Uruguay, Medidas Prontas de Seguridad

Medidas Prontas de Seguridad, a form of emergency rule granted to the executive under Uruguay's 1966 Constitution (Article 118, Section 17). The Prompt Security Measures are a mild form of a state of siege, which permit the president to suspend some civil liberties. The president must act in concert with the appropriate ministers, and Congress can terminate, or nullify the effect of, any measures taken by the president under this power. President Jorge Pacheco Areco first invoked the Medidas on 13 June 1968 while drafting striking bank workers and declaring a freeze on wages and prices. Except for a brief period in 1969, Pacheco used these emergency powers throughout his presidency to deal with strikes and the growing threat from the urban guerrilla movement known as the Tupamaros. As the economic situation deteriorated and social and political tensions rose, the increasingly authoritarian Pacheco found the measures to be his one sure way to take action, and Congress reluctantly acquiesced. Many feel that the abuses carried out under the measures paved the way for Uruguay's descent into dictatorship in 1973.

See alsoPacheco Areco, Jorge .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Martin Weinstein, Uruguay: The Politics of Failure (1975).

M. H. J. Finch, A Political Economy of Uruguay Since 1870 (1981).

Additional Bibliography

Nahum, Benjamín. El Uruguay del siglo XX. Montevideo, Uruguay: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 2001.

                                        Martin Weinstein