms even when President Jose Mujica cancelled the Monday full ministerial turnout for three specific areas, security, social affairs and production meetings, which function every two weeks.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 03:16 UTC

  Controversy over Uruguay’s summer season: supermarket sales were down 15%

  

  The ongoing controversy in Uruguay as to how ‘modest’ or ‘bad’ was this summer’s season has received some facts to support the discussion: supermarket sales in Punta del Este-Maldonado the main resort area along the Atlantic coast contracted 15%, compared to the previous year, while overall in the whole of the country sales were down 2%.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 03:10 UTC

  Mujica envoy to Buenos Aires to try and re-establish ‘normal contacts’ with Cristina Fernandez

  

  Uruguay’s Deputy Foreign minister Roberto Conde is scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires this week as part of President Jose Mujica’s administration efforts to rebuild bilateral relations with Argentina following his ‘coarse, jail-slang’ descriptions of president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, which were refuted as ‘unacceptable and denigrating”.

• Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:50 UTC

  Mujica ‘deepest apologies’ to Cristina Fernandez for the ‘coarse, jail-language’

  

  “My deepest apologies to those whom I might have hurt with my words in recent days” said Uruguayan president Jose Mujica in his daily broadcast on Thursday, the first public apology for the controversial expressions he used last week to refer to Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner.

• Thursday, April 11th 2013 - 02:26 UTC

  Uruguay becomes second Latam country to legalize gay marriage

  

  The Uruguayan parliament voted overwhelmingly to legalise gay marriage, becoming the second country in Latin America to do so, after Argentina. The bill was approved by more than two-thirds of the lower chamber, despite opposition from the Catholic Church.

• Wednesday, April 10th 2013 - 10:22 UTC

  Overwhelming support for Mujica’s comments on Cristina and Nestor Kirchner

  

  A clear majority of Montevideo residents support Uruguayan president Jose Mujica controversial comments on Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her deceased husband Nestor Kirchner, “the old lady is worse than the one eyed man”, according to an opinion poll made public on Tuesday by a local broadcasting station.

• Wednesday, April 10th 2013 - 07:28 UTC

  Uruguay leads in beef consumption: 60 kilos per capita per year

  

  Uruguay’s per capita consumption of meats last year reached 98 kilos which represents a 3.4% increase over 2011 and above the average of developed countries that stands at 78 kilos per person per year, according to stats released by the country’s National Meats Institute, INAC.

• Monday, April 8th 2013 - 05:00 UTC

  Mujica ungagged: Nestor Kirchner a ‘difficult and slimy’ guy, but also had his positive side

  

  President Jose Mujica acid comments on Argentina’s presidential couple Cristina Fernandez-Nestor Kirchner were further developed in a monthly magazine which on Saturday published a long article with the Uruguayan leader, although it must be pointed out that the interview was dated March 18th.

• Saturday, April 6th 2013 - 04:14 UTC

  “Nothing or nobody” can separate Argentina and Uruguay, Mujica tells the world

  

  Despite Uruguayan President Jose Mujica had anticipated he would give no further explanations about his at least controversial remarks about Argentina’s presidencial couple, Cristina and Néstor Kirchner, the Uruguayan leader on Friday midday stated in his daily broadcast that “nothing or nobody” could separate the brotherly nations.

• Friday, April 5th 2013 - 07:18 UTC

  Argentina strongly protests President Mujica remarks about Nestor and Cristina Kirchner

  

  Uruguayan president José Mujica’s controversial statements caught on an open microphone referred to President Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, triggered a strong response from the Argentine government saying that such comments are “unacceptable, denigrating and offend the memory of a dead person”.