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.
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 Charrúas. Juan Díaz 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.
