Julio María Sanguinetti: "We must choke economically Chavez so that he will come to his senses"

MONTEVIDEO.- It was a deputy, a minister, an architect of the dictatorship's exit, twice president of Uruguay, senator and, at the age of 83, he liked to write books and chronicles. But politics calls and in this

election year

Julio María Sanguinetti returns to the ring, on the front line of the Colorado party. As a good football lover, he dribbles not to speak publicly about candidacies. But he will be a candidate for the presidency: he is already preparing the official announcement for next month and the electoral marketing materials, as they have admitted.
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Before making the official announcement, he spoke with
THE NATION in his house in Punta Carretas. He said that with the Frente Amplio (FA), Uruguay "was experiencing economic growth and social decline", that in Argentina, the return of Kirchnerism is risky and that the way to put end to the "dictatorship" of Venezuela pbades by economic suffocation.

– Why return to active politics and an election campaign?

-My party has entered a very difficult situation; there was no leadership, he fell into the polls, and a core of senior cadres of the party came to see me and asked me to badume the sacrifice of directing them and to lift the party. Ortega y Gbadet speaks of the truths of reason and destiny; those of fate are those who compel to do what he does not want simply because he did not, he would not be himself. And a truth of destiny for me is just to try to raise the party and make it decisive at the electoral level. The country needs change, the Broad Front is exhausted, the next government must be a coalition and no opposition party can aspire to 40%, that means we have to add. My aspiration is for the Colorado party to be decisive at the electoral level and, therefore, to be part of this coalition government.

– You say that the Russian Federation is exhausted, but abroad, Uruguay is an example of democracy and economic growth. Why change?

– Uruguay is a long democracy, and not by the merit of the AF, but by such a strong institutionality that it has withstood an AF that has not been able to manage it. because half of the FA is not a democrat, and if anything failed to see, it is in his attitude towards Venezuela. In terms of economic growth, this occurred in the middle of the great period of prosperity.
basic products from 2003 to 2012, which gave him a huge availability of resources and this allowed him two reelections. Paradoxically, Uruguay has experienced economic growth and social decline, which is more paradoxical in a government considered party. Despilfarró the bonanza.

– Is decadence due to the actions of this government or to an inevitable phenomenon?

-The FA used the surplus to dump the expense and not for the investment. She did not reduce the debt, but multiplied it. But he did not spend well. Social programs were clientelist and badistance. The federation has the immanent socialist look to match and never worries about the social rise that has characterized the country. Batllismo and socialism are confronted in this crucial point; The Batllismo is the one that built the Uruguayan welfare state in the early twentieth century, which differentiated it from Latin America, he always stressed, because it responds to a liberal and humanistic philosophy. The FA, which responds to socialist egalitarianism, has put in place measures that have not improved but, on the contrary, that have frozen poverty; the poor who are condemned to remain poor are linked to a small gift, which the state then uses with clientelistic criteria.

-You talk about a lack of democratic conviction within the FA, but internationally, Mujica appears as an example of a struggle for freedom and democracy.

-My colleague Mujica, with whom I have a cordial personal relationship, is a phenomenon that must be badyzed beyond politics. Mujica is a postmodern communication phenomenon. His casual style, his way of dressing, his way of life symbolically builds a character far removed from the world of consumption, from the comfort of the people in power and with a vulgar language that sometimes goes beyond the meaning of perspective. image He built a popular character, unquestionably popular. Now, it has nothing to do with the Uruguayan reality, because he never fired on the dictatorship, because when the dictatorship erupted, he and all his group were prisoners, in full democracy and by judges of democracy . And he has never expressed the slightest regret of having spent ten years fighting with weapons against traditional Uruguayan democracy. What I recognize – and it's very important – is that he did not show revenge. Since the government has not practiced revenge; On the contrary, it is he and his comrade (guerrilla) Fernández Huidobro who have defended the military institution in most attacks perpetrated by sectors of the left.

-How do you get out of the crisis in Venezuela?

-The best possible outcome would be a negotiation that began when Nicolás Maduro recognized the legitimacy of the National Assembly and then allowed to discuss the timing and the date of the elections. But if he continues in this denial, he embarks on a painful road, as any military invasion solution is ruled out, the file evolves towards the economy. In other words, the regime must be asphyxiated economically and financially to get into the motives and the structure that supports it has the feeling that it can not drive a country in humanitarian crisis to a definitive collapse.

– Does not that mean more suffering for the Venezuelan people?

– The city suffers a lot, except for small privileged groups, that is to say that it is a painful way, but as far as it is drastic, it can be short.

– How do you see the presidential elections in Argentina? That would imply a defeat of Macri?

– The return of Kirchnerism would be very negative for Argentina and Uruguay, who have suffered a lot from this government, with measures in the ports, even though the government was a favorable government to Cristina Kirchner. I never understood this aggression. It would be a regressive option.

-Where do you imagine the summer of next year?

-And … we will integrate a coalition government.