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Brazil & Southern Cone - November 2016 (ISSN 1741-4431)

Battling Batlle dies: the last of a political dynasty

Uruguay’s former president, Jorge Batlle (2000-2005), passed away at the age of 88 on 24 October. The scion of a political family, Batlle was heavily involved in politics right up until the time of his death, having been hospitalised for the 10 days beforehand after sustaining a fall that caused a brain haemorrhage during an event in Tacuarembó for his beloved Partido Colorado (PC). Just days before his fall, the octogenarian Batlle argued that there was no chance of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the European Union (EU) signing an inter-bloc trade deal, and called for Uruguay to leave Mercosur so that it could negotiate bilateral trade accords more easily. But Batlle, outspoken and outlandish, is perhaps best remembered for an unguarded comment that Argentines are “a bunch of thieves from the first to the last”.

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