Photo exhibition celebrates 35 years of democratic reopening in Uruguay

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With a series of cubes on the sides of which the last seven presidential mandates are remembered through photographs, Uruguay celebrates in the main square of its capital the 35 years of return to democracy after the last civil-military dictatorship (1973-1985).

This was emphasized at the opening of the exhibition, entitled “Expo Democracia” and organized by the Center for the Study of Economic and Social Reality (Ceres), by the President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, who said that this event serves as a “pause” for reflection.

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“This pause proposed by Ceres is good (…) to call us rulers and alert citizens that we have to build (democracy) day by day,” said the president during his speech.

In turn, Lacalle Pou alleged that democracy “becomes fragile when the rulers do not do what they have to do and the citizens do not act as they should act to control them” and emphasized that the “vigilant” attitude of the people should be “constant” and not “every five years”.

For his part, the executive director of Ceres, Ignacio Munyo, who toured the exhibition located in the central Plaza Independencia together with the president and the mayor of Montevideo, Carolina Cosse, stressed that Uruguayans are “fortunate” to live in one of the few full democracies in the world.

Munyo, who celebrated the fact that more and more migrants choose to live in the South American country, explained that the fact that Uruguay, included by The Economist among the 23 “full democracies” in its Democracy Index 2020, has won this title is no coincidence.

“We are a full democracy not only because we have an exemplary electoral process but also because there is a deep political culture and citizen participation; the press and courts are independent, and respect for civil liberties is totally indisputable,” he stressed.

For his part, Cosse gave a speech called the “River of Freedom”, as the mobilization that in 1984, during the last dictatorial period, took to the streets of Montevideo demanding a return to democracy, whose photograph opens the exhibition that Ceres designed together with the Center of Photography of Montevideo.

“When it seems that all is lost (…) with political parties banned, even in a military and fascist dictatorship, our people give birth to a river of freedom, in the worst possible conditions,” she said and called on both adults and young people to visit the exhibition and reflect.

The Expo Democracy, which opens in 2021, one year after the 35th anniversary of Uruguay’s return to democracy, will be open for a week and will feature photographs and phrases of the presidents elected after the dictatorship, starting with the first term of Julio María Sanguinetti (1985-1990).