The Presidency of Luis Lacalle Pou refers to Luis Lacalle Pou's tenure as the 42nd president of Uruguay which began on 1 March 2020 following his inauguration until it ended on 1 March 2025. Lacalle Pou, a member of the National Party took office following his victory over the Broad Front nominee Daniel Martínez in the second round of the 2019 general election, which ended the 15-year leftist rule in the country and the return of National Party to the Executive since his own father was the president from 1990 until 1995. On 16 December 2019, after his victory in the second round and before his inauguration, he announced his cabinet consisting of leaders of National, Colorado, Cabildo Abierto and Independent parties, members of the Multicolor Coalition.
Lacalle entered office just days before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which dominated most of the political agenda during the first two years of his presidency. Within the first 100 days, his administration sent a bill to the General Assembly under the label of "Urgent Consideration Law", and after being approved within certain constitutional deadlines, it introduced a series of significant reforms in areas such as public security and criminal law, economic and fiscal policy, and labor and environmental law. In March 2022, almost halfway through Lacalle's term, after an opposition campaign, the electorate was asked in a referendum whether 135 articles of this law should be repealed.
The Lacalle administration carried out a reform of the educational system and the retirement and pension law. In March 2020, "Operation Safe Border" was launched in which thousands of troops from the three branches of the Armed Forces were deployed in the border areas with Brazil and Argentina to combat insecurity, smuggling and drug trafficking. The foreign policy objective of the Lacalle administration is to achieve greater flexibility in the rules of the Southern Common Market to trade outside the bloc and expand the free trade area, which has caused strain within the organization towards its neighbouring countries. Lacalle condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Hamas as terrorism during the Gaza war, as well as accused Nicolás Maduro, Daniel Ortega and Miguel Díaz-Canel of leading dictatorial governments in their respective countries.
During the drought that occurred between 2022 and 2023, Lacalle declared a state of "water emergency" on June 19, 2023 and tax exemptions for bottled water, as well as the construction of a new reservoir and pipeline for water transfer in the San José River. Controversies in Lacalle administration include the Astesiano Case, in which Alejandro Astesiano, former chief custodian, who was dismissed from his position and subsequently arrested for forging Uruguayan identity cards and passports to Russian citizens.
Background Candidacy for the presidency and election
Lacalle Pou, at the time of his election, was a 19-year member of the General Assembly: from 2000 to 2015 he served as a National Representative and from 2015 to 2019 as a Senator. In 2011, he held the position of President of the Chamber of Representatives during the first session of the 47th Legislature. He participated in the 2014 election, being defeated in the second round by Tabaré Vázquez.
Facing the 2019 runoff election, Lacalle Pou led the Coalición Multicolor, an electoral alliance made up of center-right parties. Lacalle Pou and his running-mate, Beatriz Argimón obtained 48.71% of the unofficial vote. Their opponents, Daniel Martínez and Graciela Villar obtained 47.51% of the vote. The Electoral Court of Uruguay would publish the official results by Friday, 29 November 2019, as observed votes were still to be counted, totaling more than the difference between the two candidates, thus being too close to call. Daniel Martinez did not concede the race then, awaiting the official count. Lacalle Pou unofficially declared himself the winner, as the votes already counted marked an irreversible trend. Martínez conceded defeat on 28 November 2019. On 30 November, final votes counts confirmed Lacalle Pou as the winner with 48.8% of the total votes cast over Martínez with 47.3%. Lacalle Pou's victory marked the return of the National Party to power, 30 years after Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera, Lacalle Pou's father, assumed as president.
Several international leaders reacted to Lacalle Pou for his victory. Congratulations came from the President and the elect-President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández, the Acting President of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, the President of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the Peruvian, Martín Vizcarra, the Paraguayan, Mario Abdo Benítez, and the Costa Rican Carlos Alvarado Quesada. In addition, the Mexican Secretary of Foreign, Marcelo Ebrard and the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also congratulated the newly elected president.
Transition On 2 December 2019 president-elect Luis Lacalle Pou met up with outgoing president Tabaré Vázquez in the Executive Tower to begin the transition process. The next day the same process started in the Parliament, between outgoing vice president Lucía Topolansky and Beatriz Argimón.
On 10 December Lacalle Pou travelled together with president Vázquez to attend the inauguration of Argentine president Alberto Fernández. Some days later he publicly announced his predicted cabinet, made up by members of Multicolor Coalition parties.
Inauguration
President Lacalle Pou and Vice President Argimón took office on 1 March 2020. After making the Constitutional Oath after the General Assembly, they paraded from Libertador Avenue travelling in a convertible 1937 Ford V8 that belonged to his great-grandfather Luis Alberto de Herrera. The inauguration tour in Montevideo ended at the Plaza Independencia, where Lacalle Pou received the presidential sash from the outgoing president Tabaré Vázquez.
During his electoral campaign he announced the introduction of a package of public measures through an Urgent Law, a prerogative of the Executive Power in Uruguay that allows the Executive administration send to the General Assembly a bill with a termination period of 90 days after which the bill is automatically approved if the Parliament did not approve nor reject it before that date. On 13 March 2020, less than two weeks of Lacalle's administration being passed, the Ministry of Public Health announced the detection of the first cases of COVID-19 in Uruguay. Due to that, the measures taken by the government to deal with the health emergency delayed the presentation of the project, which finally reached the General Assembly on 23 April 2020.
In the first weeks of started this administration, the Uruguayan authorities had to deal with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, that forced the declaration of national health emergency and the adoption of several exceptional measures.
Cabinet Lacalle Pou's cabinet is made up of members of the parties of the Coalición Multicolor. Its structure was announced on December 16, 2019, at the Dazzler Hotel in Montevideo. From National Party, Alvaro Delgado was going to be appointed as Secretary of the Presidency, Rodrigo Ferrés as Deputy Secretary of the President, Javier García as minister of National Defense, Pablo Bartol as minister of Social Development, Azucena Arbeleche as minister of Economy and Finance, Pablo Da Silveira as minister of Education and Culture, Carlos Uriarte as minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Omar Paganini as minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Jorge Larrañaga as minister of the Interior, and Luis Heber as minister of Transport and Public Works. From Colorado Party, Ernesto Talvi as minister of Foreign Relations and Germán Cardoso as minister of Tourism. From Cabildo Abierto party, Irene Moreira as minister of Housing, Territorial Planning and Daniel Salinas as minister of Public Health. From the Independent party was appointed Pablo Mieres as minister of Labour and Social Welfare.
Due to the resignation of Ernesto Talvi as Minister of Foreign Affairs in early July, Lacalle Pou appointed the former Ambassador of Uruguay to Argentina and Spain, Francisco Bustillo, as head of the ministry.
On 22 May 2021 the minister of the Interior Jorge Larrañaga died of a heart attack. In order to fill the sudden vacancy president Lacalle Pou announced on 24 May the appointment of Luis Alberto Heber as the new minister of the Interior, while the vacancy originated from the transference of Heber was to be filled by José Luis Falero, who in turn left his seat as subdirector of the Office of Planning and Budget.
On 27 June 2021 the fifth change in Lacalle Pou's cabinet has occurred with the replacement of Carlos María Uriarte with Fernando Mattos as the new minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, until then president of the National Institute of Meat, being both members of Colorado party. Cabinet of Luis Lacalle Pou's GovernmentOfficeNamePolitical partyTermMinistry of National DefenseJavier García DuchiniNational1 March 2020 – 4 March 2024Armando CastaingdebatNational4 March 2024 – 1 March 2025Ministry of the InteriorJorge LarrañagaNational1 March 2020 – 22 May 2021Luis Alberto HéberNational24 May 2021 – 4 November 2023Nicolás MartinelliNational6 November 2023 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Foreign RelationsErnesto TalviColorado1 March 2020 – 6 July 2020Francisco Bustillononpartisan politician6 July 2020 – 1 November 2023Omar PaganiniNational6 November 2023 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Economy and FinanceAzucena ArbelecheNational1 March 2020 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Education and CulturePablo Da SilveiraNational1 March 2020 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Public HealthDaniel SalinasOpen Cabildo1 March 2020 – 13 March 2023Karina RandoOpen Cabildo13 March 2023 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Social DevelopmentPablo BartolNational1 March 2020 – 1 May 2021Martín LemaNational3 May 2021 – 4 March 2024Alejandro SciarraNational4 March 2024 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Labour and Social WelfarePablo MieresIndependent1 March 2020 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Transport and Public WorksLuis Alberto HéberNational1 March 2020 – 24 May 2021José Luis FaleroNational25 May 2021 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and FisheriesCarlos María UriarteColorado1 March 2020 – 27 June 2021Fernando MattosColorado27 June 2021 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Industry, Energy and MiningOmar PaganiniNational1 March 2020 – 4 November 2023Elisa FaccioNational6 November 2023 – 1 March 2025Ministry of Housing and Territorial PlanningIrene MoreiraOpen Cabildo1 March 2020 – 5 May 2023Raúl Lozano BonetOpen Cabildo9 May 2023 – 1 March 2025Ministry of TourismGermán CardosoColorado1 March 2020 – 22 March 2021Tabaré VieraColorado23 August 2021 – 11 March 2024Eduardo SanguinettiColorado11 March 2024 – 1 March 2025Ministry of EnvironmentAdrián PeñaColorado27 August 2020 – 30 January 2023Robert BouvierColorado1 February 2023 – 1 March 2025Secretariat of SportsSebastián BauzáNational1 March 2020 – 1 March 2025Secretariat of the PresidencyÁlvaro DelgadoNational1 March 2020 – 21 December 2023Rodrigo FerrésNational21 December 2023 – 1 March 2025Deputy Secretariat of the PresidencyRodrigo FerrésNational1 March 2020 – 21 December 2023Mariana CabreraNational21 December 2023 – 1 March 2025Office of Planning and BudgetIsaac AlfieColorado1 March 2020 – 15 December 2023Fernando BlancoNational15 December 2023 – 1 March 2025
Domestic policy Urgent Consideration Law
Law No. 19889 of urgent consideration, also called "Law of Urgent Consideration" or abbreviated as "LUC", is a law whose bill was announced by President Lacalle Pou during the campaign, which aims to lay the foundations of his administration. This law was the subject of intense political debate between the ruling party and the opposition: