Uruguay Expat Life - Latest Comments

Re: Residency Intro for those looking for a new country

Davidsenemynumber1 — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 12:46:07 -0000

There is a family from the U.S. that has no regular income but does have a sizable inheritance. Would they still need to show a regular income? What if they are on the run from the U.S. government or law. Is there extradition? This family has been living in Uruguay for almost 18 months.
Is Uruguay at risk of increasing numbers of criminals moving there if there's no extradition?

Re: Residency Intro for those looking for a new country

zeo — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 10:21:52 -0000

Great article, thank you! We have bought our tickets to Uruguay, me and my husband. Not for a holiday, to discover and live. If we like the things that we will experience there, we want to move. I researched about cost of living, it is almost the same with where I live. But I am curious about opening a bank account (what they want as document) or how to find a temporary rental house for first year. I looked for the websites as gallito.uy. Find a few houses but my Spanish is not fluent, can't talk with them on the phone. Well, how is it possible for expats (and which documents are needed). If you can give some information/advice, it will be so great.

Re: Random Cultural Observations about everyday life in Uruguay

toodorky — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 17:19:37 -0000

To the point and no B.S.....Thank You

Re: Random Cultural Observations about everyday life in Uruguay

Dr Simon R R Atkins — Sun, 29 May 2016 15:33:43 -0000

Excellent review, Mark & Lisa -- and humourous too ... keep up your stories and your great perspectives! I love it here in Uruguay!

Re: News about our pet greyhound fighting cancer in Uruguay

Dr Simon R R Atkins — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:10:24 -0000

Mark, you can use cannabis oil to rid cancer, and you can also use RIFE technology to rid cancer. We are beginning this in Uruguay. Wishing Whistler a grand recovery and a marvellous reunion!

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Unrhyw Ddirgelwch — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 08:15:51 -0000

From the Constitución (75, A): “Los hombres y las mujeres ... tengan tres años de residencia habitual en la República.” How does the Corte Electoral determine three years of habitual residence? Not the way you'd think. Trust me or not on this, but I'll repeat: the only documentation from Migración that interested them was proof that I had arrived in Uruguay. From then on, it was my burden to prove I'd been here. No questions about my official residence status at any point that I'm aware of.

I don’t experience the US government being "in my pocket" because I don't live there and pay no income tax on my foreign-earned income. I didn't mean to suggest it's not a financial predator, but the murderous black-suited thugs tasing people in wheelchairs with impunity attract more of my attention when I look at the United "in your face" States.

You’ll notice that when you buy an item here, on a handwritten invoice they’ll write the price on the bottom line, then back out the 22% “IVA” above it. In other words, you see an item for UY$100 and you pay UY$100. Most people remain blissfully unaware — as indeed you demonstrated in your comment above — that the government has just been in your pocket for 18% of your purchase price. Of almost everything you buy.

Unless it’s got a motor, engine, or electronics, in which case your tax is essentially 100%, meaning 50% of your purchase price goes straight to the government. You see a price tag of USD 1200 on that shiny motorbike, and you save up your USD 1200 and buy it. No added sales tax! But you have basically just paid the government USD 600 for the privilege of buying a motorbike with an intrinsic value of USD 600. Government not in your pocket?

Makes me feel a little less sorry for people in Tennessee, with the highest state sales tax in the US: 9.45%.

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Mark Mercer — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:59:13 -0000

Appreciate the thoughtful comments, thanks for reading, and for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Possible confusion on what you see as the premise, and if it's due to unclear presentation, mea culpa. I'm not suggesting that talking politics with neighbors is a necessary or important thing to do. Rather, that being aware of your new country's politics, is an important thing for expats to do - for themselves. I reject the "expats shouldn't bother with local politics" argument. I don't intend to argue that "expats must talk about local politics". I do intend to argue that "Expats should talk with locals and be less like 'expats', more like neighbors and like immigrants to the country." Talking about politics as one of your topics of conversation with neighbors is entirely optional. My only other point regarding Uruguayan neighbors/friends and politics is - It's never the Uruguayans who are pissed off about expats learning about and talking about Uruguayan politics (if done with some attempt at research and knowledge) - it's only the "expats" - and a certain type of expat, who gets pissed off. That certain type of expat is heavily overweighted in most online "expat forums" and similar internet venues.

"In Uruguay, the ever-growing government is rarely in your face, but always in your pocket," is perhaps accurate, though I don't see it with as much vehemence as you apparently do, "Unrhyw Ddirgelwch". Not necessarily knowing who you are, I don't know your particulars, but I'm guessing perhaps a business owner, land owner, employer of Uruguayan help, or employee of a Uruguayan business. Lisa and I are none of the above (our business is officially in Florida, USA), and the only one I've briefly been is the last, an employee of a Uruguayan business. So I've been on the receiving side of an easy-to-get IRPF income tax refund that didn't even require filing a form, just going to Abitab with my cédula, but I haven't been on the paying-to-BPS, DGI, ANEP social security and income taxation side of it. And probably won't, though we dance around the idea of starting up a UY business entity for Southern Cross Web one of these days. Maybe. In which case I'm sure I'll have US-IRS-like and US-local-state-like bureaucracy tales to tell, and hope to get guidance from Uruguayan and expat compañeros on navigating.

But so far, the only way the UY government was in my pocket was near the end of 2013 when by surprise they put money IN my pocket!

I don't know exactly how recently you have been in the USA. But let me assure you from recent experience, including some in 2013 and 2014, that the USA government and its subdivisions most certainly are both "in your face" and "in your pocket". User fees on so many things that would have been considered public, free, paid by tax dollars, like much of the National Forests and Park Systems, or hyper-inflated fees. Ludicrously punitive fees on travel documents, with added taxes on each segment of travel, "for your security" - on top of all the money from the general fund already paid to fund the Geheimstadtsicherheichtministerium. (Department of Homeland Security - "sounds better in the original German".) Very high additive or even compounded state, county, municipality sales taxes, plus "mil levies" for school and water districts - and not part of the cost, such as in Uruguay, but on top of the posted price. For far less benefit from that approaching 14-18% state/local taxation than the 22% IVA gets us here in Uruguay. When USA actually has truly universal, truly affordable healthcare, truly universal, truly-broad broadband, free laptops for every child, free higher education, get back to me about how much more the government is "in your pocket" in Uruguay!

On the nit-picking on citizenship, I appreciate the clarification but it doesn't seem very clear. If you read the Uruguayan Constitution (and yes, I have) it seems to date from residency, not from arrival for residency. But it also does seem to imply that "intent to live here" which indeed could be independent of both. In which case, the start of our permanent ongoing year-round lease, in Dec 1, 2011, could very logically be the most obviously correct starting date. But I kinda doubt we could go for citizenship in a month when we're still "en trámite" on residencia! (Mostly due to the back and forth from freelance to employee to freelance, and some document hilarity.) The constitution does say that you must be a legal resident in order to get citizenship, but I think you're right that there isn't an exact "clock-starts-now" tie to it.

So.. perhaps slightly more hope for being able to vote in the 2019 election!

I did vote, yesterday, back in the USA. Local and state only, being the mid-terms and my US state, Florida, doesn't have either Senator up for election this year. I agree, the closer to local the race gets, the more it actually matters. Further up you go, the more it's mostly all the same corporatist/statist types, with just marginal but dramatic-sounding differences. At least, until that country manages to create its own Broad Front. If Astori, Vásquez, and Mujica can all find common ground, I would like to think that US Libertarians, Greens, Constitution Party, and some other so-called "third parties" could do the same - their rather large differences are actually a hell of a lot less than the differences between a Muica and an Astori.

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Unrhyw Ddirgelwch — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 08:09:13 -0000

Great and informative explanation, thanks.

I certainly agree that, when living in a country, it behooves one to communicate with the locals in their own language, and preferably about more than the Pompeian plumbing you’re paying them to make functional. And I share your disdain for expats who make little or no effort to become conversational.

Couldn’t disagree more, however, about specifying the subject: in the 50 “foreign” countries where I’ve spent some time, five of which I’ve also lived in for a prolonged period, I can’t think of a single instance where my lack of interest in local political theater has hindered or altered my experience (though derisive, amusing anecdotes about inept and corrupt politicians do have universal appeal). If you’re interested in politics, talk about politics. If you’re interested in boats, music, cooking, history, hunting, off-grid living, organic gardening, talk about that. That’s where you’re probably going to find more fulfilling conversation.

Certainly, before choosing to invest/settle in a place, one should take time to understand the burden of its government. Uruguay has a government as overblown as the United States’, but currently less totalitarian, and more like the famous ombu tree in Recoleta, whose branches grow out so far they require external supports to keep them off the ground. Most Americans I know are here at least partly because they prefer the charming presence of that ombu tree to the presence of militarized police playing soldier on treeless streets lined with spy cameras.

In Uruguay, the ever-growing government is rarely in your face, but always in your pocket, in its ongoing tilt at the windmill of the Pareto principle. I would welcome, but don’t expect, any meaningful change to that from political theatrics. That said, you do a good job of showing that they’re more interesting here than in the Machiavellian US system, where, beyond local issues, one’s vote is essentially meaningless. In 2019, I will definitely take an interest in voting here, which I abandoned in the US a decade ago.

BTW, a bit of nit-picking: the date of your application for residence, like everything else from Migración beyond a certificado de llegada documenting when you landed in Uruguay with the intent to live here, is irrelevant to the citizenship process. (Including, I suspect but have not confirmed, official residence.)

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Mark Mercer — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 13:25:03 -0000

Thanks for the supportive comments, folks! Lisa and I are happy that you enjoy and benefit from our site.

Writing about how things really are here, also is part of our own learning process. We're both observational and analytical type people, including influences from our previous professional lives (software development for me, sports-medicine-influenced fitness for her), so getting to the "Oh, that's how it works!" point is pretty much our baked-in mindsets. Rather than the easier, "It doesn't work the way I thought - I don't like it here!" approach.

Which doesn't mean there aren't things to complain about. I think I've been pretty vocal about the downsides of the bank BROU, and the ridiculously high cost of electricity from UTE, among them. But just like marrying somebody, moving to a new country means you're accepting the whole package!

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Signe — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:02:02 -0000

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and this information, Mark! I follow the news here on a daily basis, out of interest and for work, but it is always nice to have an outsider's take on things and also a relief to know that you represent the expats who are actually interested in the country...our impression after a year in Uruguay is that the expat community - at large - is living on the side of the local society and, if anything, very negative towards local ways and manners. So keep up the good work!

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Iva — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:36:36 -0000

I appreciate the time and thought put into your articles and education of others. As a new member to the community I have found much of the information you have shared to be vital to understanding and adjustment. Keep doing what you do! Peace!

Re: Uruguay’s election – final week campaign color

Teddy3indc — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:09:22 -0000

I appreciate the coverage. You are teaching a few of us quite a lot, and we agree with your sharing spirit. Thanks again!

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Mark Mercer — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 14:26:01 -0000

Oh, Putin. Yeah. That's a problem. Good luck to you there in building a civil society that works. Russia could be a great nation, it certainly has the resources and knowledge to do so, but there are some scary things going on there. Note that I'm not knee-jerk anti-Russian type of "American" by any means, and I used to even have some respect for Putin standing up to the USA. But the anti-gay propaganda and yes, hate, and the attempts to recreate the Soviet Union, are dangerous.
.
I was celebrating the impending fall of the USSR with a bunch of Russians in a citizen diplomacy summit in the Czech Republic back the year it ended - didn't expect it to turn into this.

You might be interested in the newest post here, and in the Medium post by a writer their, "rabble", which inspired it, if you are into learning more about the intersection of culture and politics here in Uruguay.

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Josh — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:53:10 -0000

Sadly, I'm not in a country you guessed from my ip, I use a VPN. I'm actually in Russia, if you want to know. This is an extremely hate-filled society, and as much as I would like to distance myself from it, both spatially and culturally, I guess I can't escape the fact that it colors my perception. My original question was somewhat facetious in the "hate" part. What I really wanted to know about was whether Uruguay's current course on LGBT rights was likely to be reversed, and you have answered that to my satisfaction. Thank you again.

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Mark Mercer — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:57:30 -0000

Josh, as a straight man married to a woman I'm not in a position to directly speak to the experience of being gay in Uruguay. While trying to avoid the oft-scoffed-at "but I have ____ friends", I do know some gay couples who are quite positive about life in Uruguay.

I don't doubt that Lacalle Pou said that. I do dispute the entire "hates gays" assumption that comes from that, but I'm not going to argue that, at length, here, beyond this last post. We're off-topic for the parent blog post which was about crime influencing the election, not about social issues and marriage equality, which are already pretty much "settled law" here. Really, this kind of stuff on gay marriage, contraception, even abortion, just isn't coming up in the ads I hear, banners I see, or even campaign appearances by candidates I've gone to (including one by Lacalle Pou) - and though my español is far from fluent, it's sufficiently functional for me to know if that's going on in what I read, see, hear.

But out of courtesy to your very thoughtful comments, and because I personally do 100% support same-sex marriage, I'll give it this final go-around, and am open to one final response on this.

I accept that to gays and lesbians, statements that "marriage is between a man and a woman" gets heard as "hate the gays" but I think that reasoning has its own set of bias and bigotry in it. Including its own refusal to allow for diversity of belief and freedom of opinion and express..

By the way, quoting that Lacalle Pou statement as proof that "the blancos hate gays" or even that "Lacalle Pou hates gays" logically means that until very recently, Obama hated gays. Clinton (both of them) hated gays - which is patently absurd. Even though DADT later became perceived to be oppressive, at the start of the Bill Clinton administration that policy was considered groundbreakingly advanced. There's been a huge amount of advancement and evolution in mindset of the general populace in many countries, in just a very few years. No, not fast enough if I were gay and wanted to marry, but still unbelievably fast compared to many other cultural changes that cross into politics and law.

You know what else? t's entirely ok for Mitt Romney (to use a US example again) to say he believes that marriage is between one man and one woman, and it's further entirely ok for him to have that belief based on his religion (well, nowadays one man and one woman, until the afterlife, then a planet and a harem are ok!) As long as he, when in a position of power to control whether same-sex marriage is allowed, does not actively oppose it for those who do believe it's ok.

I lived in Massachusetts when Romney was governor. In fact, I voted for him, wanting a moderate Republican who respected abortion rights, was ok with reasonable gun control (I say that as a then-gun owner in Mass with all legal permits I needed after full police and background checks and proper training), somebody business-friendly who would try to grow jobs in my state, and somebody who wanted to make healthcare more affordable and universal. (What the hell happened to him between then and 2012 is amazing, and no, I did not vote for him in 2012. I did vote, from Uruguay.) When the Mass courts legalized gay marriage, other than an initial pro-forma opposition, Romney did nothing in reality to oppose it happening nor even to try to add complications. Even though it was against his beliefs personally.

Bravo! Perfect example of somebody respecting the rule of law, the rights and freedoms of others, and the allowance and indeed need for diversity in a functional civil society that is part of the "Western Democracies".

Likewise, if Lacalle Pou's personal beliefs, whether informed or not from his religion (I have no idea even if he is religious, you don't get that kind of tie-in to the campaigning here), that's OK. We have freedom of speech here, just like we (supposedly still) do in the USA, and if you're in the country your IP address says you are in (I own the site, of course I know and that's right in our privacy policy), so do you. That statement by Lacalle Pou does not translate into "hate gays".

That whole "anybody who disagrees with me hates me and my group" is itself, sometimes, hateful. To whatever extent, as a cis-gender heternormative white married male I can "get it", I do "get" that it could feel that way. I'm aware that some who make that statement do indeed hate gays (The disgusting Westboro Baptist Church being the perhaps worst or at least most widely known example.) But that doesn't mean everybody, or even most, who personally hold to the position "marriage is between one man and one woman" should be stereotyped as "hating gays":

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Josh — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 02:34:07 -0000

Thank you for your very detailed reply. I'm actually from a far worse place than reddest US state, a country that's not hugely religious, but one that nevertheless has extreme hatred for gay people. So I don't feel like conservatives in Uruguay not being super into religion necessarily means they aren't anti-LGBT. I've found Luís Lacalle Pou's statement on gay marriage that sounds lifted from US republican rhetoric "marriage is a union of a man and a woman for purpose of procreation" which is usually used to cover up much uglier opinions. On the other hand, gay marriage passed with large majority, meaning that even some Blancos voted in favor. I will trust your opinion on this since you have far better vantage point to observe life in Uruguay. Thank you again for putting huge effort into that post.

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Mark Mercer — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 20:35:40 -0000

Josh, you posted as a guest, so you don't have a profile for me to better get to know where you're from, but I'm guessing from the context of your concern, it's USA. Likely even one of the "red states" where that's a real problem.

I think you're making a false, but entirely understandable, mapping of the very dysfunctional and warped US political system onto Uruguayan politics and culture. Understandable if you have a USA background, but it doesn't work that way here. There is absolutely zero reason to assume "Blancos hate gay people". I even question usefulness of the polemic of "Republicans hate gay people" in the USA, as an oversimplification that does not get to the heart of the US political mess and the horrible steps being taken against LGBT rights by Republican-identified politicians, but I "get it" - for that country. It certainly can seem that way there. I think it's really religious fundamentalism and lack of critical thinking skills that lead to fear-driven actions that they're "losing something" every time somebody different from them, does anything they wouldn't do themselves or at least admit, rather than "hate". But this site isn't about USA politics so let's leave that for now and come back to Uruguay.

There's nothing inherently "social conservative" nor "moral majority" non "anti-diversity" (pick your chosen "enemy") in conservative politics and economics. If anything, there's a small-government, not-our-business, do-least-necessary strain in classical conservatism - and even in the USA Republican party until its capture by the so-called "Moral Majority" ("Sorry, neither", to quote Lt. Uhura when someone addressed her as "fair maiden"). Made worse in recent years by its further capture by the co-opted Tea Party movement which isn't even anything like what the TEA movement was about initially (Taxed Enough Already - nothing to do with "social issues"). Uruguay's "right" is much more "classic conservatism", rather than "Tea Party / Moral Majority" social conservatism. And far less, to the point of barely-there, religion-linked.

In Uruguay, that kind of bat-crazy warped mix of one particular lunatic-fringe "Christianity" (of a type that Jesus would decry as evil hypocrites and not at all followers of his teachings) simply does not exist. That isn't to say there aren't Christians here - there are, of course. Most who are Christians are Roman Catholic, but there's a large and increasing Pentacostal and evangelical dynamic, some mainstream Protestants, Anglicans (who as an Anglican/Episcopalian myself, I can say are definitely not "Protestant" but are a via media, and hey, gay bishops and woman leading our denomiation in the USA), Jehovah's Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, and Mormons. Whom I'm happy to consider as "Christian" because I don't care whether or not they have the same Christology or aren't Nicean.

More to the point, none of them, no not even the Catholics nor the Mormons, have made any real stink about any of the "social issues" (as we call them back in the USA) - other than the Catholics pushing for their medical societies to have an opt-out for performing abortions. Which the State allowed, as long as their mutualista members who request abortion or related services are covered in full by prearrangement between the catholic mutualista and one that does not object. I haven't heard of any religious push against the "concubinage" law of a couple of years ago that gave full work-based medical coverage to the "concubino / concubina" of workers whether same-sex or not in a registered domestic partnership, nor to the continued low-cost (not free, as mistakenly reported by many) availability of contraception in the medical societies. I'm not entirely sure we actually have same-sex full "marriage" - I know Argentina does, and it was a big deal in the regional press when the first Argentine same-sex military wedding was performed about a year or two ago.

For perspective, Argentina is far more Roman Catholic by population that Uruguay, and the Church as a somewhat official status there, whereas in Uruguay there is so much separation of church and state that some politicians, including Mujica, come right out and say "Uruguay is an atheist country" - and get elected. Yet the people of both countries are from similar backgrounds and there's a lot of shared culture. So if gay marriage doesn't bother Argentina, it really isn't going to bother Uruguay. I don't think it's totally in place but I don't think anybody really opposes it significantly.

The conservatives coming to more power, if not to the Presidency - that seems to me, here, to be far more about things like crime and punishment, management of government agencies, "free" trade ("scare quotes" deliberate given what happened with NAFTA and the very bad things being secretly negotiated in the über-free-trade Trans-Pacific-Partnership by the USA right now) as opposed to regional blocs, and just how much more or less socialist the country's economic policies will be. Not at all about who sleeps with whom, who can marry whom.

Damn likely that the Blancos, and in parliamentary informal coalition, the almost-as-right Colorados, will have more power for the next 5 years than their marginalized role of the last 10 during Frente Amplio presidencies and legislative majorities. But that does not at all imply the "culture wars" of the looney-tunes Michele Bachman, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum types. Not here.

Also keep in mind that on most things, from a non-sloganeering no-partisan honest view, the most-rightwing part of the mainstream Uruguay political spectrum, the Blancos, is way to the left of Obama. Or of Clinton (either of them), on almost all issues. Obama is to the right of Richard Nixon on most. Hell, he's to the right of Reagan on some. The US spectrum has narrowed, its center shifted far right, and gotten way too tied up in fringe-but-powerful sectors of religion.

That's a problem, back in USA where I have citizenship and vote. I'm not particularly worried about losses in LGBT rights, reproductive rights, or in freedom of religion / freedom from religion rights here in Uruguay.

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Josh — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 07:33:05 -0000

So I'm wondering, just how much do those Blancos hate gay people? Are gains in LGBT rights going to be reversed under their rule?

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Mark Mercer — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 10:55:53 -0000

We don't feel it on a day-to-day basis here in Atlántida, where it is mostly property crime, of the "sneak in and grab" type like the ladrón who absconded with our good laptop last January.

To put context around that, we live in a seasonal resort town. One that is working-class to middle-class, with some upper-class (and a decent amount of rich-by-UY-standards North American & European anglophone expats). In high season, this beach town's population swells from its year-round 6000-ish to about 25,000. Just as did our seasonal resort town in the Colorado Rockies in the heart of ski country, when we lived there.

Property crime is similar in any resort town. The tourists, and the drifters / hippies / bums / artists / soul-of-the-nation (choose your preferred definition) flow in. Most of them good people. A few of them not. Also, the vacationers themselves create targets of opportunity for the local bad guys. Break-ins go up. Our Uruguayan neighbors up the street had their computer stolen out of their house about the same time of year.

In Montevideo, as in New York City, Vancouver, London, Toronto, Glasgow, Chicago, Los Angelees, there are areas of relative wealth and those of crushing poverty, and there is unemployment beyond what any civilized community would consider "normal" - at least before the global financial meltdown of 2007-present. Street crime goes up, goes down. Some areas worse, some better. Uruguay does have a problem now, and it has vigorous debate on it. Which is perhaps better than the lack of debate before New York City's aggressive and ruled-unconstitutional "stop-and-frisk" policies. Perhaps Uruguayan police are too soft on criminals, perhaps not. But you don't hear reports of cops shooting dozens of bullets at and into someone just taking out their wallet (Amadou Diallou case in NYC) or all the other horrors that result from too-tough militarized "us-vs-the-enemy" police mindset that is full-on happening in much of USA, with Canada and UK close behind.

Are we staying? Yes. We lived in NYC during the Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani years. We've seen the underreaction and overreaction both to crime. We lived in Boston during the era of NYC's once-and-again Police Commissioner Bill Bratton being Boston's top cop. I think that for people who have lived in North America's or Europe's major cities, and actually lived in the city, not barricaded themselves in limos and luxury apartments, Uruguay feels no less safe, and perhaps more safe. One could throw statistics around proving or disproving depending on choice of numbers and "spin" thereon, but you know what they say about "Lies, damned lies, and statistics!"

I think the Uruguayans are taking the crime increase seriously, but debating it in a firm grounding of Uruguayan values, which are less quick to demonize/polarize (ok, slightly less quick - it is "political ad season"), and far less likely to resort to lethal force and draconian but unproven-effective "tough on crime" security theatre. At least, 29 years post-dictatorship, less likely to leap to "jail them all and kill the worst".

Were I a Uruguayan citizen with voting rights (which means voting legal obligation here), I would vote for the "baja", the lowering of the age to 16. Scotland just allowed 16 year olds to vote on its future. Many nations including much of USA treat 16 year olds and younger as adults, in cases of heinous crimes, on a case-by-case basis. That's what's being considered here, and I think it makes sense. But it also must be in the context of improving the economy, improving economic opportunity, improving education, and of fighting to end class discrimination and racial discrimination (see our older posts about the Afro-Uruguayan history and our links to documentary filmmaker Pamela Harris's project for more on that.)

As an aside, thank you for commenting right here on the blog, and for giving it a WordPress "blogosphere" Like. On-site comments allow for more thoughtful and long-term followable conversations than do social media shares and comments. We value both, but wish that people would get more engaged in on-site blog commenting as well as the social shares. Not just on our own sites but in general, as part of a more engaging civil society discourse.

Re: Crime increasing in Uruguay, expect electoral consequences

Kathleen McCormick — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 22:30:34 -0000

Hi Mark,
I'm sorry to hear that there is more crime down there as of late. I guess you are going to have a centrist candidate elected. Hopefully they can come up with solutions...Sounds like it all isn't enough to dissuade you from continuing to live there!

Re: Uruguay Politics

SquareTurns — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 12:36:45 -0000

Thanks. Very interesting.

Re: Get personal advice on Uruguay living and travel – Now at Plansify!

Ingenioso_hidalgo_don_Quixote — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 14:00:37 -0000

I can say that Mark has lots of helpful information about trade-offs and how-to's of living in Uruguay. Could be the best and littlest money you ever spent.

Re: UK expats losing their Barclaycards. Plus tax hassles! – reblog from ExpatsBlog.com with our take on it.

Elwood Nose — Sun, 25 May 2014 07:38:24 -0000

If you go to the NSA "Embassy" in Montevideo and ask them about getting US social security in Uruguay, they will direct you to BBVA, indicating that BROU is not the sole option for 'Murkans.

Re: Uruguay Expat Life Manifesto

Welshwitch — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 14:14:50 -0000

Hi Mark, I have only just discovered your site - nice work!

I understand why you kept "expat" in the title but I can't help feeling it would have been such a good statement to have used the "immigrant" word! People who call themselves expats to me seem to be implying that they are just here until they finally return to their place of origin (which is better-firstworld-etc). Emigrant has a permanence to it that these "expats" don't seem to like...

It has a very different connotation in Spanish. I remember one person being horrified that "expatriado" would be a term that anyone would want to apply to themselves! He said it sounded like they had been ripped from their roots and expelled under duress from their country of origin :)

Anyway, congrats and I look forward to reading more on the site in the future. -- Karen @guruguay1 www.guruguay.net

Re: Sausage! As in Expats find many ways to start businesses in Uruguay

Dr Simon R R Atkins — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 12:09:00 -0000

GREAT to hear that so many talent is coming down to Uruguay, to contribute to the wonderful people and incredibly positive land here! And some of us "just remain" planetary threat forecasters but choose their spot very carefully (yours sincerely) -- because Uruguay has LOW 'planetary risk' (no hurricanes, no blizzards, no earthquakes, no tsunami risk despite it have a long coastline, no volcanoes, no major diseases, and no major drought) -- and THAT, my friends, will be VERY important in years a-comin'!