UCL Americas Public Seminar Series: Roundtable on Uruguayan Elections 2024

This election is significant both locally and regionally. On the one hand, it takes place forty years since the elections held in late November 1984 ushered the return of democracy to the country after 12 years of dictatorship and terror. Whilst often considered a beacon of democracy, stability, and security, Uruguay has recently seen rising crime rates and several corruption scandals rocking the country.

On the other, numerous other countries in the Americas have had or are about to vote in tight and contested elections. The regional backdrop is one of both democratic innovations and setbacks, ranging from Claudia Sheinbaum recently becoming Mexico's first female president, to the fraudulent vote in Venezuela, and the forthcoming contest between Trump and Harris in the United States.

Panellists:

• Ezequiel Gonzalez-Ocantos, Professor of Comparative and Judicial Politics, and Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
• Francisco Panizza, Professor in Latin American and Comparative Politics, LSE.
• Rosario Queirolo, Professor and Director of the Department of Social Sciences, Catholic University of Uruguay.

Chaired by Francesca Lessa