Ruralismo

Ruralismo, a political movement in Uruguay that gave rise to the Federal League of Ruralist Action (LFAR). Originating in the early 1940s, the LFAR achieved considerable significance in the 1950s, but disappeared in the 1960s. The movement was founded by a conservative landowner, Domingo Bordaberry, but its principal personality and leader was Benito Nardone, who broke with Bordaberry in 1951. Broadcasting on Radio Rural during the 1950s as "Chicotazo" ("Whiplash"), Nardone delivered strident and scurrilous attacks on communism, anticlericalism, government policy, and the corruption of urban politicians. Nardone's demagogy was designed to appeal to small farmers and rural producers who were inadequately represented by the established rural associations dominated by large landowners. In the elections of 1954, Nardone supported the Colorado faction of Luis Batlle, but switched to form an uneasy alliance with Luis Alberto de Herrera, caudillo of the Blanco Party, a move crucial to the victory of Herrera's faction of the Blancos in the 1958 elections. Following Herrera's death in 1959, Nardone formed the Herrerist-Ruralist Alliance with the Blanco leader Martín Echegoyen to contest the 1962 elections, another move by Nardone that was probably crucial to the Blanco victory.

In spite of its electoral significance, ruralismo had little impact on government policy. Nardone died in 1964, and the movement as an effective political force died with him.

See alsoHerrera, Luis Alberto de; Nardone, Benito; Uruguay, Organizations: Rural Association; Uruguay, Political Parties: Blanco Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Philip B. Taylor, Government and Politics of Uruguay (1960).

Raúl Jacob, Benito Nardone: El ruralismo hacía el poder, 1945–1958 (1981).

Additional Bibliography

Costa Bonino, Luis. La crisis del sistema político uruguayo: Partidos políticos y democracia hasta 1973. Montevideo, Uruguay: Fundación de Cultura Universitaria, 1995.

                                              Henry Finch