Former Uruguyan leader compares country, Argentina

Jorge Batlle, the former Uruguayan President, yesterday alleged that his country is setting on “the same political and economic path as Argentina,” fostering a social “polarization” between “good” and “bad.”

In an interview with Uruguayan daily El País, the former head of state argued the José Mujica administration is preparing “a sort of final armageddon, the final battle,” dividing the country in “two great pieces,” in which the president’s Broad Front party would be on the “good side.”

“This is what has been fostered in Argentina through its President. That is what it is about, trying to polarize the country... saying that simply everything that comes from the other side must be dismissed because it is bad, and everything that comes from this side must be accepted because it is good,” Batlle affirmed, arguing this to be Mujica’s “central political policy.”

The Red Party member also commented that “from an external point of view, there can be no blame for anyone for Argentina having 25 percent inflation,” assuring that Uruguay’s being at “over nine percent” was a similar case, because neither country respects “the economy.”

Batlle referred to Tabaré Vázquez, who is expected to run for president in a year and a half’s time as the Broad Front candidate, as cowardly for not admitting his ambitions and holding out to “know what will happen with the economy, and if it will explode before he is elected.”

Ten years ago, while president, Batlle courted controversy when he described Argentines as “a gang of thieves, from first to last,” after which he was obliged to apologize.

—Herald with El País, Ambito.com