Peace Without Poison

The only president of Uruguay who appears not to have poisoned his people is Jorge PachecoAreco (1967-1972), which is probably why in June 1969 he received a visit from NelsonRockefeller, the US government’s principal depopulation ambassador at that time. As soon asJuan María Bordaberry assumed the presidency in 1973 he dissolved the General Assembly andruled by decree with the backing of the military, which is how the program of covertdepopulation was reinstated and has since been running without interruption.The presidents responsible for the continuation of the program are: Aparicio Méndez (1976-1981), Gregorio Conrado Álvarez (1981-1985), Julio María Sanguinetti (1985-1990, 1995-2000), Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-1995), Jorge Batlle Ibáñez (2000-2005, and incumbent sinceMarch 2015), and José Mujica (2010-2015).Uruguay hides its early contraceptive prevalence rate because it would be painfully clear thatfertility began declining before the Uruguayan people had even seen a contraceptive. Uruguayreveals only its recent contraceptive prevalence rate, which has been at around 80% since 1997.Abortion was illegal in Uruguay until 2011 and as such a non-factor in the fertility decline.The same phenomenon we have observed throughout the world occurred in Uruguay too, for assoon as the country reached replacement level fertility in 2005 its GDP has exploded.Uruguay is in stage four of the demographic transition.921 | P a g e