Free Again

Rejoining the democratic club

Broad-shouldered, bushy-eyebrowed Julio Maria Sanguinetti, 48, bounded to the platform in the cavernous assembly hall of Montevideo's Colorado Party headquarters and gave a cheering crowd of election-night supporters the good news. "The verdict of the polls indicates we are the majority," he said. "We will not be an arrogant majority. We will have republican humility." With that pledge, President-elect Sanguinetti marked Uruguay's return to civilian government after eleven years of military rule.

Uruguay thus became the latest country in Latin America to replace dictatorship with democracy over the past few years. Others include Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama and Peru. Brazil and Guatemala might join the democratic club next year. In Washington, where Sanguinetti is viewed as a moderate who favors close ties with the U.S., a State Department spokesman praised "the manner in which the elections were conducted."

Uruguay's long democratic tradition was interrupted when a 24-member military junta seized power in 1973 from an ineffectual civilian government. The regime subsequently made a major miscalculation. Confident that Uruguay's 3 million people endorsed their stable but repressive rule, the generals held a referendum four years ago on measures that would have kept them in power. Instead, the proposals were overwhelmingly rejected, and the military eventually agreed to schedule last week's elections--subject to certain conditions. Two leading politicians were barred from running. One was Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, 66, leader of the Blanco Party, a traditionally center-right organization that has been moving leftward; jailed upon returning last June from eleven years of exile, he was freed after last week's election. The other was Liber Seregni, 67, a former army general who heads the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), a coalition of five leftist parties. When the votes were tallied, the Colorados had won a 40% plurality, compared with 34% for the Blancos and 21% for the Frente Amplio. The rest went to a small conservative group.

Sanguinetti, a lawyer, journalist and former Cabinet minister, settled an argument in 1970 with a fellow Colorado Party member by drawing first blood in a saber duel (legal in Uruguay under a 1920 law). He vowed last week as President to take a more conciliatory approach to Uruguay's problems. Said he: "Nobody has a mathematical method to prevent a new coup. The only way is to act maturely."

There is no evidence, however, that the generals are eager to return. "They feel that they have fulfilled their duty and are going out the front door, the job faithfully completed," said a diplomat in Montevideo. That may be, but they are leaving behind some formidable challenges, including a 45% inflation rate, a 15% unemployment level, $5.2 billion in foreign debt, and a police and military establishment so bloated that one of every 43 Uruguayans is in uniform. Nonetheless, Sanguinetti is determined to prove that democracy can work. Said the President-elect, who will take office in March: "We hope these eleven years were nothing more than an accident."