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Oriental Republic of Uruguay
National name: RepĂşblica Oriental del Uruguay
President: Tabaré Vázquez (2005)
Current government officials
Land area: 67,035 sq mi (173,621 sq km); total area: 68,039 sq mi (176,220 sq km)
Population (2007 est.): 3,447,496 (growth rate: 0.4%); birth rate: 13.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 11.3/1000; life expectancy: 76.5; density per sq mi: 51
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Montevideo, 1,745,100 (metro. area), 1,347,600 (city proper)
Monetary unit: Uruguay peso
Languages: Spanish, Portunol, or Brazilero
Ethnicity/race: white 88%, mestizo 8%, black 4%
Religions: Roman Catholic 66%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%
Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.)
Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $54.58 billion; per capita $16,000. Real growth rate: 6.1%. Inflation: 4.9%. Unemployment: 12.5%. Arable land: 8%. Agriculture: rice, wheat, corn, barley; livestock; fish. Labor force: 1.52 million; agriculture 14%, industry 16%, services 70%. Industries: food processing, electrical machinery, transportation equipment, petroleum products, textiles, chemicals, beverages. Natural resources: arable land, hydropower, minor minerals, fisheries. Exports: $3.55 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): meat, rice, leather products, wool, fish, dairy products. Imports: $3.54 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery, chemicals, road vehicles, crude petroleum. Major trading partners: U.S., Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, China (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 929,141 (2001); mobile cellular: 350,000 (2001). Radio broadcast stations: AM 91, FM 149, shortwave 7 (2001). Radios: 1.97 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 20 (2001). Televisions: 782,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 14 (2001). Internet users: 400,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 2,073 km (2002). Highways: total: 8,983 km; paved: 8,081 km; unpaved: 902 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 1,600 km; used by coastal and shallow-draft river craft. Ports and harbors: Colonia, Fray Bentos, Juan La Caze, La Paloma, Montevideo, Nueva Palmira, Paysandu, Punta del Este, Piriapolis. Airports: 64 (2002).
International disputes: uncontested dispute with Brazil over certain islands in the Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada streams and the resulting tripoint with Argentina.
Geography
Uruguay, on the east coast of South America south of Brazil and east of Argentina, is comparable in size to Oklahoma. The country consists of a low, rolling plain in the south and a low plateau in the north. It has a 120-mile (193 km) Atlantic shoreline, a 235-mile (378 km) frontage on the Rio de la Plata, and 270 mi (435 km) on the Uruguay River, its western boundary.
Government
Constitutional republic.
History
Prior to European settlement, Uruguay was inhabited by indigenous people, the CharrĂşas. Juan DĂaz de Solis, a Spaniard, visited Uruguay in 1516, but the Portuguese were first to settle it when they founded the town of Colonia del Sacramento in 1680. After a long struggle, Spain wrested the country from Portugal in 1778, by which time almost all of the indigenous people had been exterminated. Uruguay revolted against Spain in 1811, only to be conquered in 1817 by the Portuguese from Brazil. Independence was reasserted with Argentine help in 1825, and the republic was set up in 1828.
A revolt in 1836 touched off nearly 50 years of factional strife, including an inconclusive civil war (1839–1851) and a war with Paraguay (1865–1870), accompanied by occasional armed intervention by Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay, made prosperous by meat and wool exports, founded a welfare state early in the 20th century under President José Batlle y Ordóñez, who ruled from 1903 to 1929. A decline began in the 1950s as successive governments struggled to maintain a large bureaucracy and costly social benefits. Economic stagnation and left-wing terrorist activity followed.
A military coup ousted the civilian government in 1973. The military dictatorship that followed used fear and terror to demoralize the population, taking thousands of political prisoners. After ruling for 12 years, the brutal military regime permitted election of a civilian government in Nov. 1984 and relinquished rule in March 1985; full political and civil rights were then restored.
Subsequent leaders contended with high inflation and a mammoth national debt. Presidential and legislative elections in Nov. 1994 resulted in a narrow victory for the center-right Colorado Party and its presidential candidate, Julio Sanguinetti Cairolo, who had been president in 1985–1990. He pushed for constitutional and economic reforms aimed at reducing inflation and the size of the public sector, including tax increases and privatization. In Nov. 1999 Jorge Batlle, of the Colorado Party, won the presidency.
In 2002, Uruguay entered its fourth year of recession. Economic troubles in neighboring Argentina caused a staggering 90% drop in tourism. Batlle also faced a sizable budget deficit, a growing public debt, and a weakening of the peso on international markets. The country's economic outlook began improving in 2003. In a Dec. 2003 referendum, 60% of the electorate voted against opening up the state oil monopoly to foreign investment. In Oct. 2004, Tabaré Vázquez of the Socialist Broad Front won 50.7% of the vote; he took office in March 2005. It was the left’s first national victory in Uruguay.
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