Last night at the Maldonado Departmental Board, nationalist councilman Adolfo Varela delivered a phrase that summed up the session better than any analysis:
"We have the Board full of Marxists...
but not Marxists because of Karl, but because of Groucho."
Groucho had a famous phrase—"if you don't like my principles, I have others"—which fit perfectly with what Frente Amplio ended up doing.
The contradiction in two lines
In 2012, Frente Amplio promoted the concept of protected zones to prevent buildings, blocks, and concrete masses in garden neighborhoods.
In 2017, it voted almost unanimously to declare Rincón del Indio a protected zone: "only houses here," they promised.
In 2025, they voted for an exception to allow 14 entire blocks, not an expansion, not an additional floor, not a specific tower: fourteen entire blocks in the same neighborhood they had shielded.
No architect or lawyer is needed to understand the magnitude of the shift: FA broke exactly the rule it had created to prevent precisely that.
From "we don't vote for exceptions" to "we raise our hands without hesitation"
Until 10:00 p.m., Frente Amplio kept repeating that it would not vote for the exception. At 11:45 p.m., it voted for it. No technical changes. No new information. No new arguments.
What happened in between?
For Varela, it is crystal clear: "Today, principles are not being voted on. Today, the vote happens because someone called from Montevideo."
The Frente Amplio councilman indignantly denied it...
and immediately voted in favor. A scene hard to surpass in political candor.
