Uruguay's incoming President Yamandu Orsi and Vice President Carolina Cosse ride in an open car on Inauguration Day, in Montevideo, Uruguay, March 1, 2025
YAMANDU ORSI pledged to strengthen Uruguay’s social safety net and end years of economic stagnation as he became president on Saturday.
The inauguration of the former mayor and history teacher marks the return of Uruguay’s Broad Front – a mix of communists, trade unionists and moderates – after a five-year interruption by the country’s outgoing right-wing president, Luis Lacalle Pou.
Cheers erupted as Mr Orsi recited his oath of office before Congress on Saturday in Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo. Outside the chamber, in the city’s main square, thousands watching his swearing-in on giant screens shouted in support.
The disputed election of a far-right president, who is also a US citizen, signals further consolidation of Washington’s regional power and represents a threat to the country’s democracy and sovereignty, writes WT WHITNEY JNR
Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD