By Yaimi Ravelo on November 26, 2024
photos: Frente Amplio
“We have nothing to expect but that which comes from ourselves.”
This past Sunday, there was so much news happening in the world including the war of the US and NATO allies against Russia, the Zionist attacks in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, among others. In our region, the media marked the day by focusing on the second round of the presidential elections in Uruguay.
With the proliferation of the Latin American right wing and its fascist direction that is destabilizing peace and respectful relations between our nations, a triumph of the left in the South of our America has a great significance for those of us who continue in the front line of the battle against imperialism.
The night gave us the news of the victory of the Frenteamplista candidate, Yamandú Orsi-Carolina Cosse, who will govern Uruguay for the next five years. His victory marks a hope for the people of that country who have suffered the effects of neoliberalism brought about by the governments of the extreme right.
Resumen Latinoamericano spoke with Gabriela Cultelli, a prominent Uruguayan intellectual who is director of the Alternative Media Mate Amargo and Coordinator of the Uruguayan Chapter and the feminist collective “Libertadoras-” of the Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity (REDH), she is also a member of the Central Committee of the MLN-Tupamaros, among other positions that enrich her militancy.
-Comrade first let me extend mycongratulations for this triumph. Could you share with our readers how you experienced these elections in Uruguay?
On election day everything was calm, we militants voted early and then we took on one task or another, covering voting circuits as party delegates, taking people to vote in our cars or vehicles, handing out ballot papers, etc. But all was quiet, a quietness that was turning into anxiety as the voting closing time approached.”
We here and like much of the town, awaited the moment in a large family reunion.
The results, according to the exit polls, would not be announced until 20:30. We already had favorable news from before, at that time one and another TV channel gave the victory to Yamandú Orsi and the hugs were not long in coming, the shouts of joy and we went out to the street. We could already hear the honking of horns on the avenue two blocks away and we crossed paths with neighbors who waved and greeted us.
We arrived at the nearest avenue and at every corner the neighbors were gathering, it was a tremendous euphoria. A few more blocks and we arrived at the meeting point that usually occurs in this neighborhood given the crossing of two avenues. There, yes, the 4 corners full of people, the passing buses and vehicles with flags and fists raised, the People United will never be defeated! came from the depths of the hearts, young people hugged each other, children waved flags, and even the baby of the family gave happy cries.
“We learned that all Montevideo was mobilized like this, block by block, corner by corner, square by square.
In the center, a friend told me that they spent about 2 hours in her car for a brief tour, a crowd also mobilized in the area of the Rambla destined for the celebrations, although as I said, the celebrations took place everywhere. And they also took place in the interior of the country, where the voting was much better than in 2019. Dancing, euphoria, contained and emotional crying.
But the electoral process was much longer. Last year we held a congress of the Frente Amplio where we defined the programmatic lines among all of us, among the delegates of the Base Committees and the sectors that make up the left political coalition.
Now there will be no other option but to respect it, and to answer for all that people who this Sunday got rid of a corrupt government, which if it had lasted 5 more years, would have destroyed our country. A government that was defined in defense of the “gold mesh”, as the outgoing president himself said referring, in cycling language, to those who have the most, and that brought us 5 years where the richest became richer and the poorest became poorer.
The internal elections of the parties in June of this year and the election of the different presidential formulas, raised the left with Yamandú Orsi to the presidency and Carolina Cosse to the vice-presidency. Campaigns started earlier, and already in March the movement was having an impact.
Then the October elections that defined a senate and a general assembly favorable to the Frente Amplio, and where if the electoral law had not been set up by the right wing, the presidency and vice presidency of the Republic would have already been defined there, since the Frente Amplio obtained 44% of the votes and a difference with the right wing candidate of 16 percentage points.
By November, all the right wing was united…but all the progressive forces were too, achieving the popular triumph by 50% against 45.8% and a difference of 95,502 votes with 35,761 votes still to be counted. A small difference, but a difference nonetheless”.
– How do you characterize the importance of this victory for the people of Uruguay?
When the poverty that increases the most is child poverty, and that the left, even with all its contradictions, returns to the government, it becomes crucial.
“Don’t Give Up”
As we were saying, the possibility of other forms of wealth distribution opens with greater force, and a great part of it is in our hands. Last time we multiplied by 4 the number of unionized workers and that is important, without organized people and without fear of losing their jobs, with a structure like the Wage Councils, tripartite, where the State does not get to twist the balance to the side of the bosses, it is possible to advance. And we can also advance in rights, with a society organized through the different social movements, and in this point we can advance as well.
I am of the old Artiguista idea that “we have nothing to expect but from ourselves” and the point is that, that with the Frente Amplio the possibilities are other, without forgetting the issue of security and the confrontation to drug trafficking.”
-In the context of the rise of fascism in Latin America, what meaning do you give to the victory of the Frente Amplio?
For Uruguay, whoever likes it and whoever dislikes it, the Frente Amplio is by definition and since its foundation anti-imperialist. We will have to re-discuss, as we always do, its meaning to be relavent today.
It emerges from the program of the Frente Amplio, on page 97 that says“We live in a world where US imperialism and its NATO allies put the survival of the planet at risk. We must show solidarity with the peoples who face these aggressions, as well as all forms of imperialism, putting our efforts into the construction of a multipolar world”.
I believe that this time we can do it, from here in Uruguay we will put some sticks in the wheel to the advance of the right wing and especially of fascism in the Region, if we, the frenteamplistas, know how to comply with the postulates of our congress.
And as our National Anthem says: “We will know how to comply.”
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – Havana