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Uruguay Pachequism, 1967-72
Given the growing economic and social crisis, it was
not
surprising that the Colorado Party won the November 1966
elections. In March 1967, General Oscar Gestido (1967), a
retired
army general who had earned a reputation as an able and
honest
administrator when he ran the State Railways
Administration,
became president. He was supported by the Colorado and
Batllist
Union (Unión Colorada y Batllista--UCB), comprising List
14 and
other conservative Colorados.
Between June and November of 1967, the government, with
the
influence of some Batllists, attempted to reverse economic
and
social policies implemented since 1959 and to return to
the old
developmentalist model. But in November, César Charlone,
responsible for economic policies under Terra, became head
of the
Ministry of Economy and Finance. He agreed to the IMF's
suggestions, again establishing a unified exchange market
and
drastically devaluing the currency. Inflation exceeded 100
percent in 1967, the highest in the country's history.
In December President Gestido died and was succeeded by
his
vice president, Jorge Pacheco Areco (1967-72). A
little-known
politician and former director of the newspaper El
Día,
Pacheco would leave an indelible mark on Uruguay. Within
one week
of taking office, Pacheco issued a decree banning the PSU
and
other leftist groups and their press, which he accused of
subverting the constitutional order and advocating armed
struggle. To implement the new monetarist policy adopted
in 1968,
Pacheco appointed Alejandro Végh Villegas as director of
the
Office of Planning and Budget. In a sharp policy change,
Pacheco
decreed a wage and price freeze in June 1968 to try to
control
inflation. He also created the Productivity, Prices, and
Income
Commission (Comisión de Productividad, Precios, e
Ingresos--
Coprin) to control the price of basic food items. In 1968
real
wages were the lowest in the decade, and inflation reached
a
maximum annual rate of 183 percent that June.
The newly created umbrella labor organization, the CNT,
resisted these economic policies, and student and other
social
conflict intensified. The government responded by
repressing
strikes, work stoppages, and student demonstrations. The
death of
a student, Líber Arce, during a protest paralyzed
Montevideo, and
relations between the University of the Republic and the
government further deteriorated. The prompt security
measures, a
limited form of a state of siege, which had been included
in the
constitution to deal with extraordinary disturbances of
domestic
order and applied in 1952 and 1965, were enforced during
almost
all of Pacheco's time in office. He justified his actions,
which
included drafting striking bank and government employees
to
active military service, on the basis of the growing urban
guerrilla threat from the Tupamaros.
During this period, the Tupamaros had grown in
strength, and
their actions--robberies, denunciations, kidnappings, and,
eventually, killings--shook the country and became known
worldwide. The General Assembly acquiesced twice in the
suspension of all civil liberties, once for twenty days
following
the assassination in August 1970 of Dan A. Mitrione, a
United
States security official, and then for forty days
following the
kidnapping of British ambassador Geoffrey Jackson in
January
1971--both by the Tupamaros. On September 9, 1971, after
the
escape from prison of more than 100 Tupamaros, Pacheco put
the
army in charge of all counterguerrilla activity.
The November 1971 national elections were held in a
relatively quiet atmosphere because of a truce declared by
the
Tupamaros. Uruguayan society had become polarized.
Political
sectors supporting Pacheco promoted his reelection to a
new
presidential term, as well as the corresponding
constitutional
amendment to legitimize it. The left was able to unite and
draw
supporters from traditional parties, such as the Colorado
Party's
List 99. The new coalition was named the Broad Front
(Frente
Amplio). In the National Party, a faction of Herrerists
chose
General Mario Aguerrondo, considered a hard-liner, as its
presidential candidate. Liberal Blancos supported the
reformist
program of a new movement, For the Fatherland (Por la
Patria--
PLP), led by Senator Wilson Ferreira Aldunate.
The constitutional amendment did not succeed, but
Pacheco's
handpicked successor, Juan María Bordaberry Arocena of the
Colorado Party, won the controversial elections by some
10,000
votes, after a mysterious halt in the vote count. It was
noteworthy, however, that Ferreira obtained a large number
of
votes (he was actually the candidate receiving the most
votes--26
percent of the total to Bordaberry's 24 percent), and the
left
increased its following, receiving about 18 percent of the
votes.
Bipartisan politics had come to an end, replaced by a
multiparty
system bitterly divided by political, social, economic,
and
ideological differences. In economic terms, the
stabilization
measures taken between 1969 and 1971 by the Pacheco
administration to increase wages and reduce inflation had
been
moderately successful. But by 1972, the situation was out
of
control again. Another free market, monetarist experiment
would
have to await the imposition of an authoritarian regime.
Data as of December 1990
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