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Uruguay Crime
Official statistics on the incidence of crime during
the
1980s were not available in 1990. In general, however,
there did
not appear to be an unusual degree of ordinary crime.
Judging
from reports in the national press, the level of crime was
higher
in urban areas, particularly in Montevideo, than in rural
areas.
Smuggling was a perennial problem for law enforcement
officials, and the borders with Argentina and Brazil were
periodically closed during the late 1980s in an effort to
control
trafficking in contraband. In 1989 smuggling surged
because of
the strength of the Uruguayan new peso relative to
Argentine and
Brazilian currencies. The resulting fall in government tax
revenue and legal domestic trade prompted the government
to seal
the borders once again. Residents of the border area
protested,
claiming that the government should differentiate between
smalland large-scale smuggling.
During the late 1980s, the nation experienced problems
with
the sale and abuse of illegal narcotics and with drug
trafficking. Stories in the domestic press covered a
police raid
on a cocaine laboratory and told of seizures of marijuana,
LSD
(lysergic acid diethylamide), and cocaine. In an effort to
focus
more resources on the problem, the government in July 1988
announced the formation of the National Council for the
Prevention and Repression of Illicit Traffic and Improper
Use of
Drugs. The new body was responsible for coordinating the
nation's
antidrug campaign. After the international press reported
in 1989
that Uruguayan gold merchants were involved in laundering
drug
money, the police began investigating possible domestic
links to
international drug-trafficking organizations.
Data as of December 1990
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