Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: Will pro-market reforms withstand in Uruguay? An unexpected trade boom between Venezuela and a small Brazilian state. And a rapper dancing out his rage.
A key referendum vote for the government in Uruguay
Two years into an opposition-led campaign, Uruguay will finally go to the polls on March 27 to decide whether a massive reform package passed by center-right President Luis Lacalle Pou at the start of his tenure will stand or be repealed.
The reform. Emergency mechanisms were used to pass the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC) through Congress at the start of the pandemic. LUC reforms touch on a wide range of topics including education, policing, gas prices, financial inclusion, land use, labor laws and housing.
- Critics say the reform is an attempt to reduce the state’s role in the economy and reduce the rights of citizens. They disagree with the way in which the bill was fast tracked in 2020, and campaigned for a binding referendum against it.
The vote. To launch the process, center-left party Frente Amplio and the PIT-CNT union got more than 671,500 signatures certified by electoral courts in December, which reached...