Uruguay’s left returns to presidency as govt vows friendly transition

Updated: 3:10pm (AEDT) Montevideo, Uruguay Reuters Center-left opposition candidate Yamandu Orsi secured victory in Uruguay’s presidential election, official results showed on Sunday, with 99 per cent of votes tallied, in a second-round race that pollsters expected to be closely fought. Yamandu Orsi, the pre-election favourite by a few points, secured a small but comfortable margin […]
In razor-tight Uruguay election, fringe votes could tip the balance

Montevideo, Uruguay Reuters Uruguayans will be choosing between two centrist candidates for their next president on Sunday, but the closely fought run-off could be decided by voters who went for an anti-vax radical and other fringe candidates in the first round. Final opinion polls ahead of the ballot suggest there are just 25,000 votes between […]
Uruguay election heading for second round, pension reform likely rejected

Montevideo/Trienta y Tres Reuters Official presidential results in Uruguay on Sunday showed centre-left candidate Yamandu Orsi will likely face conservative Alvaro Delgado in a second round next month, as no candidate secured the majority needed for a photo-finish. Of the 60 per cent of votes tallied, Orsi had secured 41.5 per cent support, according to […]
Uruguay set for election dominated by pensions, crime

Montevideo, Uruguay Reuters In Uruguay’s capital Montevideo and around this South American nation of 3.4 million people, voters are gearing up for Sunday’s election, overshadowed by a plebiscite on pensions the same day and fears over crime. Uruguayans will vote for the next president, vice president and members of parliament, with polls showing a likely […]
Essay: A new wave of Venezuelan refugees would threaten a humanitarian crisis – Latin America could learn from Europe

OMAR HAMMOUD GALLEGO, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at lessons from the European experience in responding to those fleeing the war in Ukraine…
Argentina’s 300 per cent inflation and propped-up peso spawn Paraguay border ghost town

Nanawa, Paraguay Reuters Paraguayan shoppers used to flock in their droves to the border town of Nanawa to buy cheap imports from Argentina, where the weak peso currency for years kept relative prices low for fuel, medicine and groceries smuggled in across the frontier. Now Nanawa is a ghost town, with prices of the contraband […]
New lives: Russian war exiles bring banyas and blinis to Buenos Aires

LUCINDA ELLIOTT and MIGUEL LO BIANCO, of Reuters, report on the wave of migrants who have left Russia for Latin American nations after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine…
“We have a problem”: Surging cocaine violence has Uruguay clamouring for DEA help

GABRIEL STARGARDTER and LUCINDA ELLIOTT, of Reuters, report…
Storm claims 16 lives in Argentina and Uruguay

Reuters The death toll from a severe electrical storm that struck Argentina over the weekend has risen to 16 people in Argentina and the neighboring country of Uruguay. Uruguay’s meteorological agency said two people were killed as strong wind gusts swept in from the south-east early Sunday morning, according to a statement posted on the […]
Essay: Fifty years after the Uruguay coup, why so few people have been brought to justice for dictatorship crimes

Latin American scholar FRANCESCA LESSA, in an article first published on The Conversation, says that despite very limited justice for dictatorship-era atrocities in Uruguay, hope may be on the horizon…