Tabaré Vázquez

Early career and Intendant of Montevideo

Vázquez, an avid football fan, was president of the Club Progreso team from 1979 to 1989.

From 1990 to 1995, Vázquez was the Frente Amplio coalition's first Intendant of Montevideo. In that post, he carried out the functions of both the mayor of the city and governor of the department.

In 1994, he made an unsuccessful run for president as the Frente Amplio candidate. He actually finished with the most votes of the candidates in the field, more than 120,000 votes ahead of the next-highest vote-getter, former president Julio Maria Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party. However, under the multi-candidate Ley de Lemas system then in effect, Sanguinetti won the election, since he was the highest-finishing candidate of the party winning the most votes. Still, Vázquez turned in the best showing of a third-party candidate since the restoration of the presidential system in 1967; he only had 12,100 fewer votes than the combined vote of the second-place National Party.

In 1996, he was elected leader of the Frente Amplio, replacing the historic leader of the left-wing coalition, Líber Seregni. He ran again unsuccessfully for president in 1999. In the first election held after Uruguay scrapped the Ley de Lemas system, he led the field in the first round, with 40.1 percent of the vote. He lost the runoff to Colorado candidate Jorge Batlle, taking 45.9 percent of the vote.

First presidency of Uruguay (2005–2010)

In the 2004 elections, he won 50.45% of the valid votes, enough to win the presidency in a single round. He became the country's first president from a left-wing party, and thus the first one since the 1830s who was not a member of the National (Blanco) or Colorado parties. He also had the support of the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, likewise a centre-left democratic socialist.

Among the most complex issues that dominated his administration was an ongoing conflict with Argentina over potential contamination from pulp mills being built on the Uruguayan side of the Uruguay River. He even asked Bush for help in the event of an armed conflict with Argentina.

Vázquez was the first President of Uruguay to visit New Zealand and South Korea, and he established contacts with other countries in Southeast Asia. While he maintained cordial relations with the United States, hosting U.S. President George W. Bush, Vázquez did not sign Bush's failed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

This visit attracted a measure of censure from the opposition, from Pedro Bordaberry and others, who were critical of Vázquez for having chosen to be in Cuba during a commemoration – which Vázquez himself initiated – for the victims of the 1973–1985 dictatorship; Bordaberry's father, Juan María Bordaberry, established the dictatorship with a 1973 decree dissolving Congress.

In 2007 the loading of Iranian arms onto a Uruguayan Navy vessel visiting Venezuela, in contravention of a UN-sponsored arms embargo, provoked international comment. The domestic controversy regarding this event was centred on protests against Vázquez's Government by the opposition National Party.

In June 2008 President Vázquez visited Cuba. While in Cuba, Vázquez and the Presidential party engaged in a number of high-profile events, including a summit with President Raúl Castro.

In June 2009 President Vázquez, who had been courting diplomatically the Bolivian President Evo Morales, announced his support for the delisting of coca leaves from the category of a "dangerous drug".

In February 2010 the Vázquez Government was cooperating with an investigation to explain how two Northrop F-5E jet engines valued at many millions of U.S. dollars had surfaced in Uruguay.

Tabaré Vázquez and his government have pursued a centre-left economic policy. Between 2005 and 2008, the minimum wage rose from 1,350 pesos to 4,150 pesos ($70 to $200), while poverty fell from 30.9 per cent to 12.7 per cent of the population and unemployment from 11.3 per cent to 7 per cent.

Official visits

This is a list of official visits abroad made by Vázquez during his first term in office, from 1 March 2005 to 1 March 2010:

2008

Popularity

According to an Equipos/MORI opinion poll his approval had fallen to 44% by April 2007, a level below the electoral support he received in the 2004 elections. His approval later recovered, however, reaching 80% by his last term in office.

In October 2006, President Vázquez was still personally more popular than his government with a 62% approval rating. However, a considerable drop in the government's popularity was registered by an Equipos/MORI poll in late April 2007, showing that 44% of Uruguayans approved of his administration. A new poll by Factum showed a 57% approval by June 2008, however, indicating a significant recovery from a year earlier.

2009 presidential election

The Constitution of Uruguay does not allow presidents to run for immediate reelection. With this in mind, in January 2008, members of the ruling coalition made proposals to amend the document in order to allow Vázquez to run again in 2009, however Vázquez ruled out a 2009 run. José Mujica was elected in November 2009 as president and Vázquez was offered to resume the presidency of the Frente Amplio but he declined. Vázquez went on to be the Frente Amplio candidate for presidency in 2014.

On 4 December 2008, Vázquez resigned his leadership posts at the Socialist Party due to controversy over his opposition to abortion rights.

Second presidency of Uruguay (2015–2020)

In February 2010, a poll showed that he would finish the term ended on 1 March 2010 with an historic 61% of the approval. Vázquez finally left office with an 80% approval rating. He formally accepted his candidacy for the 2014 election in February 2013. Renominated by the Broad Front for the presidency with running mate Raúl Fernando Sendic on 1 June, he came up just a few thousand votes short of winning the presidency outright in 26 October election. He was returned to office in the 30 November runoff, defeating right-wing candidate Luis Lacalle Pou of the National Party by 53% to 41% in the second round. Vázquez took office on 1 March 2015, succeeding José Mujica. After assuming the position, he also became the President pro tempore of UNASUR until 23 April 2016, as he succeeded at the same time José Mujica who was holding the presidency of this international organization. On 9 September 2017, his running mate and Vice President Raúl Fernando Sendic resigned after he was accused allegedly of misusing public funds while heading state oil company Ancap. Sendic's bad image began with a scandal over his non-existent degree in Human Genetics in 2016, and deeply damaged the image of Vázquez and his government which already suffered from historically low approval.

During his second presidency he spent much of his efforts on fighting non-communicable diseases. The Pan American Health Organization named him Public Health Hero of the Americas in 2018 in recognition of his work.

Personal life and death

Vázquez married María Auxiliadora Delgado on 23 October 1964 in the Montevideo parish of Los Vascos. She died of a heart attack on 31 July 2019. They had three biological children together and an adopted son.

On 20 August 2019, President Vázquez revealed that he suffered from a lung nodule with malignant appearance. Nevertheless, he announced his intention of finishing his presidential term on 1 March 2020 as planned. At mid-November, it was confirmed by authorities of the Public Health Ministry that his lung cancer was cured. On 27 November 2020, the rumor spread of his worsening state of health and a Republica journalist announced that his cancer had metastasized to the pancreas. That day, his son reported that his father was in home hospitalization after suffering an acute thrombosis in his left leg, but was recovering.

He died of lung cancer in Montevideo on 6 December 2020, at age 80. President Luis Lacalle Pou declared three days of national mourning following his death and said that Uruguay "lost a prominent scientist and a citizen defender of human rights". His funeral was held in "intimacy" due to the COVID-19 pandemic and he was buried at Cementerio de La Teja in Montevideo alongside his wife. During the funeral procession, thousands of people took to the streets to see him off to applause and cheers. The night before a national applause was called from the balconies.

Honours and awards

National honours

Foreign honours

WHO recognition

Vázquez was awarded the World Health Organization Director-General's Award in 2006 in recognition of his leadership on tobacco control in Uruguay, which has implemented some of the most stringent tobacco control measures in the world.