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Uruguay is about the size of
Washington state. Spanish
colonists dealt
harshly with the native Charrua and Uruguay was left as the only South
American country with no indigenous people.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
CIA Factsheet: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uy.html
Emulate: http://www.emulateme.com/uruguay.htm
Travel Docs: http://www.traveldocs.com/uy/index.htm
USLC: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/uytoc.html
4Mil BC In 2008
Paleontologists reported the skull of a giant rodent of this time found
in a broken boulder on Kiyu Beach on the coast of Uruguay's River Plate
region. It was estimated to have weighed an average of 1,008 kilos
(1.008 tons, 2,217 pounds) and was dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi, in
honor of Alvaro Mones, a Uruguayan paleontologist who specialized in
South American rodents.
(AP, 1/16/08)
1680 Portuguese founded Colonia
del Sacramento (Uruguay) for smuggling contraband across the Rio de la
Plata to Spanish-controlled Argentina.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F7)
1726 Montevideo, the capital city
of Uruguay, was founded.
(Hem., 2/96, p.23)
1750 The first African slaves
arrived in Montevideo. They brought along what was later recognized as
Candombe music.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A18)
1775 Mar 19, Portuguese fleet was
repulsed in attack on Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1800-1900 Wealthy Argentineans vacationed in Punta
Del Este during January, the peak of summer.
(WSJ, 2/4/97, p.A1)
1825 Aug 25, Uruguay declared its
independence from Brazil.
(AP, 8/25/97)
1828 May 18, The Battle of Las
Piedras, ended the conflict between Uruguay and Brazil.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1828 Uruguay, created as a buffer
state between Argentina and Brazil, declared its independence.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)
1830 Jul 18, Uruguay adopted a
liberal constitution.
(HN, 7/18/98)
1833 Nov 20, Charles Darwin
reached Punta Gorda and saw Rio Uruguay.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1833 Nov 28, Charles Darwin rode
through Las Pietras while returning to Montevideo.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1836 In Uruguay the Colorado party
and the National Party were formed.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.44)
1841 Italian revolutionary
Garibaldi moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, with Anita Ribeiro.
(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1842 Italian revolutionary
Garibaldi married Anita Ribeiro and joined the Uruguayan navy in a war
against Argentina. They returned to Italy in 1848.
(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1856 In Uruguay the Teatro Solis
was built in Montevideo. A multi-million restoration was completed in
2004.
(SSFC, 9/19/04, p.D7)
1862 Swiss immigrants settled in
Montevideo and formed an agricultural community known as the Colonia
Suiza.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)
1865-1870 South America’s War of the Triple Alliance
saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay aligned against Paraguay. The Triple
Alliance believed Paraguay was undermining the region’s political
stability. The war ended in crushing defeat of Paraguay.
(HNQ, 6/22/99)
1868 In Montevideo, Uruguay, the
Mercado del Puerto, a wrought-iron prefab shipped from England, was
erected to feed stevedores and other laborers.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
1881 In Montevideo, Uruguay, the
central fountain of Ciudad Vieja was built by Italians.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
1896-1897 A mansion was built in Montevideo, Uruguay,
that was restored in 1985 by the Banco de la Republica to house the
Museo de la Moneda y del Gaucho.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
1908 In Montevideo, Uruguay, the
neoclassical Palacio Legislativo was built to house the national
legislature.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
1911 Mar 1, Jose Ordonez was
elected the president of Uruguay.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1913 The Plaza Fuerte Hotel, at
Bartolome Mitre 1361, in the Old City of Montevideo was built. It had
gone to disrepair but has been recently turned into a work of art.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)
1922 In Montevideo, Uruguay, the
26-story Palacio Salvo hotel, designed by Architect Mario Palanti,
became the tallest building in South America.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.F6)
1925 Aug. 25, Uruguay became
independent.
(HFA, '96, p.36)
1930 The first soccer World Cup
was held in Montevideo, Uruguay. The American team lost in a semi-final
round. Uruguay won the first World Cup.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.W7)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R34)
1933 Dec 7, President Roosevelt
adopted a "good neighbor" policy toward Latin America and announced a
policy of nonintervention in Latin American affairs at the December 7th
International American Conference at Montevideo, Uruguay.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1934 A law was enacted that made
it illegal to attack a foreign head of state.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1939 Dec 13, In the Battle at La
Plata 3 British cruisers fought the German "pocket battleship," Graf
Spee, which took refuge in Montevideo, Uruguay. The following day, the
badly damaged ship left port, deliberately ran aground in the bay,
where the officers led the crew in scuttling and exploding the Graf
Spee. Two days later, the commander of the German warship committed
suicide in his Buenos Aires hotel room. Today, at low tide, water
commuters between Buenos Aires and Montevideo can see part of the
superstructure breaking the surface. [see Dec 13]
(MC, 12/13/01)
1939 Dec 17, In the Battle of
River Plate near Montevideo, Uruguay, the British trapped the German
pocket battleship Graf Spee. German Captain Langsdorf sank his ship
believing that resistance was hopeless. [see Dec 13,18]
(AP, 12/17/97)(HN, 12/17/98)
1939 Dec 18, The Graf Spee was
scuttled. A ferocious sea battle off the coast of South America between
the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee and the British ships Exeter,
Ajax, and Achilles, preceded the scuttling. The German captain Hans
Langsdorf, later killed himself. On the 13th, heavily the armed German
ship held off the three vessels for three hours, sustaining some
damage, and then fled into the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. Over the
next few days the British tricked the Germans into believing that a
large British fleet had them trapped.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1939 Tabare Vazquez was born in La
Teja, Uruguay. He later became an oncologist and then mayor of
Montevideo in 1989.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A16)
1950 Jul 16, Brazil, host for
soccer’s World Cup, lost the final game to Uruguay 2-1.
(Econ, 11/3/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_FIFA_World_Cup)
1962 Jan 31, At the Eighth Meeting
of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OAS, held in
Punta del Este, Uruguay, ministers suspended Cuba’s membership.
(www.cidh.oas.org/countryrep/Cuba79eng/intro.htm)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.34)
1970 May 7, Carlos Estrada
(b.1909), Uruguayan composer, died.
(www.answers.com/topic/carlos-estrada)
1971 Sep 6, In Montevideo,
Uruguay, a hundred Tupamaro guerrillas escaped from prison.
(WUD, 1994, p.
1688)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_Sendic)
1971 Nov 28, In Uruguay the
Colorado candidate, Juan María Bordaberry, and the Blanco
candidate were virtually tied. In February 1972 the Electoral Court
proclaimed Bordaberry president, and he began a five-year term on March
1.
(www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/GeogHist/histories/history/hiscountries/U/uruguay.html)
1971 Eduardo Galeano,
Uruguayan journalist, authored "Open Veins of Latin America: Five
Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent."
(AP, 4/19/09)
1972 Oct 13, A Uruguay to Chile
plane carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes Mountains. The event was
concluded by December 23, 1972 when the last of 16 survivors were
rescued. The group survived by collectively making a decision to eat
flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades. The book “Alive: The
Story of the Andes Survivors,” published two years after their rescue,
was written by Piers Paul Read, who interviewed the survivors and their
families.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571)
1972 Dec 23, 16 plane crash
victims (Oct 13 flight from Uruguay to Chile) were rescued from the
Andes after 70 died. The group survived by collectively making a
decision to eat flesh from the bodies of their dead comrades.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571)
1972 In Uruguay Juan Maria
Bordaberry dissolved Congress and banned political parties at the
behest of military leaders.
(AP, 11/16/06)
1973 Jun 27, In Uruguay armed
forces overthrew the democratic government and established a brutal
dictatorship presided by Pres. Juan Maria Bordaberry.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Mar%C3%ADa_Bordaberry)
1973-1985 In Uruguay a dictatorship during this
period resulted in least 26 victims officially missing, according
to an armed forces report released in 2005. In 2009 Uruguay's ruling
party planned to pay $17.4 million in reparations to victims of state
oppression during this period.
(AP, 8/13/09)
1976 May 18, Zelmar Michelini and
Hector Gutierrez, prominent Uruguayan lawmakers, were seized from their
homes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their bullet-riddled bodies were
found days later along with those of suspected rebels suspected
guerrillas William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo.
(AP, 11/17/06)
1976 Aug 24, In Buenos Aires a
government task force kidnapped Marcelo Gelman (20) and his pregnant
wife Maria Claudia Garcia Irureta (19). Marcelo was shot and killed 2
months later and packed in cement in an oil drum. His wife disappeared
after giving birth in a military hospital in Uruguay. Juan Gelman, the
poet father of Marcelo, later campaigned in search of his grandchild
and authored the book "Not Even God's Feeble Pardon." In 2008 the
granddaughter of Argentine poet Juan Gelman urged Uruguayan courts to
reopen a probe into the 1976 disappearance of her dissident mother,
weeks before her grandfather was scheduled to receive the
Spanish-speaking world's most prestigious literary prize.
(SFC, 12/9/99, p.A16)(AP, 2/27/08)
1976 Jun 12, In Uruguay the
military ousted Pres. Juan Maria Bordaberry (b.1928). Uruguay remained
under the control of a right-wing dictatorship until 1985. In 2006
Bordaberry was arrested for the murder of opposition leaders in 1976.
(AP, 11/16/06)(http://tinyurl.com/yczxw5)(Econ,
12/16/06, p.38)
1979 Jan 9, The Act of Montevideo
was signed in Uruguay pledging Argentina and Chile to a peaceful
solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977. Cardinal
Antonio Samore (1905-1983), Vatican representative, mediated the Beagle
conflict.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_conflict)
1980 Uruguay voted for a return to
democracy in a referendum. General Álvarez forced the Consejo de
Seguridad Nacional to name him president on September 1, 1981.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Conrado_%C3%81lvarez)
1981 Sep 1, In Uruguay Gregorio
Alvarez (b.1926), commander-in-chief of the army (1978-1979), became
the country’s de facto president and continued until Feb 12, 1985.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Conrado_%C3%81lvarez)
1984 Nov, In Uruguay Julio
María Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party won the presidential
election. Pres. Gregorio Alvarez resigned on February 12, 1985.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Conrado_%C3%81lvarez)
1986 Sep 15-1986 Sep 20, In Punta
del Este, Uruguay, the Ministers of ninety-two nations agreed to a new
round of multilateral trade negotiations (Uruguay Round).
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1986/index_en.htm)
1987 Argentina legalized divorce.
Prior to this Argentinians went to Uruguay for divorces and continued
to go there for legal abortions.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A14)
1988 Enrique Iglesias, former
Uruguayan foreign minister, became head of IDB, the Inter-American
Development Bank. In 2005 he was named head of the Ibero-American
summits.
(Econ, 6/4/05, p.37)
1989 Tabare Vazquez, oncologist
and president of the Progreso soccer team, won the mayoral election in
Montevideo, Uruguay.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A16)
1989-1993 Pres. Luis Lacalle led the country and
stumped for freer markets and a smaller government.
(WSJ, 2/13/96, p.A14)
1990 Mar 1, Luis Alberto Lacelle
was sworn in as President of Uruguay.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1991 Mar 26, The Treaty of
Asuncion established the southern common market: (Mercado Comun del
Sur) Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
They were later joined by associate members Chile (1996), Bolivia
(1997), Peru (2001) and Venezuela (2004). Mexico was granted observer
status in 2004.
(www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/blokit/mercoa.htm)
1993 Pres. Julio Maria
Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party was elected.
(WSJ, 2/13/96, p.A14)
1994 Apr 15, Ministers from 109
countries signed a 26,000-page world trade agreement known as the
"Uruguay Round" accords in Marrakesh, Morocco.
(AP, 4/15/99)
1995 Mar 1, Julio Maria
Sanguinetti was sworn in as President of Uruguay.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1996 Jul, The Fasano brothers,
editor and publisher of the daily La Republica, were jailed for 15 days
for printing a story that Paraguay’s president Wasmosy took payments
from a hydroelectric project.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A12)
1996 The "Manual of the Perfect
Latin American Idiot" by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Carlos Alberto Montaner
(Cuban novelist) and Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza was published and became a
best seller in Latin America. Chapter 3 was dedicated to explaining the
importance of Uruguayan Marxist Eduardo Galeano’s book “Open Veins of
Latin America” (1971).
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A9)(WSJ, 4/27/09, p.A13)
1998 Sep 9, The UN General
Assembly elected Uruguay’s foreign minister as president for its 53rd
session. Didier Opertiti replaced Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1999 Oct 31, In Uruguay Tabare
Vazquez, the former mayor of Montevideo, led the presidential vote with
38% against 31% for Jorge Batlle of the ruling Colorado Party. A runoff
Nov 28 runoff was planned.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 28, In Uruguay Jorge
Batlle, candidate for the Colorado Party, won the presidency with a 52%
vote over socialist Tabare Vazquez.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A16)
2001 Mar 29, UN troops from
Uruguay began to set up camp on Lake Tanganyika for their mission to
help end the Congo civil war.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D4)
2001-2004 An economic crises caused up to 15% of
Uruguay’s population to leave the country in search of work.
(SSFC, 9/19/04, p.D7)
2002 Jul 31, Uruguay prepared to
keep banks closed for a second day in an attempt to stanch the flow of
capital in the midst of a growing financial crisis.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Aug 2, In Uruguay the
government sent thousands of police to guard shopping districts, a day
after looters hit stores and supermarkets as the national economic
crisis deepened.
(AP, 8/2/02)
2002 Aug 4, US Treasury Sec. Paul
O'Neill arrived in Uruguay and announced a $1.5 billion temporary loan
to stabilize the financial crises.
(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Oct 29, In Uruguay 4
ministers in President Jorge Batlle's Cabinet have resigned to protest
his handling of the economy, escalating a crisis in his ruling
coalition.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Dec 27, Uruguay's Congress
approved a plan to merge 3 major banks verging on insolvency amid the
country's economic crisis.
(AP, 12/27/02)
2003 Dec, Uruguay voters agreed
60-35% to keep a state monopoly over the oil industry.
(Econ, 12/13/03, p.8)
2004 Oct 31, In Uruguay elections
socialist Tabare Vazquez (65), a cancer specialist and former mayor of
Montevideo, won Uruguay's presidential election, becoming the nation's
first leftist leader. Voters also called for all water resources to be
put under state administration. Some 20% of the country’s work force
was employed by the state.
(AP, 10/31/04)(SFC, 11/1/04, p.A2)(WSJ, 11/5/04,
p.A13)
2004 The official poverty rate in
Uruguay was 31%.
(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A16)
2005 Mar 1, Dr. Tabare Vazquez
(65) took office as Uruguay's first socialist president, joining the
ranks of left-leaning leaders in Latin America, now six in all,
governing a majority of the region's people with a cautious approach to
U.S.-backed free-market policies. In one of his first official acts, he
restored full diplomatic ties with communist Cuba, more than two years
after a diplomatic row divided the countries.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Apr, Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish
company, began building a cellulose plant in Uruguay on the Uruguay
River bordering Argentina.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.47)
2005 Jun 23, In Uruguay
firefighters recovered the badly burned remains of eleven men killed
aboard a Ukrainian-flagged fishing vessel that caught fire in
Montevideo. The "Simeiz," carrying a crew of 39, caught fire before
dawn the previous day.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Strong thunderstorms
rolled through Argentina and Uruguay, slowing air traffic, felling
trees and leaving at least eight people dead.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Oct, Spain’s ENCE planned to
start a cellulose plant in Uruguay on the Uruguay River bordering
Argentina.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.47)
2005 Nov 7, Uruguay launched a set
of tax overhauls aimed to make it harder for neighboring Argentines and
other foreigners to use the country as a tax haven. It was hoped to
have the structure for a modern tax system in place by 2007.
(WSJ, 11/9/05, p.A14)
2005 Dec 6, The UN top election
official, Carina Perelli of Uruguay, vowed to fight her dismissal over
sexual harassment charges, which she rejected as false and complained
that she was being denied due process.
(AFP, 12/07/05)
2006 Feb 24, It was reported that
Uruguay’s Pres. Tabare Vazquez backed two enormous plants that would
produce the raw material for paper on Uruguay's border with Argentina
while protesters, worried about the plants' impact on Argentina's
environment, have repeatedly blockaded border bridges, stalling crucial
truck and tourist traffic.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Mar 17, In Uruguay 7
residents of Young were killed when they were run over by a train they
were pushing as part of a reality television show aimed at raising
funds for a local hospital.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 28, Spain’s Ence said it
will suspend construction of a controversial pulp mill in Uruguay to
allow Argentina and Uruguay to resolved their differences over the
environmental impact of the project. In October Ence announced that it
was abondoning the project.
(FT, 3/29/06, p.8)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.46)
2006 Mar 30, Uruguay said it will
repay $630 million to the IMF ahead of schedule, clearing all its 2006
obligations to the agency in a sign of the country's improving economic
health.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 May 8, Argentina requested
the extradition of five former Uruguayan military officers and a former
police officer wanted in the 1976 disappearance of Maria Claudia
Garcia, the missing daughter-in-law of poet Juan Gelman.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 Jul 28, Danilo Astori,
Uruguay’s Finance Minister, said Uruguay will make an early debt
payment of $900 million to the IMF due in 2007. The move will save
about $40 million in interest payments. This would cancel about half
its entire debt to the IMF.
(WSJ, 7/31/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 5, Police in Uruguay
arrested 27 people suspected of trafficking drugs to Europe and seized
a record 770 pounds of cocaine.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 11, Uruguay arrested 7
former army and police officers in an investigation of dissidents who
disappeared during the South American country's military rule in the
1970s.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Oct 23, In Uruguay thousands
of taxi and truck drivers went on strike to demand lower fuel prices in
a challenge to the center-left government. The strike ended later in
the day.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Nov 3, In Uruguay UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised leaders at the 16th annual
Iberoamerican summit for resolving to make progress on growing illegal
immigration in an increasingly mobile world community.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 16, In Uruguay a judge
ordered the arrest of former president-turned-dictator Juan Maria
Bordaberry and his foreign minister in connection with four political
killings in 1976.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2007 Jan 25, Uruguay’s left-wing
government under Pres. Tabare Vazquez signed a trade and investment
“framework agreement” with the US.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.39)
2007 Feb 26, Coordinated
international efforts led to the capture in Brazil of Manuel Juan
Cordero (67) a retired Uruguayan colonel wanted in "dirty war" probes
in both Argentina and Uruguay. He was detained in Santana do
Livramento, a town near the Uruguayan border where he was living.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 10, President Bush in
Uruguay said the FBI has addressed the problems that led to illegal
prying into personal information on people in the US, but "there's more
work to be done." Bush with President Tabare Vazquez who said he wanted
to expand trade with the United States and increase scientific,
technical and cultural exchanges. Bush also asked Congress for $3.2
billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and
Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he had announced in January
2007.
(AP, 3/10/07)(AP, 3/10/08)
2007 Jun 29, Mercosur, South
America’s biggest trade block (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay),
held a presidential summit in Asuncion, Paraguay.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Aug 8, Venezuela's socialist
President Hugo Chavez took a campaign of petrodollar diplomacy to
Uruguay, seeking stronger political ties while offering energy aid from
one of the world's largest oil producers.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Nov 10, Some 20,000
demonstrators marched to Argentina's river border with Uruguay to
protest the impending startup of a paper pulp plant they fear will
pollute the environment. The cellulose mill in Fray Bentos was built by
Metsa-Botnia, a Finnish company, at a cost of $1.2 billion.
Construction was completed in October and Uruguay’s Pres. Vazquez
ordered it opened in November despite protests from Argentina.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.44)
2007 Dec 17, Uruguay's last
military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, was charged with the forced
disappearance of political prisoners, cheering human rights activists
who have long campaigned for his prosecution.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2008 Feb 11, Uruguay President
Tabare Vazquez ousted his ministers of defense, foreign affairs and
industry, saying he was seeking a better team for his final two years
in office.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Jun 4, An undetermined amount
of fuel oil was released after the Greece-registered Syros slammed
against the Malta-registered Sea Bird near Montevideo, Uruguay.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Nov 11, Uruguay's Senate
voted depenalize abortion during the first trimester, a rare step in a
Latin American nation. President Tabare Vasquez vetoed the measure on
Nov 14.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/14/08)
2009 Feb 11, Officials in Uruguay
said a Cuban long-distance runner and track coach have disappeared and
apparently intend to defect. Aguelmis Rojas and Rafael Diaz had arrived
in January on a sports exchange program in Maldonado.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 May 13, In Uruguay the
defense ministry confirmed that Minister Jose Bayardi had signed a
decree lifting a ban on people with “open sexual deviations,” that had
been imposed by the military dictatorship (1973-1985). The new decree
stated that sexual orientation will no longer be considered a reason to
prevent people from entering military service.
(SFC, 5/14/09, p.A2)
2009 May 17, Mario Benedetti
(b.1920), a prolific Uruguayan writer, died. His novels and poems
reflect the idiosyncrasies of Montevideo's middle class and a social
commitment forged by years in exile from a military dictatorship.
Benedetti's 1960 novel "The Truce" was translated into 19 languages and
along with "Thank You for the Fire" (1965), heralded his inclusion in
the Latin American literary boom in the 1960s. In 1973 he joined
thousands of other Uruguayans fleeing the nation's military
dictatorship, spending 12 years in exile in Havana, Madrid, Lima and
Buenos Aires.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, In Uruguay some 20
dead Fraser's dolphins turned up this weekend on the Punta Negra beach
in Piriapolis outside Montevideo. Experts theorized the tropical
dolphins became disoriented or were carried there by changing water
currents.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 27, Uruguay lawmakers
approved a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt. The 99-seat
Chamber or Representatives passed the bill 40-13, with the remaining
members absent. The law, still needing Senate approval, was supported
by socialist President Tabare Vazquez's Broad Front coalition, which
has already legalized gay civil unions and ended a ban on homosexuals
in the armed forces.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Sep 9, Uruguay’s Senate gave
final approval for gay and lesbian couples to adopt children, making it
the first country in Latin America to do so. The executive branch will
decide when the law takes effect.
(SFC, 9/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 30, The 24 members of
UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee of Intangible Heritage granted the
tango dance and its music protected cultural status at its meeting in
Abu Dhabi. The designation may make Argentina and Uruguay, which both
claim to be tango's birthplace, eligible to receive financial
assistance from a specialized fund for safeguarding cultural traditions.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep, Most of Uruguay’s
380,000 primary-school pupils had received an XO laptop, developed by
the One Laptop Per Child, an NGO based in Massachusetts. The scheme at
$260 per machine cost less than 5% of the country’s education budget.
Internet connection was still limited.
(Econ, 10/3/09, p.46)
2009 Oct 9, In Haiti 11 UN
peacekeepers were killed when a CASA C-212 surveillance flight slammed
into a mountain. The victims were Uruguayan and Jordanian troops
serving with the 9,000-strong UN peacekeeping force that has been in
Haiti since 2004.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 19, Uruguay's Supreme
Court declared unconstitutional a law that has provided amnesty to
military officials accused of murders, disappearances and other human
rights violations during the country's dictatorship.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 22, Uruguay's last
dictator, Gregorio Alvarez (83), was sentenced to 25 years in prison
for 37 homicides during the 1973-1985 military regime, when dissidents
disappeared in a region-wide crackdown on leftists called "Operation
Condor." Alvarez was commander-in-chief of the army (1978-1979) and de
facto president from 1981 until Feb 12, 1985. Navy Capt. Juan Larcebeau
was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for 29 homicides related to
clandestine prisoner transfers in 1978.
(AP,
10/22/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Conrado_%C3%81lvarez)
2009 Oct 25, Uruguay held
presidential elections. Voters faced a stark choice between: Jose
"Pepe" Mujica (74), an ex-rebel who yearns to create enduring socialism
or Luis Alberto Lacalle (69), a former center-right president
(1990-1995) who privatized government services and wants to pull away
from alliances with Latin American leftists. Mujica, the candidate of
the governing leftist Broad Front coalition, got 47.5% of the votes,
just below the majority needed to win outright. Conservative
ex-president Luis Alberto LaCalle got 28.5%, and Pedro Bordaberry of
the Colorado Party 17%.
(AP, 10/25/09)(AP, 10/26/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.44)
2009 Nov 25, Officials said
flooding from heavy rains has killed 12 people in Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay and forced more than 20,000 to flee their homes. Most of the
dead were in southern Brazil, including eight in Rio Grande do Sul.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 28, A South Korean
fishing vessel burned and sank in the port of Uruguay's capital. Navy
officials said all 38 crew members are safe.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 29, Uruguay held
elections. Jose Mujica (74), a plain-talking socialist, won the
presidential run-off keeping the center-left coalition in power for
another 5 years. He once led an armed revolutionary movement but now
rejected the ideologies of the 1970s. Mujica won 53% of the vote, to
43% for Luis A. Lacalle, with 97% of the vote counted.
(AP, 11/29/09)(AP, 11/30/09)
2010 Jan 6, A Malaysian court
charged an air force sergeant and a businessman with stealing two
fighter jet engines. The engines, each worth 50 million ringgit ($14
million), were stolen while they were undergoing repairs and were
allegedly shipped toward Argentina before being offloaded to another
vessel bound for Uruguay.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 23, Brazil extradited
Manuel Juan Cordero Piacentini, a retired Uruguayan military officer,
to Argentina to face charges of human rights abuses allegedly committed
more than 30 years ago. Under "Operation Condor," the military
dictatorships that ruled much of South America in the 1970s and 1980s
secretly cooperated in the torture and disappearances of each others'
citizens.
(AP, 1/23/10)
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