TimesOnline
February 28, 2005
Castro joins Latin American Left to celebrate first win in Uruguay
By Tom Hennigan
Bush policy of isolating Cuba backfires
URUGUAY, once South America’s most prosperous country, plays host to an unlikely gathering of left-wing leaders tomorrow as it prepares to break with 170 years of history and swear in its first socialist President. Tabaré Vázquez, a 65-year-old professor of medicine who was elected last October with 50 per cent of the vote, will be inaugurated as head of the Broad Front coalition, whose biggest component is a party founded by the former Marxist Tupamaro guerrilla movement.
The new head of the country’s Senate is José Mújica, a former Tupamaro leader who was held in a deep well for seven years by his military captors who said he would be executed if the guerrillas killed any more military officers.
With Uruguay joining most of its neighbours in voting the Left into power, Washington loses one of its few remaining close allies in the region. The most visible sign of this change will be the attendance at the handover of Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader and the US’s arch-enemy in the region.
Also expecting a warm welcome in Montevideo is Venezuela’s populist President Hugo Chávez, described by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, as a destabilising influence in the region.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1504140,00.html