MONTEVIDEO.- There was a time when Uruguay was called “Switzerland in America”, for its quality of life outside the context in the region, much closer to the country than Guillermo Tell and Roger Federer than his neighbors on the continent. Neighbors are unstable, unpredictable, even unpredictable.
This picture is of flawless appreciation It is still valid outside the country, and it is a classic of Argentine tourists and other foreigners who visit, or even residents, who praise the well-being of the orientals.
The numbers back it up. Where there is an index in Latin America, Uruguay leads it. It has the best indicators in GDP per capita, in human development, in democratic quality, in life expectancy. There are fewer poor people than anyone else. And above all, its political and economic stability is recognized – even more, celebrated.
A man holds campaign leaflets promoting Álvaro Delgado, the presidential candidate of the ruling National Party and his running mate, Valeria Ripoll – Credits: @Natacha Pisarenko
The facilities that the country offers to companies and people from abroad allow professionals and their families to settle. As if that wasn’t enough, The charm of the beaches is often cited as an extra. Paraphrasing Vargas Llosa, Uruguay is “Paradise in the other corner”, especially for Argentines.
Seen from the inside, however, Uruguay confirms this information, without denying it, but emphasizing that they are not necessarily on that basis of careless profit that others assign to them. More so in the last part of the elections, where everything is checked.
They know that there are longstanding, difficult to solve, structural, that both left-wing and right-wing governments have not been able to find a satisfactory solution. They know it and they feel it. Problems that limit the possibility of society in the future, so that Uruguay, as one candidate said in this campaign, “The first developed country in Latin America.”
“In the international picture, especially in the regional picture, we came out very well, But we who are here know the problems. They are not small, the truth is that they are not rare,” he explains THE NIGHT the political scientist Adolfo Garcé. And it points out that even at the level of democratic institutions, one of the main foundations, there are shortcomings that invite us to be vigilant and not to rest on our laurels.
A supporter poses as Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou and Uruguayan presidential candidate for the National Party, Álvaro Delgado, have lunch at a restaurant in downtown Montevideo on October 23, 2024 – Credits: @PABLO PORCIUNCULA
When they are asked about the subject, when they register, people mention such problems cost of living, insecurity, level of public education, small market boundaries, lack of opportunities for all.
“Porteños are used to a bigger city, they are faster, and it is true that we are more relaxed compared to that. But we have anxiety problems, going from place to place, like everyone else. Not that we are relaxed all day drinking mate… we are people too“, ironically says Ana Melgar, 23 years old, who studies Nursing at the University of the Republic, the largest in the country.
Therefore, Melgar suffers from the shortcomings of public education: due to the lack of budget and teachers There are classes that are not taught, and the first part of his tenure, which was to last two and a half years, was extended to four.
María Celia Reisch, a retired notary, says she’s fine, but that’s for others “The cost of living and insecurity are terrible, they are the ones that hurt the most, the most obvious by far. ” Jenny Kovacs, a psychologist and teacher, has problems due to delays in appointments for consultations and examinations, even urgent ones, at the mutual health system, “too many people and in problems.”
An engineer says “for everything you do you have to calculate well because everything is very expensive.” A journalist says he would not take children to certain communities because of that “They’re Central America. “ And naming the historical leader more or less from memory Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, of the National Party, a taxi driver says so “If we in this country cannot give a good life to three million inhabitants, we are criminals. “
Uruguayan Vice President Beatriz Argimon and National Party presidential candidate Álvaro Delgado hold a press conference in Montevideo on October 23, 2024 – Credits: @PABLO PORCIUNCULA
The polls confirm these violations related to THE NIGHT. According to studies, the main concerns are insecurity (crime, drug trafficking, criminal gangs) and the economy (cost of living and employment). The change in dissatisfaction was about specific crime, perhaps the area with the biggest decline. Two or three decades ago, the most influential police news of the week was something like “a pharmacy was robbed.” Now they are gang warsshoot a movie.
But how to reconcile the high levels of regional well-being, and the good looks of strangers, with this other view, much more clear? In the end, there is no contradiction. Both are true. The good fortune of some and the salary that is not enough for others. Do it with friends on the way, at sunset, and shoot drug dealers in neighborhoods like Villa Española.
By the way, the outgoing government of Luis Lacalle Pou He leaves with a good image of his management, with almost half of the population seeing it as good or very good. They highlight how he handled the pandemic, that he didn’t lock people down or freeze the economy. And they point out that he knew how to proceed with his accounts in order and return to growth from 2023, after overcoming the worst drought in a century.
However, the years and governments pass, from the Colorado Party to the Broad Front, and vice versa, and the structural evils are still there. Some get better at times, even years, but they come back. What will happen then in Uruguay, with so much in favor and at the same time with so many issues to come? How can we move from undeniable stability, necessary but not sufficient, to authentic economic and social development?
Economists ask themselves this question, and agree on the need to renew the State, because it is not fulfilling its obligations completely. In other words, it fails people. As Hernán Bonilla, director of the Center for Development Studies (CED), said: “There is a series of steps transformation of the state which Uruguay needs today. “This includes a State that is more friendly to the citizen and whose bureaucratic burden is less. “
The presidential candidate of the Frente Amplio, Yamandu Orsi, gives a speech during a campaign event five days before the general elections, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Wednesday, October 22, 2024. (AP Photo / Matilde Campodónico) – Credits : @ Matilde Campodonico
According to Ignacio Munyo, director of the Center for Studies of Economic and Social Legislation (Ceres), “Uruguay is well-led and needs to speed up; progress is not made voluntarily but with measures that promote economic growth, which is necessary to improve the quality of life when it comes hand in hand with good public policies.”
“The State of Uruguay knows how to make goat, it comes out well in the kitchen. The problem is that he too often arrives late and cold. It is in the delivery where the failure is, it is urgent to improve,” said Munyo THE NIGHTreferring to the typical Oriental dish. “Uruguay’s progress on the development path depends on improving the way it is public services “They reach the people.”
Those cold dishes translate into numbers. Munyo, for example, found that 13 groups in the national budget are allocated for housing. For SMEs there are 11. The groups overlap, they complicate each other, they pass the buck. Many procedures and little progress. Things don’t work out and nobody takes responsibility. Who is hurt? The businessman, the worker, the unemployed, the homeless and the homeless: everyone.
As for the high cost of living, another example, economists agree that poorly made regulations and permits have a lot to do with it, which makes essential products more expensive, such as fruit and vegetables, hygiene and cleaning. There is a strange immunity that protects, not the producers, but some importers over others, the only real beneficiaries of the system.
The candidates have dominated these divisions in this presidential campaign, and the urgency to turn them back. Now, it is up to the voters to check again, in the election offer, to see who can promote it.
2024-10-26 18:48:00
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