The president is directly elected to a five-year term and may hold nonconsecutive terms. The most recent general elections were held in two rounds in 2019. Luis Lacalle Pou and Beatriz Argimón of the center-right Partido Nacional (National Party) captured the presidency and vice presidency. The election took place peacefully and stakeholders accepted the results.

The bicameral General Assembly consists of the 99-member Chamber of Representatives and the 30-member Senate, with all members directly elected for five-year terms. In the 2019 elections, the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) retained the most representatives but dropped from 50 seats in the Chamber of Representatives to 42, and from 15 to 13 seats in the Senate. The Partido Nacional built a predominantly center-right coalition with four other parties—the Partido Colorado (Colorado Party), the newly formed Cabildo Abierto (Open Cabildo), the Partido de la Gente (People’s Party), and the Partido Independiente (Independent Party)—that together won 57 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 17 seats in the Senate. The elections took place peacefully, and stakeholders accepted the results.

Uruguay’s Electoral Court serves as the highest authority on elections and supervises the National Electoral Office, which oversees voter registration and has one office in each of the country’s regional departments. Electoral laws are generally fair, and the Electoral Court, whose nine members are elected by both houses of Parliament with a two-thirds majority, is generally viewed as impartial. Voting is compulsory.

Uruguay’s multiparty system is open and competitive. The major political groupings are the Partido Colorado, the Frente Amplio coalition, the Partido Nacional (also known as Blanco), and the Cabildo Abierto. Several smaller parties also compete in elections and have gained representation.

Opposition parties are competitive. While Partido Colorado, Frente Amplio, Partido Nacional, and Cabildo Abierto have the most seats in the Chamber of Representatives, three other parties also hold at least one seat and others appeared on the ballot in 2019.

People’s political choices are generally free from undue influence from undemocratic actors.

The Afro-Uruguayan minority, which accounts for approximately 8 percent of the population, is significantly underrepresented in government. Indigenous groups are also severely underrepresented, although there is a currently a grassroots campaign that aims to gain formal government recognition of the Indigenous Charrúa people.

Representation of women in national, regional, and local government is low. A 2014 law mandates that 30 percent of representatives be women; as of December 2022, women held approximately 26 percent of seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 29 percent of seats in the Senate.

The head of government and national legislature determine the policies of the government without undue interference.

The level of corruption in Uruguay is low by regional standards, and the government has a demonstrated ability to detect, punish, and prevent corruption. However, high-profile corruption scandals in recent years and chronic underfunding of the country’s main anticorruption agency, the Transparency and Public Ethics Board (JUTEP), have negatively impacted Uruguay’s reputation and capacity for effectively combating corruption.

The fallout from a corruption scandal involving Alejandro Astesiano, the president’s former head of security, continued in 2023. In September 2022, Astesiano was arrested for his alleged participation in a scheme to falsify documents and birth certificates to allow Russian citizens to illegitimately obtain Uruguayan passports. Government officials praised the transparency of the investigation into Astesiano and called his arrest a signal of institutional strength. In February 2023, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Other cases linked to Astesiano remained under investigation during the year.

In February 2022, well-known Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset was released from prison in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he had been arrested in October 2021 for carrying a false passport. Marset was able to gain his release in part because he was issued a new Uruguayan passport while imprisoned in Dubai. In August 2022, Uruguayan authorities opened an official investigation into how Marset was able to obtain a new passport while incarcerated, and whether officials at Uruguay’s foreign and interior ministries had knowingly aided him in evading arrest. Investigations into Marset remained ongoing during 2023.

Government institutions have established a robust record of accountability to the electorate. Enforcement of the Transparency Law, which prohibits a range of offenses related to abuse of office, is relatively strong at the national level, although various scholars and politicians believe there is a need to update the country’s access to public information laws, including by shortening the period allowed for responses.

In June 2023, thousands of archived military intelligence documents from the country’s dictatorship period (1973–85) were anonymously leaked. Civil society groups continue to ask the government to officially release all documents related to the period.

Constitutional guarantees regarding free expression are generally respected. The press is privately owned; the broadcast sector includes both commercial and public outlets. There are numerous daily and weekly newspapers, some of which are connected to political parties.

Journalists have faced increasing pressure due to their work in recent years, including being targeted with civil lawsuits and threats for their reporting. The Center for Archives and Access to Public Information (CAinfo), a Uruguayan information rights organization, recognized a small decline in such cases in its May 2023 report, with 66 recorded cases between April 2022 and March 2023 as compared to 69 in the same period in 2021–22. Many of the threats that journalists received during 2022 and 2023 were related to reporting on the highly politicized corruption scandal involving Alejandro Astesiano, the president’s former head of security. Another explicit threat to journalists came from well-known drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, who threatened reporters investigating his case. However, the number of legal cases initiated against journalists, which is often meant to intimate reporters, was reduced overall during that time.

Media freedom advocates, including the Latin American Internet Association (ALAI), have also expressed concern about measures in the Accountability Bill (Rendición de Cuentas) submitted to Parliament in 2022. Critics fear that certain measures in the bill, intended to block illegal broadcasts online, could be invoked to limit freedom of expression more broadly. The Accountability Bill was amended several times during 2023 before being passed in November; analysts have reported that aspects of the bill that had sparked concern among its critics had been amended before its adoption. The law will come into force in January 2024.

Freedom of religion is legally protected and broadly respected.

Academic freedom is generally upheld. However, some have expressed concerns about the preservation of autonomy within the university system. Students, teachers, and university officials at the Technological University of Uruguay’s (UTEC) continue to oppose government attempts to pass legislation giving the government the power to appoint board members.

Discussion of personal and political topics is generally open and robust, and there is little fear of government surveillance or retribution.

Freedom of assembly is protected by law, and the government generally respects this right in practice.

A wide array of community organizations and national and international human rights groups are active in civic life, and do not face government interference.

The fiftieth anniversary of the autogolpe that brought the dictatorship to power took place in 2023. Civil society groups organized large marches and events to commemorate and demand justice for the victims of state violence during that period.

Workers are free to exercise the right to join unions, bargain collectively, and hold strikes. Unions are well organized and politically powerful. In July 2023, union workers from Acodike, a gas company, went on strike; dozens of workers had been fired that March, and workers alleged that the Labor Ministry had not sufficiently protected them. The fired workers received a six-month unemployment subsidy from the government; the Labor Ministry initially chose not renew the subsidy in September, but ultimately extended it for 14 former Acodike workers.

In February, union representatives condemned the government after evidence emerged showing that government officials—namely, disgraced former security official Alejandro Astesiano—had engaged in illegal surveillance of prominent union leader Marcelo Abdala. The case was under investigation by the government as of February.

Uruguay’s judiciary is generally independent.

Due process rights are generally respected in Uruguay. However, the courts face a significant case backlog, which results in a high rate of pretrial detention.

Uruguay is generally free from large-scale violence and civil conflict. However, criminal violence and insecurity persists, largely as a result of the increased scale of drug trafficking in the country. In addition to the violence caused by fighting between domestic drug trafficking gangs, warfare between rival gangs in Brazil has at times migrated across the border.

The controversial Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC)—a broad-based public sector reform adopted in 2020—gives more power to the police to investigate and arrest people in the name of security. Since the passage of the LUC, there has been an uptick in reports of police abuse.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the homicide rate fell slightly in 2023, with one fewer homicide recorded during the year than in 2022.

Prisons are often severely overcrowded, with poor living conditions. In September 2023, a Uruguayan judge issued a ruling ordering the Ministry of the Interior to relocate inmates and improve prison conditions in a severely overcrowded women’s prison. The Ministry of the Interior has since taken some steps to correct these issues, presenting plans for the construction of a new prison facility later in September.

Afro-Uruguayan people continue to face economic and social inequalities. Though a 2013 affirmative action law was enacted to combat persistent inequality in government agencies, Afro-Uruguayans continued to experience high unemployment rates and economic hardship. The state still falls well short of its quota goals for jobs for individuals of African descent.

Transgender people have historically been discriminated against in Uruguay, and violence against transgender people remains prevalent. However, a 2018 law allows transgender people to change relevant information on their identification documents and sets aside funds to help ensure that they have access to education and health care, among other things.

Women enjoy equal rights under the law but face discriminatory attitudes and practices, including a persistent wage gap.

Freedom of movement is protected, and individuals are free to change their residence, employment, and institution of higher education without interference.

The right to own property and establish private business is respected.

Violence against women remains a serious concern. According to the Ministry of the Interior, there were 23 cases of femicide recorded in 2023, 5 fewer than during the previous year. However, reported incidents of domestic violence in 2023 reached 43,245, about 2,000 more than recorded during the same period the previous year. Amid high levels of gender-based violence in the country, organizations have advocated for better police training and reporting procedures. The government has also suggested plans to launch courts that specialize in gender-based violence.

The legislature voted overwhelmingly to legalize same-sex marriage in 2013. Abortion for any reason during the first trimester has been legal since 2012. However, many women, especially in rural areas, face obstacles to accessing abortion services. In recent years, some women’s groups have also advocated for the legalization of abortions past the 12-week mark.

Individuals generally enjoy equality of opportunity, although certain barriers persist for Afro-descendants, women, transgender people, and Indigenous Uruguayans.

According to the US State Department’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, the government is not doing enough to combat human trafficking.