URUGUAY IN THE SPOTLIGHT / GEOPOLITICAL FUTURES

Uruguay in the Spotlight

It’s not every day that this small nation gets drawn into the geopolitical fray, but here we are.

By: Allison Fedirka

After a comparatively hands-off approach to Latin America after the Cold War, the United States is in the process of reengaging with the region. 

What that engagement looks like depends on geostrategic locations, especially in the South Atlantic, and especially with countries that have already made gestures to suggest an opening for improved ties. 

No other country than Uruguay fits the bill.

Their new courtship started earlier this month. 

On April 6, the head of U.S. Southern Command paid a two-day visit to Uruguay – the first of its kind in five years. 

A week later, the U.S. National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan Gonzalez, and the Department of State’s acting assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, Julie Chung, did the same. 

They met with the president, the foreign minister, the interior minister, the defense minister and the head of the Secretariat of Strategic State Intelligence. 

Gonzalez said the two sides agreed to plan a new meeting in Washington at an unspecified date, suggesting the U.S., which has no shortage of problems and challenges, is interested in making the time for tiny Uruguay.

Its value to the US. lies in its geography. 

Uruguay covers only about 68,000 square miles and has a population of just 3.5 million people, who reside mostly in the capital of Montevideo and along the Rio de la Plata coastline. 

The country is flat and full of fertile soil but, unlike many of its neighbors, lacks the mineral deposits so many other countries lust after. (This helps explain why Europeans originally declined to settle there.) 

What Uruguay brings to the table is not what is inside the country’s borders but the borders themselves. 

The Uruguay River empties into the Rio de la Plata at nearly the same point as the Paraguay River, giving its inland territories access to the Atlantic Ocean. 

In total, Uruguay’s coastline measures 410 miles and its continental shelf 350 nautical miles. 

This gives a small country, nestled between regional giants Brazil and Argentina, an outsized reach into the South Atlantic. 

Uruguay’s position as a buffer state between those two giants makes it attractive to outside powers looking for a partner. 

Since the arrival of Europeans in the early 1500s, Uruguay has passed back and forth between Spanish and Portuguese hands several times. 

The country’s flat land and lack of any natural barriers made fighting easy but made establishing clear lines of defense extremely difficult. 

Even after Argentina and Brazil became independent, fighting for control over Uruguay lasted until Lord John Ponsonby had the idea to create a state and end the fighting. 

To this day, much of Uruguay’s foreign strategy is based off that balancing act between its two stronger neighbors. 

Outside powers often take advantage of this situation. 

Third-party interest in Uruguay goes back to the country’s foundation. 

Fighting between Argentina and Brazil came to a close thanks to mediation by the United Kingdom. 

The U.K. was seen as an acceptable mediator because it had supported the independence movements in South America and opposed the former colonial powers of Spain and Portugal. 

A newly independent state helped establish peace in a region with which the U.K. could increase trade and to which it could sell goods. 

The creation of Uruguay meant the U.K. could access Montevideo, a major commercial hub along South America’s Atlantic Coast, without having to directly engage with the more powerful Argentine and Brazilian governments. 

Uruguay still serves as an alternative entryway into South America that sidesteps Argentina and Brazil. 

This position can be useful to an outsider seeking to secure its presence in the region.

As the U.S. tries to shore up influence in the Western Hemisphere in the face of competition from other powers, it will need to address the South Atlantic. 

Washington faces some logistical challenges for monitoring and policing South Atlantic waters due to its sheer size and distance. 

Having a reliable partner in the region would help immensely by essentially expanding the reach of U.S. operations.

Uruguay’s location and stability are perfect in that regard. 

Brazil’s size makes it hard for bilateral agendas and priorities to align, not to mention that Brazil’s political crises make it difficult to build on any strategic partnerships at this time. 

Argentina is fraught with economic uncertainty and social unrest, and is increasingly flirtatious with China. 

But Uruguay has plenty going for it. 

The country is one of the most politically and economically stable countries in South America. 

But it’s not so well off that it wouldn’t want to benefit from more U.S. engagement, particularly given the economic problems facing its major trade partners Brazil and Argentina.

On the security front, the concept of U.S.-Uruguayan cooperation is not new. 

As the U.S. started to become a power at the beginning of the 20th century, it started to use its Navy to lay claim to the Western Hemisphere and discourage European interference. 

However, the Navy was also used to help regulate conflicts among Latin American countries. 

In 1904, for example, Uruguay’s president asked the U.S. to send warships to dissuade Argentina from moving against the sitting government. 

In 1940, the U.S. floated the idea of establishing a military base in Laguna del Sauce. 

Strong opposition in Uruguay, which feared Brazilian and Argentine responses to a U.S. base, quickly killed the idea. 

A subsequent attempt to resurrect it in 1944 also failed. 

Instead, the U.S. ushered in the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty, which served as a collective security pact among its signatories, including Uruguay. 

This was followed by a 1952 security agreement between Uruguay and the U.S. that still serves as the legal blueprint for current cooperation. 

Over the past decade, there have been several calls in Uruguay to modernize its defense agreements with the U.S. to better reflect the post-Cold War world. 

Now that the U.S. has shown an interest in Uruguay, the calls may only grow louder.

The indications from Washington suggest reengagement will feature support for Uruguayan-led security efforts. 

The most immediate threat the U.S. faces in the South Atlantic is Chinese involvement in infrastructure projects and the presence of Chinese fishing fleets. 

The U.S. already expressed its concern on both scores, though given its fraught history in the Cold War, it’s hard to believe the U.S. will be allowed to build bases there. 

Better, according to the SOUTHCOM commander, to keep things light, with forces able to come and go quickly with the help of partners. 

He also suggested that SOUTHCOM increase its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capacity in the region and tie it to improved security cooperation with partner nations.

 

There may also be an added economic component. 

In a subtle nod, the White House declared a Pan American Day earlier this month. 

The name harkens back to a concept the US. formally introduced to the region in 1890 through the First International Conference of American States. (It would later evolve into the Pan-American Union and then the Organization of American States.) 

The initial purpose of this mechanism was to promote and facilitate trade within the Americas by collecting and disseminating information concerned with production, commerce and customs law. 

The overarching strategy behind it was the economic well-being of the Americas and keeping southern countries disinterested in outside powers. 

An economic component would further help curb Chinese influence in the region.

More broadly, the United States' development of closer ties to Uruguay serves as a litmus test for its reengagement with the Western Hemisphere. 

On the security front, the U.S. needs a sort of blueprint for engaging with the region beyond counter-narcotics operations and in a way that does not create a backlash against the U.S. 

The timing also opens the possibility of revisiting existing security agreements by creating an environment in which these countries can increase ever so slightly their requirements for cooperation given that, this time, Washington is approaching them and not the other way around.