Uruguay’s Yamandú Orsi to meet all 19 departmental governors at Anchorena

President Yamandú Orsi will gather Uruguay’s 19 departmental governors at the Anchorena presidential estate in Colonia on Thursday, Sept. 10, for what has been described as an informal meeting with an open agenda.

Carlos Enciso, governor of Florida and president of the Congress of Governors, said the invitation had been under discussion for some time. “It was an old invitation that had not taken place, with an open and relaxed agenda, presumably including a barbecue at noon,” he said.

The governors are interested in moving forward on issues linked to the climate emergency, the El Niño phenomenon and an investment fund, Enciso said. He added that the meeting was arranged after an informal conversation with Orsi on Aug. 25 and had previously been delayed because of scheduling matters.

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It was an old invitation that had not taken place, with an open and relaxed agenda, presumably including a barbecue at noon.

The gathering will take place before Orsi’s expected address to the United Nations General Assembly, scheduled between Sept. 22 and Sept. 28. The president also had been expected to meet the leaders of the Colorado, National, Broad Front, Independent and Cabildo Abierto parties at the Executive Tower, but that meeting was postponed without a new date at the request of National Party leader Álvaro Delgado.

The postponement followed tensions over a Broad Front press conference concerning the purchase of offshore patrol vessels from the Cardama shipyard. The party alleged serious acts that appeared criminal and political responsibility in the process. Senator Nicolás Viera called former president Luis Lacalle Pou the “first political person responsible for the situation in which the Uruguayan state finds itself,” a statement that angered members of the National Party.

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first political person responsible for the situation in which the Uruguayan state finds itself