Табаре Васкес: Уругвай президентінің өмір жолы мен саяси мансабы

President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020

Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas (taβaˈɾe raˈmom ˈbaskes ˈrosas; 17 January 19406 December 2020) was a Uruguayan politician and oncologist who served as the 39th and 41st President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020. During his political career, Vázquez was a member of the Broad Front coalition. Before his first presidential term, Vázquez was president of the Club Progreso team and made two unsuccessful presidential bids in 1994 and 1999. He served as Intendant of Montevideo between 1990 and 1994 shortly before his first presidential campaign. Vázquez was first elected president on 31 October 2004 and took office on 1 March 2005. He was the first socialist president of the country. He had Galician ancestry; his grandparents were originally from Ourense and Santiago de Compostela. He studied medicine at the Universidad de la República Medical School, graduating as an oncologist in 1972. In 1976, he received a grant from the French government, allowing him to obtain additional training at the Gustave Roussy Institute in Paris.

Vázquez, an avid football fan, was president of the Club Progreso team from 1979 to 1989. From 1990 to 1995, Vázquez was the Frente Amplio coalition's first Intendant of Montevideo. In that post, he carried out the functions of both the mayor of the city and governor of the department. He actually finished with the most votes of the candidates in the field, more than 120,000 votes ahead of the next highest vote getter, former president Julio Maria Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party. However, under the multi candidate Ley de Lemas system then in effect, Sanguinetti won the election, since he was the highest finishing candidate of the party winning the most votes. Still, Vázquez turned in the best showing of a third party candidate since the restoration of the presidential system in 1967; he only had 12,100 fewer votes than the combined vote of the second place National Party. In 1996, he was elected leader of the Frente Amplio, replacing the historic leader of the left wing coalition, Líber Seregni. He ran again unsuccessfully for president in 1999. Among the most complex issues that dominated his administration was an ongoing conflict with Argentina over potential contamination from pulp mills being built on the Uruguayan side of the Uruguay River. He even asked Bush for help in the event of an armed conflict with Argentina. Vázquez was the first President of Uruguay to visit New Zealand and South Korea, and he established contacts with other countries in Southeast Asia. While he maintained cordial relations with the United States, hosting U. S. President George W. Bush, Vázquez did not sign Bush's failed Free Trade Area of the Americas. This visit attracted a measure of censure from the opposition, from Pedro Bordaberry and others, who were critical of Vázquez for having chosen to be in Cuba during a commemoration – which Vázquez himself initiated – for the victims of the 1973–1985 dictatorship; Bordaberry's father, Juan María Bordaberry, established the dictatorship with a 1973 decree dissolving Congress. In 2007 the loading of Iranian arms onto a Uruguayan Navy vessel visiting Venezuela, in contravention of a UN sponsored arms embargo, provoked international comment. In June 2008 President Vázquez visited Cuba. While in Cuba, Vázquez and the Presidential party engaged in a number of high profile events, including a summit with President Raúl Castro. In June 2009 President Vázquez, who had been courting diplomatically the Bolivian President Evo Morales, announced his support for the delisting of coca leaves from the category of a "dangerous drug". In February 2010 the Vázquez Government was cooperating with an investigation to explain how two Northrop F 5E jet engines valued at many millions of U. S. dollars had surfaced in Uruguay. Tabaré Vázquez and his government have pursued a centre left economic policy. Between 2005 and 2008, the minimum wage rose from 1,350 pesos to 4,150 pesos ($70 to $200), while poverty fell from 30.9 per cent to 12.7 per cent of the population and unemployment from 11.3 per cent to 7 per cent.

According to an Equipos/MORI opinion poll his approval had fallen to 44% by April 2007, a level below the electoral support he received in the 2004 elections. His approval later recovered, however, reaching 80% by his last term in office. In October 2006, President Vázquez was still personally more popular than his government with a 62% approval rating.

The Constitution of Uruguay does not allow presidents to run for immediate reelection. With this in mind, in January 2008, members of the ruling coalition made proposals to amend the document in order to allow Vázquez to run again in 2009, however Vázquez ruled out a 2009 run. José Mujica was elected in November 2009 as president and Vázquez was offered to resume the presidency of the Frente Amplio but he declined. Vázquez went on to be the Frente Amplio candidate for presidency in 2014.

In February 2010, a poll showed that he would finish the term ended on 1 March 2010 with an historic 61% of the approval. Vázquez finally left office with an 80% approval rating. Renominated by the Broad Front for the presidency with running mate Raúl Fernando Sendic on 1 June, he came up just a few thousand votes short of winning the presidency outright in 26 October election. Vázquez took office on 1 March 2015, succeeding José Mujica. After assuming the position, he also became the President pro tempore of UNASUR until 23 April 2016, as he succeeded at the same time José Mujica who was holding the presidency of this international organization. On 9 September 2017, his running mate and Vice President Raúl Fernando Sendic resigned after he was accused allegedly of misusing public funds while heading state oil company Ancap. Sendic's bad image began with a scandal over his non existent degree in Human Genetics in 2016, and deeply damaged the image of Vázquez and his government which already suffered from historically low approval.

Vázquez married María Auxiliadora Delgado on 23 October 1964 in the Montevideo parish of Los Vascos. She died of a heart attack on 31 July 2019. They had three biological children together and an adopted son. On 20 August 2019, President Vázquez revealed that he suffered from a lung nodule with malignant appearance. Nevertheless, he announced his intention of finishing his presidential term on 1 March 2020 as planned. At mid November, it was confirmed by authorities of the Public Health Ministry that his lung cancer was cured. On 27 November 2020, the rumor spread of his worsening state of health and a Republica journalist announced that his cancer had metastasized to the pancreas. That day, his son reported that his father was in home hospitalization after suffering an acute thrombosis in his left leg, but was recovering. He died of his lung cancer in Montevideo on 6 December 2020, at age 80. President Luis Lacalle Pou declared three days of national mourning following his death and said that Uruguay "lost a prominent scientist and a citizen defender of human rights". His funeral was held in "intimacy" due to the COVID 19 pandemic and he was buried at Cementerio de La Teja in Montevideo alongside his wife. During the funeral procession, thousands of people took to the streets to see him off to applause and cheers. The night before a national applause was called from the balconies.

Award or decoration Country Date Place Note Ref Order of Merit2 May 2007DohaHighest Qatari decoration. Grand Collar of the National Order of San Lorenzo7 September 2010QuitoHighest Ecuadorian order of merit. Medal of Military Merit 18 May 2011 Montevideo Highest Uruguayan Army related military award. Rank: General Officer.

Vázquez was awarded the World Health Organization Director General's Award in 2006 in recognition of his leadership on tobacco control in Uruguay, which has implemented some of the most stringent tobacco control measures in the world.