Julio María Sanguinetti

Who is Julio María Sanguinetti?

Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo is a Uruguayan politician, lawyer and journalist, as well as a former President of Uruguay for the Partido Colorado.

A lawyer and journalist by profession, he was born into a middle-class family of Italian origin. He studied Law and Social Sciences at the University of Montevideo. He received his law degree in 1961, and later combined his legal practice with work as a journalist. He had already been writing for the press, first in the weekly Canelones and later, since 1955, as a columnist for Acción, a newspaper established by the then-President, Luis Batlle, for which he covered events such as the Cuban Revolution and carried on until the 1970s.

Both media outlets were connected to the Colorado Political Party, the historical liberal grouping where progressive and conservative sensitivities shared ground and which had as its rival the experienced National Party or Blancos, creating a 2-party system that dominated Uruguayan politics during its history, although on most occasions the governing force was the PC.