collapse of Argentina. Unemployment rose to close to 20 percent, real wages fell, the peso was devalued, and the percentage of Uruguayans in poverty reached almost 40 percent. These worsening economic conditions played a part in turning public opinion against the free market economic policies adopted by the Batlle administration and its predecessors, leading to popular rejection through plebiscites of proposals for privatization of the state petroleum company in 2003 and of the state water company in 2004. In 2004, Uruguayans elected Tabaré Vázquez as president, while giving the Broad Front coalition a majority in both houses of parliament. The newly elected government, while pledging to continue payments on Uruguay's external debt, has also promised to undertake a crash jobs programs to attack the widespread problems of poverty and unemployment. In 2009, former Tupamaro and agriculture minister, José Mujica, was elected president, subsequently succeeding Vázquez on 1 March 2010. Abortion was legalized in 2012, followed by same-sex marriage and cannabis in the following year. The number of trade union activists has quadrupled since 2003, from 110,000 to over 400,000 in 2015 for a working population of 1.5 million people. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Uruguay has become the most advanced country in the Americas in terms of respect for "fundamental labour rights, in particular freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike". In November 2014, former president Tabaré Vázquez defeated center-right opposition candidate Luis Lacalle Pou in the presidential election. On 1 March 2015, Tabare Vazquez was sworn in as the new President of Uruguay to succeed president José Mujica. In November 2019, conservative Luis Lacalle Pou won the election, bringing the end to 15 years of leftist rule of Broad Front. On 1 March 2020, Luis Lacalle Pou, the son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle, was sworn in as the new President of Uruguay. See also History of the Americas History of Argentina History of Brazil History of Latin America History of South America List of presidents of Uruguay Politics of Uruguay Portuguese colonization of the Americas Spanish colonization of the Americas References Bibliography External links