page_title: Jorge Batlle
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Jorge Batlle / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: Jorge Batlle y George H. Bush
context_page_description: Jorge Luis Batlle Ibáñez was a Uruguayan politician and lawyer, and a member of the Colorado Party. He served as the President of Uruguay from 2000 to 2005.
  Dr. Jorge Batlle became Uruguayan president on 1 March 2000, after having been elected the previous year by popular vote. He was the fourth Uruguayan President belonging to the Batlle family, one of whom was his own father, Luis Batlle Berres. A name that is closely related to the political history of the country, Batlle began his political career in the 1950s and had served as member of the Uruguayan Congress for the Colorado Party, to which many members of his own family – which came to the River Plate from the Catalan coast at Sitges, Spain, 200 years ago – had belonged before him.
context_section_description: Batlle took office at a particularly difficult moment for Uruguay, as an economic depression led the country close to sovereign default, and a third of the population below the poverty line. Batlle's determination to reduce public spending, aimed at preserving the macroeconomic balance, made it possible for Uruguay to be highly regarded as a country with a sound management of its economic affairs. US president George W. Bush helped him to prevent default with $1.5 billion in credit.
  His administration had to deal with a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, which threatened access of Uruguayan beef to international markets. Before the end of his term, Uruguay had re-gained disease-free status.
  Batlle firmly backed MERCOSUR, which he saw as instrumental for an open regional integration into the world economy. He favoured strengthening MERCOSUR by forming associations such as the one envisaged in the so-called "4+1" agreement with the United States. He maintained close diplomatic ties with the US at a time when the Pink tide in Latin America was marked by several regional governments that distanced themselves from the US. He had a diplomatic conflict with Cuba, as he criticised the human rights record of the Castro's regime.
  in 2002 deals with the law on the legalization of prostitution.
  He proposed the legalization of cocaine, as a way to reduce the political clout of drug cartels.
  He was also in favour of the creation of the Free Trade Association of the Americas (FTAA). As president, Batlle was firmly set against protectionism and subsidies of any kind; he has been a consistent spokesman for unhampered free trade.
caption: Jorge Batlle with American president George H.W. Bush.
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