The Frente Amplio and agrarian policy in Uruguay

• Published in: Journal of agrarian change Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 365 - 380
• Main Authors: Piñeiro, Diego E., Cardeillac, Joaquín
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-04-2017
• Subjects: agrarian policy; Agrarian structures; Agribusiness; Agricultural economics; Agricultural policy; Agriculture; Capital; Civil rights; Companies; family farming; Family farms; Farming; global commodity chains; International; Political power; Protection; Regulation; Rural areas; Studies; Transnationalism; Workers; Uruguay
• ISSN: 1471-0358; 1471-0366
• DOI: 10.1111/joac.12213

In this paper, we propose three lines of interpretation to understand the actions of the Frente Amplio (FA) in Uruguay, which after more than 10 years in power has not transformed the uneven agrarian structure that it inherited. We suggest that in order to gain access to power, the FA opted to move to the centre of the political spectrum and implement agrarian policies in which agribusiness and family farming coexist. Another possible interpretation to understanding the absence of a policy more focused on supporting family farming, and on limiting the expansion of the financial capital and transnational corporations, is to see it as resulting from the internal tensions within the coalition. However, the FA, in accordance with its own history, did carry out a policy of protection and promotion of labour and civil rights of rural wage workers.