The government lied to you. Yes But so does the Lacalle Pou government

Let's get to the point, without anaesthesia or warm washcloths. Yamandú Orsi, that candidate of the Broad Front who sold himself as the man of the people, the former intendent of Canelones looking like a modern gaucho, bombarded us with lies that are already a trademark of the Uruguayan left. Remember when I swore that the Front had left its accounts in order in 2020, with a controlled fiscal deficit and an armored economy? Pure fable. The tax hole that Lacalle Pou inherited was a bottomless pit, inflated by years of clientelist waste

and subsidies left and right.

Orsi also lied about security: he promised a strong hand against drug traffickers, but his party looked the other way as the cartels were installed in the neighborhoods. And let's not talk about his stories about education, where the Front left a system in ruins, with desertion rates that embarrass any serious country. Yes, Orsi lied, as does everyone who comes from that ideological factory that prioritizes storytelling over

reality.

But let's stop here, because the real scandal isn't just on the left. No, gentlemen. The government of Luis Lacalle Pou, the one that presented itself as the liberal change, the one that was going to dismantle the suffocating statism of the Front, also lied to us. And he did so with a betrayal that hurts more because it was shrouded in promises of economic freedom and public order. Lacalle Pou came to power in 2020 with a clear mandate: to break the chains of the obese State, to combat crime mercilessly and to return control of their lives to the citizen. What did he do? Absolutely nothing on the fronts that mattered. Worse: it perpetuated the system that feeds the left, paving the way for its

triumphant return.

Let's start with the obvious, what hurts in my pocket every day: fuels. How many times did Lacalle Pou promise to demonopolize ANCAP, that sacred cow of Uruguayan statism? Zero action. The monopoly remained intact, with prices inflated by inefficiency and historical corruption, while Uruguayans paid for gasoline at the price of gold. Why? Because to touch ANCAP is to touch the nerve of unions and the left entrenched in the State. Lacalle opted for comfort, not to fight the battle that could free up the market and lower costs for everyone. Result: people are still tied to a Soviet monopoly, and the left uses that as ammunition to shout “privatization” every time

someone proposes real competition.

And public spending, that monster that devours 30% of Uruguayan GDP. Lacalle Pou swore to lower it, to cut back on waste in inflated ministries and social plans that reward vagrancy. What happened? Spending continued to climb, with a state growing like a cancer. The gnocchi, those parasites that earn money without working, or the social plans that keep entire generations in eternal dependence, did not touch a hair. Why didn't he take out the subsidies from the lazy people who could work but choose welfare? Because that would require political courage, something that Lacalle proved

not to have.

He preferred light populism: maintaining clientelism so as not to lose votes, while the fiscal deficit remains at obscene levels, above 4% of GDP. Reduce the deficit? Another lie. He covered it up with debt and cosmetic adjustments, but the structural hole is still there, ready to explode in the face of the next government

.

Now, public insecurity, the scourge that robs us of our daily peace. Lacalle Pou flatly rejected the Bukele model, the one that in El Salvador crushed gangs with an iron fist and returned decent people to the streets. “It's not our style,” he said, as if the “Uruguayan style” were to resign ourselves to drug trafficking and robbery. Did you fight crime forcefully? No. He opted for lukewarm reforms, laws that sound good on paper but fail on the street. Homicides went down a bit, yes, but assaults, drug trafficking and violence in neighborhoods persist because there was no total offensive. To reject Bukele was to reject victory over crime, prioritizing a “humanism” that is actually weakness in the face of criminals. Result? People live in fear, and the left capitalizes on that with its “human rights” rhetoric for criminals.

All of this, this sum of cowardice and omissions, is what gave oxygen to the left. Lacalle Pou did not dismantle the power of the State, it did not cut the roots of the clientelism that nourishes the Broad Front. It kept spending high, monopolies intact, deficits galloping and insecurity latent. What did they expect? That people, suffocated by taxes and prices, will vote for more of the same? No. The Front returned because Lacalle left their ground cleared: an omnipotent State that the left knows how to manage better than anyone else. If we had a truly liberal government, one that would cut spending, liberate markets and crush crime without hesitation, the Front would be in the catacombs of history. But no. Lacalle lied, betrayed the mandate and opened the door to the return of socialism

.

Uruguay deserves more than this alternation of lies. It deserves real freedom, not patches. It's time to wake up.