Dark days for Uruguay's OnceDominant Partido Colorado.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
The steady loss of its principal figures--either to death, retirement, or defection--has left Uruguay's historic Partido Colorado (Colorado Party) leaderless, without representation in the legislature, ideologically blurred, and in a crisis that could prove to be terminal, some analysts warn.
Over the course of 2016, national senators and deputies, as well as a number of departmental leaders, left the party en masse to join the recently created Partido de la Gente (Party of the People). And October saw the death of Jorge Batlle Ibanez, the last Colorado figure to serve as president (2000-2005) and an important ideologue for the conservative party.
More recently, on April 19, the Partido Colorado's leading figure, Sen. Pedro Bordaberry, made the surprising announcement that he would retire from politics. Without offering explanations, he flew to Europe for a strictly private trip. From there, he said he would finish up his term in the legislature but not run for any elected position in 2019. Bordaberry also said he was giving up his leadership position in the party. Just 36 days later, the man who replaced Bordaberry as party head, Sen. German Cardoso, made a similar announcement, leaving the historic party leaderless and at a complicated crossroads.
Within the context of Uruguayan and even Latin American politics, this is no minor development. The Partido Colorado, formed in 1836 together with the Partido Nacional (National Party), set up what proved to be the region's most solid democracy. Since then, the democracy has been interrupted just twice by "dictablandas"--soft dictatorships, in which basic civil liberties are maintained--and once by an actual dictatorship (1973-1985). The Colorados governed uninterrupted until 1958. In the early part of the 20th century, the party laid the foundations of a modern, laic state with advanced social and labor laws that set Uruguay apart on a continental and global level.
The Partido Colorado's election numbers since the return to democracy seem to bear out what political scientists describe as a "process of extinction." In 1984, when the dictators were forced to hold elections before handing over power, the party came out on top with slightly more than 41% of the vote. But in 2004, after a number of ups and downs, the Colorados won just 10%.
With the rise of Bordaberry as a major political figure, the Colorados fared better in the 2009 elections, winning 17% of the vote, but slipped again in 2014...
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