The leader and deputy-leader of Esquerra Republicana visit Uruguay with an agenda replete with meetings on municipal, academic and social issues and to bolster relations with the South American left

Esquerra Republicana leader Oriol Junqueras and deputy-leader and MEP Diana Riba will attend the inauguration of the next president of Uruguay, Frente Amplio’s Yamand Orsi, on Saturday in Montevideo. This is part of a trip to the Latin American country with an agenda replete with meetings of a municipalist, academic, and social character. Their aim is to strengthen relations with the Latin American left, during which they have also met former president Pepe Mujica.

Orsi's investiture and bilateral relations with Frente Amplio

Oriol Junqueras and Diana Riba have been invited to Orsi's investiture on Saturday, 1st March, the main reason for the visit of Esquerra’s leaders to Uruguay. The Frente Amplio, a coalition of Uruguayan left-wing forces, is a leading progressive and left-wing party, which sees Esquerra Republicana as its ally in Catalonia.

The visit aims to strengthen ties with the Latin American continent and to indicate that Esquerra stands with the presidents and states there that continue to be driven by left-wing and progressive forces at a time when the global reactionary wave is significant and when many Latin American countries are veering perilously to the far-right. That is in the context in which Esquerra Republicana, as the leading reference in Catalonia for Frente Amplio, means to strengthen these links between progressive and left-wing parties. It is in this vein that the meetings are being held with Frente Amplio’s senators and international leaders, and with deputy-leader Verónica Piñeiro.

Meeting with former President Pepe Mujica

But beyond the major political relevance of the trip, one appointment has featured a considerably emotional tone: the reunion of Oriol Junqueras with President Mujica on Thursday. Mr Mujica led the country at a very complicated time, with transformational left-wing policies, and is a reference in the entire Latin American continent for progressive leftists and an example of honesty and good governance around the world. He is now facing the last stage of his life, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but showing the same commitment to his ideas and the same strength that has driven his work, both personally and in his political career.

Meeting with the Grupo Puebla

In addition to these two meetings, Esquerra’s delegation has had an important meeting with the Grupo Puebla, a political and academic forum made up of representatives of the Latin American and Southern European political left, founded on 14 July 2019 in the Mexican city of Puebla. According to its founders, the main objective of the Grupo Puebla is to articulate ideas, productive models, development programmes and progressive government policies, an important meeting to articulate spaces for work and thinking in the development of advanced and innovative public policies.

Left-wing municipalism in Uruguay

Mr Junqueras and deputy-leader Diana Riba will learn first-hand how they are transforming the reality of the country regarding municipalism and from the left, and they will see this in a meeting with Mauricio Zunino, the Intendente of Montevideo, a figure comparable to that of mayor. It is in this context that meetings will be held with both Zunino and with Senator Mario Bergara, one of the next candidates for mayor of Montevideo, at the headquarters of Fuerza Renovadora-Frente Amplio.

Oriol Junqueras and Diana Riba will also attend the “Democracy, Development and Equality in a Changing World” forum, which will also be attended by Gabriel Boric, the President of Chile; Francia Márquez, the Vice President of Colombia; Yolanda Díaz, the Vice President of Spain; Axel Kicillof, the Governor of the province of Buenos Aires; Gleisi Hoffmann, the President of the PT Workers’ Party of Brazil; and Fernando Pereira, President of the Frente Amplio of Uruguay.

Cultural visits, the Casal Català in Montevideo

Among the cultural activities on the agenda for the visit is the participation on Sunday in the “Vigil of Hope” at the Municipal Velodrome. But the visit to the Casal Català in Montevideo on Thursday evening was undoubtedly special. The Casal Català is a Catalan cultural and recreational club founded in Montevideo in 1926. Oriol Junqueras and Diana Riba dined there with members.