Uruguayan Broad Front Political Party

The Uruguayan Broad Front Political Party, (Frente Amplio in Spanish) also goes by Encuentro Progresista. It was founded as a joining of more than a dozen fractured leftist parties and movements in 1971. The party was declared illegal during the Uruguayan Coup of 1973 and emerged again in 1984 when Uruguayan Democracy was restored. Frente Amplio is a smaller version of the Brazilian Workers Party and is led by the Tabaré Vázquez. Fente Amplio has close ties with PIT-CNT and the cooperative housing movement.

Fente Amplio is the largest party in Uruguay, controlling %40 of parliament and the government of Montevideo, a city with half the Uruguayan population. It is widely expected that Frente Amplio will win the next federal elections scheduled for November 2004.

While not in power, Frente Amplio has used the Uruguayan referendum system repeal laws privatizing state run industries and other neoliberal economic reforms.