Throughout most of this century, Uruguay has had a relatively stable political system dominated by the two traditional conservative parties, the Blancos and the Colorados. In the late 1960s, a deterioration in the economic situation led to an increase in the social movements. In the early 1970s the Tupamaro National Liberation Movement was established by militants who had been involved in other left groups. AMERICO ROCCO, a Tupamaros Central Committee member and International Committee member of the Frente Amplio, was interviewed for 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly by ROBERTO JORQUERA.
Can you describe the history of the Tupamaros and the Frente Amplio?
Following the formation of the Tupamaros in the late 1970s, a new urban guerilla organisation was established which attempted to mobilise a mass movement by supporting the popular movements throughout the country.
In 1968 Jorge Pacheco Areco's government, yielding to IMF prescriptions, had curtailed the purchasing power of wage-earners and tried to eliminate the bargaining power of trade unions. At that time the left was divided. In the 1971 elections the Frente Amplio, or Broad Front, first appears on the ballot paper. For the first time the entire left movement united in one group including the Socialist Party, Communist Party, Revolutionary Workers Trotskyist party, Christian Democrats and a number of independent activists.
This unity enabled the left to establish a permanent body which eventually led to the setting up of the Frente Amplio which would go beyond simply running in elections.
The base committees of the Frente Amplio are important to its coalition character; they decide the statutes and general principles, which are then taken to the plenaries and congresses of the Frente Amplio.
In the 1971 elections, for the first time, the left scored a significant vote. A number of similar electoral options were presented, the two most important being the Socialist Party and the Communist Party. Both these parties ran in an alliance with other lefts and together they received 80,000 votes. By contrast, the Frente Amplio scored 300,000 votes, a qualitative increase in the left's vote even though it came behind the establishment parties' combined vote of 1,300,000.
After the 1971 national elections, President Juan Bordaberry and the armed forces staged a coup d'etat on June 27, 1973. The Frente Amplio and the rest of the left were demobilised as a massive crackdown began, which included the dissolving of parliament. A large number of militants and left activists were forced into exile. However, left groups and the Frente Amplio managed to maintain their structures.
The dictatorship of Aparicio Mendez, which succeed Bordaberry in 1976, collapsed in 1981 following mass mobilisations in which the Frente Amplio was involved. In the semi-democratic 1985 elections, the Frente Amplio managed to increase its vote to 400,000. However, the conservative Colorado party won.
In 1989 another national election, slightly more democratic, was held. At the same time there was a major split in the Frente Amplio, with the centre faction forming a new group called New Space. The Frente was still able to maintain its support; the New Space gained only 170,000 votes.
The economic situation got notably worse after the elections due to the government's neo-liberal economic policies.
What campaigns is the Frente Amplio undertaking and what is its platform for the November elections?
To date, the Frente Amplio's greatest success was winning municipal government elections in 1989 for the capital city, Montevideo, which makes up almost half of the national population of 3 million. This first period of consolidation has provided the left with some very valuable experiences.
Our major campaigns have forced national referendums on a number of social issues. For example, we campaigned against the introduction of a federal law which would protect military personnel accused of human rights abuses. This campaign included many significant political mobilisations against the government in the late 1980s.
Another victory happened when the population voted against a law that would allow government enterprises to be privatised. This has forced the government to slow down its privatisation campaign.
The problem caused by the massive external debt is another issue which urgently needs to be tackled. A popular government under the Frente Amplio would begin to renegotiate the debt, incurred by the private sector, with the appropriate bodies.
What is your opinion of the annual Latin America-wide meetings, the Sao Paulo Forum, which will be held in Montevideo in April 1995?
The forum started in 1990 with only 40 organisations present. In the fourth meeting it increased to 112 organisations and 25 observers from Latin America and many more from around the world. It has become a vital meeting place for the left and progressive forces in Latin America. It has brought together a number of different forces who want to fight the neo-liberal economic strategy.
In 1994 a number of elections in Latin America will give left forces, including the Workers Party (PT) in Brazil, the opportunity to win government. The victory of a centre-left current in Venezuela earlier this year is also very promising. The Frente Grande in Argentina has also been able to win power in the Buenos Aires municipal elections. These developments make the forum an important meeting place for the left.