Brazil & Southern Cone - June 2012 (ISSN 1741-4431)

President José Mujica might have expected some ill-feeling but he clearly was not prepared for the outpouring of indignation from the moderate wing of the ruling left-wing coalition Frente Amplio (FA) that greeted his decision to change his cabinet this month. There was nothing moderate about the reaction of the Frente Líber Seregni (FLS) faction of the FA when Mujica dismissed his tourism and sports minister, Héctor Lescano, a close ally of Vice-President Danilo Astori, who leads the FLS. Its main concern was loss of influence in government but it forcefully argued that firing the most successful minister in the cabinet was a serious error of judgement by Mujica, especially when tourism is such an important industry in Uruguay, a Mecca for Argentines in the summer.

Mujica explained his decision to replace Lescano on the grounds that it was sensible to make alterations during good times rather than a crisis. He added that he had to bear in mind that he belonged to a political project which would extend beyond his term in office.

Deputies from the parties within Astori’s FLS responded that Mujica’s explanation defied logic. They said tourism had been positively booming in the seven years Lescano had been in the position (he also served under the previous administration of Tabaré Vázquez). They pointed to opinion polls showing that Lescano had the best image of any government minister and pointed out that during his seven years in the ministry tourism revenue had increased by US$600m. They also argued that Mujica had not even made a fundamental change as he had simply replaced Lescano with his deputy Liliam Kechichian and kept the whole team in place.

Deputies within the FLS also questioned why Mujica would replace a man who had even received praise from the opposition for his achievements rather than several ministers who have come under fire from all fronts (including from within the FA) for their poor performance and who have been rejected by the public.

The interior minister, Eduardo Bonomi, fits into this category: more than 1,000 people demonstrated in front of the government building in Montevideo on 14 May to protest against public insecurity and to demand Bonomi’s resignation. They also demanded concrete measures by the government to tackle violent crime, which is the number one public priority in opinion polls. The protest was organised on social networks after a public outcry over video footage showing a bartender being shot dead in cold blood and robbed after having offered no resistance.

Bonomi was also hauled before the lower chamber of congress on 5 June about prison riots in April, once again showcasing the overcrowding and poor conditions in the Uruguayan prison system, which has been the subject of serious criticism from the UN in the recent past. Compounding Bonomi’s problems was the release of homicide figures which showed a massive 75% in killings in the first five months of 2012 compared with the same period last year: 133 murders in total.

The opposition Partido Nacional (PN, Blancos) was unimpressed with Bonomi’s appearance (he spoke for five hours uninterrupted) and submitted a motion of censure against the minister. The motion was defeated by 52 votes to 46 in the plenary, after the FA got the support of independent representatives against the PN and the other main traditional Partido Colorado (PC). Nonetheless it will serve the opposition’s purpose of keeping insecurity very much in the public eye.

The debate ahead of the vote lasted nine hours, belying the heated sentiment on all sides. In an unprecedented move, the secretary of communication at the presidency announced in the midst of the congressional debate that President José Mujica and the council of ministers had suspended their meeting to express their “total support for Minister Bonomi”. Deputy Javier García (PN) said during the debate that “the only thing that keeps Minister Bonomi in his post is the internal [divisions] in the Frente Amplio and his friendship with President Mujica. If he hasn't left already it is because he doesn't have a pinch of political dignity. He doesn't have the stature to be minister.”

The politics of cabinet reshuffles

Any cabinet change in Uruguay causes at best serious introspection in the FA and at worst serious divisions, as it is very difficult to strike a balance between the 30 constituent parties in the FA, each clamouring for more influence and suspicious that it is being overlooked.

Astori’s allies argued that Mujica was intent on increasing the presence of his party, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros (MLN-T), and more radical factions, such as the Partido Comunista, at the expense of the Frente Líber Seregni. Mujica denied that this was the case. He devoted most of his weekly radio broadcast shortly after the change to justifying why he felt the need to reshuffle the cabinet.

He said the change (and future planned changes) was essential to combating bureaucracy, “the most dangerous nightmare” of any political process. He said it was only necessary to see the way big companies changed their CEOs periodically to realise the importance of freshening things up. He said there was “no vaccine or antidote” to “an illness which is much more genetic than it seems”. He also recollected a visit he had made to the former Soviet Union where he said bureaucracy had penetrated practically everything. “If political sectors start to think their members are untouchable, it is serious,” he said.

Mujica’s announcement that there would be further cabinet changes in the coming months prompted extensive media speculation. The housing and environment minister, Graciela Muslera, resigned on 5 June. She did so, according to a statement released by the Uruguayan presidency, after she held a meeting with Mujica. This suggests she was given little option but to go. Muslera is a member of the Movimiento de Participaciόn Popular (MPP) of which the MLN-T forms a part, so her replacement suggests that Mujica always intended to be even-handed or has responded to criticism from the moderate wing of the FA.

Vázquez

The Frente Amplio held primary elections on 27 May, the first ever held in the coalition, to select a president. The success of Mónica Xavier, a member of the Partido Socialista (PS), enhances the prospects of President Mujica’s predecessor Tabaré Vázquez (who belonged to the PS) to seek a second term in power in 2014.

Conspiring against Vázquez is his controversial comment last October that Uruguay had considered war scenarios with Argentina when the dispute over the construction of a pulp mill on its side of the shared River Uruguay reached fever-pitch in 2007. The subsequent furore prompted Vázquez to announce his political retirement. Since then he has kept a very low profile - in marked contrast to other former heads of state in the region, such as Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe and Brazil’s Lula da Silva – but has recently hinted that he might make a comeback.

Curiously, President Mujica's Movimiento de Participación Popular (MPP), though the most voted group, appears to be losing its leading role within the FA. As of 30 June it will have 26 representatives on the movement’s national plenary, down from 36 previously. A large number of blank votes, both for the various internal groups as well as for specific candidates, characterised the election.

• Navy corruption

President Mujica has pushed the commander of the Navy, Alberto Caramés, into retirement for his alleged links to a corruption scandal uncovered in 2010 that had already accounted for his predecessor. Mujica said that Caramés, 59, had retired voluntarily to allow the government to restore confidence within the Navy. Mujica underlined his “total conviction that the chain (of corruption) would be cut here”. Rear Admiral Ricardo Giambruno replaces Caramés, who is being investigated for two irregular purchases in 2007 while he was head of the directorate of naval materiel (Dimat).