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Uruguay Traditional Parties
Uruguay was one of the few Latin American countries
with two
political groupings--the Colorado and National parties--as
old as
the country itself. Most Uruguayans considered themselves
either
Colorados or Blancos from birth, and affiliation with one
of the
two major parties or their major sub-lemas was a
part of
one's family heritage. The two parties traditionally
maintained a
rough equilibrium, and their factions had their own
leaders,
candidates, followers, policies, and organizational
structures.
These sub-lemas embraced persons of various
political
orientations and social backgrounds. In general, however,
the
Colorado Party traditionally was associated with the city,
labor
unions, and secularist and "progressive" movements,
whereas the
National Party identified with the interior farming groups
and
the more religious and conservative groups.
The cleavage between Montevideo and the rural interior
influenced party affiliation and political attitudes to a
greater
extent than did differences in social status and income.
(The
coastal region often held the balance of power between
Montevideo
and the interior.) Although three-fourths of all voters
remained
loyal to the traditional parties in the 1984 elections,
the
support of these parties in Montevideo weakened gradually
during
the 1980s. The decline of the National Party in Montevideo
was
the most pronounced; it won none of the capital's
twenty-three
electoral zones in 1984 and made no headway against the
Broad
Front in 1989.
Despite internal fractionalization, both traditional
parties
maintained the structures typical of more cohesive modern
parties, including conventions, general assemblies, party
steering committees, and caucuses. The fundamental units
of the
factions of both parties were the neighborhood clubs,
guided and
controlled by professional politicians.
Vague ideological differences between the major parties
still
existed in the 1980s, but the differences involved not so
much
politics as allegiance to certain leaders and traditions.
Although the Colorados traditionally were more liberal
than the
Blancos, both parties had liberal and conservative
factions. In
the General Assembly, the left wings of both parties often
lined
up in opposition to both right wings on important votes.
The
Colorados also were more anticlerical in the early
twentieth
century, but this distinction lost most of its
significance as
both parties broadened their bases of support. The
urban-based
Colorados were considered more cosmopolitan in outlook
than the
rural-based, tradition-oriented, and economically
conservative
Blancos. In general, the followers of Batlle y Ordóñez in
the
Colorado Party were more willing than the Blanco
leadership to
undertake political, social, and economic innovations.
The Colorado and National parties each had various
sublemas in late 1990. The Colorado Party's factions
included
the right-of-center United Batllism (Batllismo Unido--BU),
which
was in the majority for thirty years until August 1990;
the leftof -center BU sector, called the Social Action Movement
(Movimiento de Acción Social--MAS), led by Hugo Fernández
Faingold; Unity and Reform (Unidad y Reforma), or List 15,
led by
Jorge Batlle Ibáñez; the antimilitary Freedom and Change
(Libertad y Cambio), or List 85, led by Enrique E. Tarigo,
Sanguinetti's vice president; the Independent Batllist
Faction
(Corriente Batllista Independiente--CBI), led by Senator
Manuel
Flores Silva; Víctor Vaillant's "progressive" Batllist
Reaffirmation Movement (Movimiento de Reafirmación
Batllista--
MRB), a CBI splinter group; the rightist Colorado and
Batllist
Union (Unión Colorada y Batllista--UCB), or List 123; and
Democratic Traditionalism (Tradicionalismo
Democrático--Trademo),
a sector of the National Republican Association
(Asociación
Nacional Republicana--ANR).
The UCB was subdivided into three main groups: the
minority
right-wing and promilitary Pachequist faction led by Jorge
Pacheco Areco (president, 1967-72); the sector led by
Pablo
Millor Coccaro, Pacheco's principal rival; and the
National
Integrationist Movement (Movimiento Integracionista
Nacional--
MIN), which was formed in early 1986 and led by Senator
Pedro W.
Cersósimo. Following the 1989 elections, Millor's sector
caused a
political storm within the UCB when it announced that it
would
henceforth operate autonomously, although still
recognizing
Pacheco's leadership. Pacheco's faction, for its part,
founded
the National Colorado Movement (Movimiento Nacional
Colorado--
MNC) on May 11, 1990.
As a result of the primaries of the Colorado Party in
early
August 1990, Batlle Ibáñez's Unity and Reform
sub-lema
ousted the faction led by former President Sanguinetti
from the
leadership of the Colorado Party. Batlle Ibáñez's faction
obtained five seats on the party's fifteen-member National
Executive Committee, followed by Pacheco's four seats,
Sanguinetti's three, and Millor's three.
The National Party was divided into at least five
factions.
The Herrerist Movement (Movimiento Herrerista), or
faction, of
the National Party emerged in the 1930s. Lacalle founded
the
Herrerist National Council (Consejo Nacional
Herrerista--CNH) in
1961. The CNH joined with Senator Dando Ortiz's sector in
1987 to
form the right-of-center Herrerist Movement. After Wilson
Ferreira Aldunate's death in March 1988, Lacalle assumed
the
presidency of the Herrerist Movement.
Other National Party factions included Carlos Julio
Pereyra's
left-of-center La Rocha National Movement (Movimiento
Nacional de
La Rocha--MNR), the second largest National Party sublema ; the centrist For the Fatherland (Por la
Patria--PLP),
founded in 1969 by Ferreira as a personalist movement,
reorganized into a more democratic party in 1985, and led
by
Senator Alberto Sáenz de Zumarán after Ferreira's death in
1988;
Renovation and Victory (Renovación y Victoria--RV), led by
Gonzalo Aguirre Ramírez, a constitutional lawyer; and the
People's Blanco Union (Unión Blanca Popular--UBP), founded
in the
late 1980s by Oscar López Balestra, a member of the
Chamber of
Representatives. The CNH, MNR, and PLP were all
antimilitary
factions.
Additional minor parties included the White Emblem
(Divisa
Blanca), a conservative party led by Eduardo Pons
Etcheverry;
Juan Pivel Devoto's Nationalist Popular Faction (Corriente
Popular Nacionalista--CPN), which broke away from the
National
Party in late 1986; the Barrán National Party (Partido
NacionalBarrán ); the ultrarightist Society for the Defense of
Family
Tradition and Property (Sociedad de Defensa de la
Tradición
Familia y Propriedad--TFP); the Humanist Party (Partido
Humanista), which appeared in 1985; and the Animal Welfare
Ecological Green Party (Eto-Ecologista--Partido
Verde--EE-PV),
which emerged in 1989.
Data as of December 1990
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