Timeline Uruguay

Timeline Uruguay

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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

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)

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)

1963-1972    Jose Mujica was a leader of the leftist Tupamaro guerrillas who fought Uruguay's governments during this period. In 2009 Mujica was elected president.
    (AP, 1/29/11)

1970        May 7, Carlos Estrada (b.1909), Uruguayan composer, died.
    (www.answers.com/topic/carlos-estrada)

1970        Aug 10, Dan Mitrione (b.1920), a former Indiana police officer and FBI agent who had been advising Latin American governments, including Uruguay's, on techniques for interrogating suspects, was killed by Tupamaro guerrillas. He had been kidnapped on July 31. In 2010 diplomatic cables revealed that President Richard Nixon wanted the Uruguayan government to threaten to kill leftist prisoners in an attempt to save the life of Mitrione.
    (AP, 8/13/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Mitrione)

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 30 victims disappearing. 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)(AP, 12/2/11)

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)

1976        Sep 16, Secretary of state Henry Kissinger sent a cable canceling a US warning against carrying out international political assassinations that was to have gone to Chile, Argentina and Uruguay just days before a former ambassador was killed by Chilean agents on Washington's Embassy Row. The document was not made public until 2010.
    (AP, 4/10/10)

1977        Aug 1, In Uruguay teacher Julio Castro disappeared. His remains were identified in 2011 using DNA tests.
    (AP, 12/1/11)

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)

2009        Dec, Police in Uruguay seized a large amount of cocaine from an anchored yacht as part of an operation dubbed “Balkan Warrior.” 2.7 tons were seized in the operation. In 2010 Serbia indicted Darko Saric, a Serb citizen from Montenegro, and 19 associates of smuggling drugs from South America to Europe. Saric disappeared but financial documents linked him to companies registered in the Marshall Islands and Delaware via the Bank of Cyprus and an Austrian bank in Montenegro, a branch of Hypo Group Alpe-Adria.
    (Econ, 5/8/10, p.56)(Econ, 9/11/10, p.63)

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)

2010        Feb 10, In Uruguay former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, in office from 1971 to 1976, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for violating the constitution when he led a 1973 coup that began 12 years of dictatorship.
    (AP, 2/10/10)

2010        Mar 1, In Uruguay Jose Mujica (74) took the presidential oath of office.
    (SFC, 3/2/10, p.A2)

2010        Apr 8, Uruguay's La Republica newspaper reported that a Catholic priest who fled home to Uruguay and was defrocked after a nun accused him of raping three children in Bolivia has been living with his family for more than a year, with the full knowledge of Uruguayan church officials, despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest. Juan Jose Santana has been a fugitive from justice since being charged in May 2008 with raping three children ages 12 to 17.
    (AP, 4/10/10)

2010        Apr 20, A UN court delivered a long-awaited ruling rejecting Argentina's claim that an Uruguayan pulp mill pollutes their shared river. Both sides said the decision by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands gave them what they need to resolve their differences, with Argentina taking heart from a part of the ruling that said Uruguay did not properly inform it about the project. Argentine activists were still blocking the main bridge across the river and refused to give up their fight. Activists in June voted to lift their four-year bridge blockade.
    (AP, 4/21/10)(AP, 6/17/10)

2010        Jul 6, Britain's Queen Elizabeth (84) addressed the UN for the first time since1957. The queen's 10-minute speech to a special session of the General Assembly was finished before Netherlands and Uruguay returned to their soccer match in Cape Town. Netherlands moved to the finals after beating Uruguay 3-2.
    (Reuters, 7/6/10)

2010        Jul 8, In Uruguay 12 inmates burned to death in an overcrowded prison, just as the country’s congress debated a law to put the army in charge of prison security and relieve the pressure on civilian prisons by moving some inmates into military installations.
    (AP, 7/8/10)

2010        Jul 28, Argentina and Uruguay held a signing ceremony in Buenos Aires on an agreement to a joint environmental monitoring program along the shared Uruguay River, ending a seven-year pollution controversy over a Finnish paper mill on the Uruguayan side.
    (AFP, 7/28/10)

2010        Nov 1, Uruguay's Supreme Court said an amnesty given for any crimes committed by the country's 12-year dictatorship (1973-1985) is unconstitutional. The ruling meant that about 20 murders in a case against former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry can be investigated.
    (AP, 11/1/10)

2010        Nov 8, In Uruguay Gen. Miguel Dalmao was convicted of murder and sent to prison, becoming the first active member of Uruguay's military to be jailed for human rights violations committed during the country's 1973-85 dictatorship. Also imprisoned was Col. Jose Chialanza, who like Dalmao was convicted of "especially aggravated homicide" in the 1974 death of Nibia Sabalsagaray. Sabalsagaray was found hanged in her cell shortly after being captured.
    (AP, 11/9/10)

2010        Dec 5, In Uruguay Maria Esther Gatti de Islas (92), a human rights activist, died. She helped found Uruguay's organization of relatives of people who disappeared during South America's "dirty wars."
    (AP, 12/6/10)

2011        Mar 15, Uruguay said it has joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
    (AP, 3/16/11)

2011        Mar 24, The Inter-American Human Rights Court ruled that Uruguay must remove obstacles to prosecuting human rights abuses during its “dirty war” in the 1970s.
    (SFC, 3/25/11, p.A2)

2011        Apr 12, Uruguay's senate annulled an amnesty for crimes against humanity committed during the 1973-85 dictatorship, overturning the view of voters who upheld the law in two referendums. The measure passed 16-15 after a 12-hour debate and went to the lower house for minor changes.
    (AP, 4/13/11)

2011        Jun 7, Authorities in Uruguay remained puzzled by the fact that more than 600 dead penguins had washed up on the shores at La Paloma and Piriapolils since the weekend. Marine biologists were trying to determine why such a large number of penguins were found dead.
            (AP, 6/7/11)

2011        Jun 27, Uruguay’s government said it will remove obstacles to human rights prosecutions against some 80 cases of officials of the past military dictatorship (1973-1985).
    (SFC, 6/28/11, p.A2)

2011        Jul 17, In Uruguay Juan Maria Bordaberry (b.1928), former President-turned-dictator, died at home, where he was serving a 30-year sentence for killings and disappearances during his country's war against so-called subversives.
    (AP, 7/17/11)

2011        Jul 20, In Haiti a man (18) was sexually assaulted by peacekeepers from Uruguay on a UN base along the southern coast. The alleged attack only became public in late August when a video taken by cell phone was circulated and the UN announced an investigation.
    (AP, 9/6/11)

2011        Sep 4, Haitian President Michel Martelly "vigorously condemned" an alleged sexual assault by UN troops against an 18-year-old man. The incident aggravated mistrust between Haitians and the peacekeeping mission. The UN was investigating allegations that five Uruguayan naval personnel at a UN base in the south sexually molested an 18-year-old man in an attack reportedly captured by a cell phone camera.
    (AP, 9/5/11)

2011        Oct 27, Uruguay's Congress approved a measure revoking amnesty for officials charged with human rights abuses during a period of military dictatorship. Uruguay's Supreme Court will decide whether lifting the amnesty is constitutional.
    (AP, 10/27/11)

2011        Nov 26, In Uruguay Silvia Martinez (61), the wife of national soccer coach Oscar Tabarez, was attacked with a corrosive liquid that burned her face and arms. Several days ago authorities released a former female employee of Tabarez who was arrested in December for allegedly swindling $500,000 from the coach.
    (AP, 11/27/11)

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Subject = Uruguay
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