50 years after the coup d’état in Uruguay | Transnational Institute

This June, we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the coup in Uruguay. My country is rarely mentioned in global media headlines – beyond our successful performance in regional or world football tournaments – but may offer useful lessons for other countries. The Uruguayan coup came just a few weeks before the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile and three years before the military takeover in Argentina, signalling the beginning of a dark period in Latin American history characterised by harsh political repression and the imposition of neoliberal policies that would later be replicated in other regions.