The former vice president and former Minister of Economy, Danilo Astori, He died this morning after being admitted to CTI since October 31. He will be remembered throughout the political arc as a figure of great importance for Uruguay and a moderate leader who was a reference for the Wide Front and adversary of respect for all sectors.
Uruguay ends the week in shock upon learning the news that Danilo Astori, a historic reference not only of the Wide Front —one of the three leaders of the left coalition, along with Tabare Vazquez and Jose Mujica- but of all national politics, died at the age of 83 as a result of complications from the health complications that kept him hospitalized in recent weeks.
Recognized as a moderate leader, He was the one who set the economic pulse in the 15 years of Broad Front governments: on two occasions as Minister of Economy – during the first government (2005-2010) and the third (2015-2020); and as vice president in the period 2010-2015.
Astori was born on April 23, 1940 into a family of Italian origin — his four grandparents were immigrants from the European country. He graduated in 1963 as a public accountant and economist at the Faculty of Economics of the University of the Republic (Udelar)after having completed his primary and secondary education at school Maturana. His first steps in the economy were with the nationalist Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, who was then Minister of Livestock; However, his youthful ideas—he was barely 23 years old at the time—already coincided with those of the left. This earned him the nickname “el tupita” from Ferreira.
The industry leader Uruguay Assembly, member of the Broad Front, He was also a professor at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at Udelar, and dean of this university in 1973. He also founded, together with other researchers, Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies-Uruguay (Ciedur) in 1978, during the military dictatorship, during which he was imprisoned for 54 days, completely incommunicado.
The referent of the Frente Amplio despite its differences
Regarding his political career, Astori was one of the founders of the Frente Amplio in 1971. Although he entered the Senate for the first time in 1990, a position for which he was elected in 1989 when he joined the presidential ticket with Liber Seregni —as a candidate for vice president— and headed all the lists for the Upper House.
Jazz lover and fan of National, The former vice president of the Republic earned the recognition of all political sectors, from his place as a reference for the moderate Frente Amplistas wing, which even led him to oppose his co-religionists on occasions such as his support for the constitutional reform of 1996 that introduced the ballot to the electoral system—something that the majority of the leaders of the left coalition opposed.
As Minister of Economy in Tabaré Vázquez’s two terms at the head of the government, Astori became a “guarantee of stability” and a sign of moderation for opponents. In 2018 the international magazine Global Markets distinguished him as the Finance Minister of the Year in Latin America. His team included both the Broad Front senator Mario Bergara —to whom he had given his support in the face of internal party elections for the 2024 elections—, as the current Minister of Economy and Finance Azucena Arbeleche.
In November 2022, finally, the Broad Front leader took a step aside from his political career that, at that time, he exercised as a senator: his health problems kept him largely absent from his seat in the Upper House of the legislature made up of the government of Luis Lacalle Pou —he attended only three of the 120 sessions that had elapsed since February 15, 2020—, so he decided to resign from the position for which he had been elected.
These same health problems were what kept him hospitalized in CTI del Assistance Center of the Medical Union of Uruguay (Casmu) since October 31. Site where he died this morning.
Source: Ambito
