Uruguay, the "younger brother" of Argentina

A large part of Argentines admires the political and economic stability of Uruguay, a neighboring country with which, however, there is also a rather cartoonish rivalry that is expressed above all in soccer matters.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 January 2023 Monday 05:52
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Uruguay, the "younger brother" of Argentina

A large part of Argentines admires the political and economic stability of Uruguay, a neighboring country with which, however, there is also a rather cartoonish rivalry that is expressed above all in soccer matters. And politics, especially when both nations are led by governments of different sign, as is the case.

The latest controversy between the two nations has been carried out by the Minister of Economy of Argentina, Sergio Massa, who aspires to be the unitary candidate of Peronism in the presidential elections next October.

In a press conference at the Casa Rosada with his Brazilian counterpart, in the hours prior to the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), which took place yesterday in Buenos Aires, Massa was asked about the role each time Uruguay's most independent in Mercosur. The Argentine minister could not think of another response than to despise his neighbor. “Uruguay is a younger brother of Mercosur. Brazil and Argentina have the responsibility of taking care of it like the older brothers that they are”, declared the minister.

Fed up with the political instability in Argentina -and also in Brazil during the government of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro-, Uruguay decided after the coming to power of the liberal president Luis Lacalle Pou to distance itself from Mercosur and start holding trade negotiations with third countries, something expressly prohibited by the South American block formed, in addition by Paraguay and Venezuela, which is temporarily suspended. The Uruguayan government is already negotiating a free trade agreement with China, which especially upsets the Casa Rosada.

As was foreseeable, Massa's statements were transferred to Lacalle Pou at the press conference that he held in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. The Uruguayan president did not want to argue with the Argentine minister and, after smiling, limited himself to responding: "It looks like Disneyland."

The Disney fantasy in which Massa and a good part of the Peronist leaders seem to live was exposed by other Uruguayan politicians, such as the senator of the ruling National Party, Sebastián Da Silva, who tweeted: “Thank you, Massa. But I don't think any Uruguayan wants to be careful with a Minister of the Economy who has a dollar trading at 350 pesos”. Da Silva put his finger on the sore point, noting the overwhelming depreciation of the Argentine peso, which has the inhabitants of the other bank of the Río de la Plata fighting every day against inflation that closed 2022 at 94.8%.