The EconomistFebruary 22nd 2020 351A
t hiscampaign headquarters on Arti-
gas Boulevard, named after Uruguay’s
founding hero, the man who hopes to be its
next one was energised. Luis Lacalle Pou,
the country’s conservative president-elect,
is 46 years old but looks younger, with flop-
py brown hair, no jacket and sleeves rolled
up. Days ahead of his swearing-in on March
1st, in an interview with The Economist, Mr
Lacalle Pou set out a wide range of plans,
from relaxing immigration rules to cutting
public spending. But what obsessed him
most of all was tackling a recent surge in
crime (see chart on next page). He lament-
ed that just down the road were “no-go ar-
eas” overrun with violence. “It’s time to
take back the streets,” he said, “by force if
need be.”
The first step was to take back power.
Last November, in a run-off, Mr Lacalle Pou
narrowly defeated Daniel Martínez, the
candidate of the Broad Front, a leftist co-
alition that had ruled Uruguay for 15 years.
(The last president from Mr Lacalle Pou’s
National Party was his father, in the 1990s.)
The Broad Front had maintained economic
and constitutional stability, and liberal-
ised marijuana use and same-sex marriage.
But it also presided over sharp rises in pub-
lic employment, the fiscal deficit and viol-
ent crime. The homicide rate in Uruguay, a
traditionally safe country of about 3.5m,
shot up by 46% in 2018, to 11.8 per 100,000
people, lower than Brazil’s but higher than
Argentina’s. Mr Lacalle Pou’s coalition
blames lax policing and light sentencing.
“Not even priests feel safe here,” says
Mercedes Rossi, a housewife in the work-
ing-class quarter of Casavalle, 20 minutes
from downtown Montevideo, the capital.
“The delinquents rule this neighbourhood
with guns and knives.” Such fears helped
Mr Lacalle Pou win.
So it is unsurprising that he sounds so
gung-ho about security. His appointment
of Jorge Larrañaga, an experienced politi-
cian and longtime rival within his own
party, as interior minister, was further con-
firmation. The incoming minister has
promised a “very tough hand”, and his re-
cord suggests as much. Last year Mr Larra-
ñaga pushed a “Live Without Fear” plebi-scite, which proposed harsh measures:
deploying soldiers to fight crime, encour-
aging night raids by police and imposing
draconian prison sentences. That initiative
failed, by 47% to 53%.
But its proposals may be revived, with
minor alterations. Mr Lacalle Pou said his
government intends to deploy paramili-
tary units from the existing Republican
Guard and a new National Guard, as well as
double some sentences for serious crimes.
This is part of an emergency package to ad-
dress public safety but also housing, edu-
cation and the budget. With coalition part-
ners, the new president can probably push
it through. “This will not be brutal,” Mr La-
calle Pou insisted; “it will be decisive in giv-
ing people security again.” The opposition
disagrees. Carolina Cosse, a politician in
the Broad Front, decries the tough-on-
crime measures as “an authoritarian attack
on democracy”. Her colleagues are sup-
porting planned strikes to coincide with
congressional debate on the legislation.The man who would bin bureaucrats
The incoming government has economic
woes, too. It will inherit a budget deficit of
about 4.7% of gdpand anaemic growth.
This is in part because Uruguay tends to
suffer economically when next-door Ar-
gentina and Brazil do. As a candidate, Mr
Lacalle Pou, who is pro-business and pro-
austerity, favoured fiscal discipline. He
committed to reducing public spending by
$1bn. Cuts will come, he has promised,
from government jobs and infrastructure,
not services in what is often regarded as
Latin America’s oldest welfare state. None-Uruguay’s next president
Changing the guard
MONTEVIDEO
In an interview, Uruguay’s president-elect promises a tough hand on crime
The Americas
36 Pipeline protestsAlso in this section— Bello is away