Argentine tourism is key for Uruguay. It represents 56% of the external tourism the country receives each year. That figure jumps to 70% during the summer months. So let me tell you a story about Argentina and Uruguay. It involves shared histories, political exiles, and cultural exchanges, particularly between Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Initially Argentina and Uruguay were part of the Spanish Empire’s Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires was the capital. The Banda Oriental was a province. Both Buenos Aires and Montevideo faced two British invasions. In the first invasion, the British successfully invaded Buenos Aires. However, a Montevidean army led by Santiago de Liniers defeated them later. The British invaded Montevideo the second time. They failed to invade Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires demanded the liberation of Montevideo in the British capitulation.
Uruguay gained its independence after the Cisplatine War with Great Britain’s help. During the Uruguayan Civil War, Argentina supported the National Party. Both countries were allies during the War of the Triple Alliance. Since the end of the 19th century, both countries have shared a similar European heritage. They share very close economic, cultural and political ties. Since around 1960, there has been significant Uruguayan emigration to Argentina. Today, around 120000 people born in Uruguay live in Argentina.
Buenos Aires and Montevideo are about 120 miles apart across the Río de la Plata. Political currents have shaped Buenos Aires’s relationship with Montevideo. From the 1830s to 1840s, Montevideo was a primary site of political exile for opponents of the Argentine government.
The Uruguayan capital became a privileged space of exile for anti-Peronist politicians during Juan Perón’s first government from 1945 to 1955. Argentine intellectuals sought employment at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo. In the early 1970s, Uruguayan politicians and leftist activists fled to Buenos Aires. In March 1976, Argentina suffered a violent military coup. The new regime targeted Argentine and Uruguayan political opponents in Buenos Aires.
Since the return of democracy, human rights organizations in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo have worked together. They pursue justice and accountability for this period of state terrorism. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Podesta family popularized the Creole circus in cities including Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Playwrights and performers traveled between the two cities. They forged a shared world of popular culture. The two cities functioned as incubators for the world’s greatest tango singers, musicians, and composers during the 1910s and 1920s.
With the rise of Peronism in Argentina during the 1940s, Argentine performers pursued theatrical opportunities in Montevideo. There was less political tension and censorship there. By the 1950s, Argentines began to vacation en masse in Uruguay’s ocean town of Punta del Este. Residents of Buenos Aires imagined Montevideo as a city of anti-Peronism, business trips, extramarital affairs, and offshore accounts. Buenos Aires occupied the urban imagination of Montevideans as South America’s modern metropolis. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a city of revolutionary and violently repressive politics.
Argentina has an embassy in Montevideo. Uruguay has an embassy in Buenos Aires. Both countries were founding members of Mercosur. One of the most important commercial relationships between Uruguay and Argentina is tourism. In 2017, Argentina and Uruguay signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the Strengthening Connectivity project. It aims to develop greater connectivity. This project is focused on improving communication between the countries. It aims to develop greater connectivity by creating fiber-optic links to interconnection points. International internet providers are located there with submarine cables that reach the Argentine coast.