Gonzalo Aguirre - Vice President of Uruguay

Vice President of Uruguay

In the November 1989 elections, Lacalle-Aguirre won within the National Party and defeated the Colorado Party and other parties.

After taking office as Vice President of Uruguay in March 1990, Aguirre supported with a varying degree of enthusiasm the free-market policies espoused by the Lacalle administration. In March 1993, Renovación y Victoria abandoned the coalition government of Lacalle, although Aguirre remained as vice-president (the vice president in Uruguay is elected by the people for a fixed five year term). In March 1994, Aguirre was chosen by his faction to be a presidential candidate in the November 1994 elections, but in early October of that year he renounced his candidacy after Julio María Sanguinetti, former President and candidate of the Foro Batllista faction of the Colorado Party, alleged that his candidacy was incompatible (in Uruguay, the vice-president may not occupy the presidency, even interimly, three months before the general elections, and Aguirre had replaced Lacalle in August when the President had gone on a visit abroad). Aguirre therefore supported the candidacy of his cousin, Juan Andrés Ramírez, candidate of the Herrerismo faction. The National Party narrowly lost the elections to the Colorado Party.