The Vote of Tepid Water

With the participation of journalist Nelson Fernández as guest speaker, CADAL organized a new edition of the Punta del Este Latin American Forum at theHotel Boutique Awa thanks to the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

During the presentation, the correspondent in Uruguay of the newspaper La Nación de Buenos Aires, Nelson Fernández, addressed a myriad of topics. Some of these include the center electorate and the extreme parties and if the recent electoral cycles in Latin America mark a retreat of the left wave. Fernández discusses two years of elections in Costa Rica, Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Argentina and, finally, how the political trends in the region and the impact on the lives of those in La Plata River for 2019.

In the second part of his presentation, Fernández questioned what happened and forecasted what could happen in Uruguay: 1989: the year that changed everything; 1998-2014, "a wave of the progressives"; 2015, a year of teetering; 2016, a time of disappointment; 2019, a year of hopes.

Nelson Fernández is a journalist specializing in political and economic affairs, a university professor, and an analyst for international consultants. Since 2000, he has been the permanent Uruguayan correspondent for the newspaper "La Nación" in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2009, he has been conducting the "Claves Políticas" (“Political Clues”) program weekly on the TV channel "NSTV - Nuevo Siglo." He is a columnist for "El Observador" in Montevideo and an analyst for the British consultancy "Oxford Analytica". Since 2014, he has headed the information and analysis service "LEAD/NEWS" for international organizations as well as presidents of various financial institutions and companies. He has completed journalism courses at Columbia University New York, University of Miami, and Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (New Ibero-American Journalism Foundation). He has taught courses at Catholic University and ORT University of Uruguay and has published six books on politics and economics: “El Gobierno de la Izquierda” (“The Government of the Left) in 2004, “¡Maldita Crisis!” ("Damn Crisis!") in 2008 , “Quién es quién en el Gobierno de Mujica” ("Who's Who in Mujica’s Administration") in 2010, “Una democracia única. Historia de los partidos políticos  y las elecciones del Uruguay. Tomo I - Divisas, ideas y partidos” ("A Unique Democracy. History of the Political Parties and the Elections of Uruguay. Volume I - Foreign Exchange, Ideas and Political Parties") in March of 2017 and “Una democracia única. Tomo II – Las votaciones y los liderazgos” ("A unique democracy. Volume II - Voting and leadership ") in September 2017, and “El voto del agua tibia” (“The Vote of Tepid Water”) in December of 2017.

Businessman Félix Boix Irisarri, Senator Carlos Baraibar, and Ricardo Zerbino, the ex-Minister of the Economy for Uruguay. 

The Economist Gabriel Oddone, Ariadna Hraste, the Project Assistant for CADAL, Journalist Nelson Fernández, Rebecca Sher, International Graduate Intern for CADAL, and the syndicalist Richard Read.