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Jorge Pacheco Areco (November 8, 1920–July 29, 1998) was a Uruguayan politician and member of the Colorado Party. He served as President of Uruguay from December 6, 1967 to March 1, 1972.^[1]

Jorge Pacheco Areco, then Vice President, succeeded to the presidency in December 1967 after the elected president Óscar Diego Gestido died after a few months in office.^[1]

He immediately implemented price and wage freezes in an attempt to control inflation, and enforced a state of emergency in June 1968 citing the resulting labour disputes.

A group of young students formed the Tupamaros revolutionary force, aided by the Cuban communist regime both ideologically and financially, and instituted a campaign of urban guerilla warfare. The group kidnapped and later released several foreign nationals, robbed banks, freed political prisoners, and assassinated police officials and civilians, creating a general state of mayhem that terrified the Uruguayan society. The government acted in defence of law and order, imposing martial law throughout a civil war from June 1968 to March 1969. In June 1969, Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor of New York, visited Uruguay on a fact-finding mission. He was met by violent demonstrations, and the government reimposed the state of emergency.^[2][3]

In 1971 a truce was declared with the Tupamaros, which led to a relatively quiet atmoshere for the November 1971 national elections, in which Pacheco ran for a second term. Since Uruguay's constitution does not allow for re-election, a referendum for constitutional change was submitted together with the presidential election. The population had become polarised under his presidential term. Opposition parties united, and created a new coalition named the Frente Amplio ("Broad Front").^[4]

Although he received sufficient votes, the required 50% support was not met for the constitutional reform that would allow him to take a second term. Jorge Pacheco Areco's opponent on his very own Colorado Party, Juan María Bordaberry Arocena, won the elections by roughly ten thousand votes. The stabilization measures implemented throughout Pacheco's term were moderately successful, but did not last far into his successor's term.^[4]

Pacheco's greatest accomplishments are in the economic field, where he managed to deal with the out-of-controll inflation, which greatly improved the lives of the middle and working classes, and in maintaing, to some extent, the safety and the freedom of the uruguayan people which was threatened by the revolutionary blood-thirsty communist guerrilla.

After leaving office, Bordaberry appointed him ambassador to Spain. Later on, President Aparicio Méndez appointed him ambassador to the United States. He returned to the country in 1982, to fight the all-party primaries of 1982, which was the first step towards democratization after the democratic interruption of 1973. The "Batllismo" faction of the Colorado Party led by Julio María Sanguinetti won the primaries. With this victory, the hegemony of Pacheco's faction (Unión Colorada y Batllista) in the party came to an end.

Jorge Pacheco stood once again as presidential candidate for the Unión Colorada y Batllista in the November 1984 elections, selecting his former Deputy Defence Secretary and Secretary to the President Carlos Pirán as his running-mate. Although the Colorado Party won the elections, he lost to Sanguinetti 3 to 1 within the party.

Pacheco supported the new Colorado administration, and the UCB was represented in the cabinet. Sanguinetti designated Pacheco to be once again ambassador, this time to Paraguay. Returning from Paraguay, he accepted once again the Unión Colorada y Batllista nomination for the 1989 elections. Representative Pablo Millor was selected as his running-mate, representing an up and coming faction within the UCB. Pacheco once again lost, both internally to Jorge Batlle of the Batllismo faction, and the Colorado Party to the National Party.

Pacheco was part of the coalition government setup by President Luis Alberto Lacalle. Due to this, his former VP candidate Pablo Millor split from his faction, taking with him close to half of the Pachequismo's elected representatives, creating a new, independent sector within the Colorados called "Cruzada 94". The UCB was the last faction to remain in Lacalle's government, apart obviously from the President's Herrerismo.

With his health in a quite frail state, Pacheco run once again for President, in elections in November 1994. This time his running-mate was outgoing Industry Minister (from the Lacalle administration) Eduardo Ache. Pacheco's election result was very poor, but even his marginal result was significant for the Colorado Party to narrowly defeat the National Party and electing once again Julio María Sanguinetti to the presidency.

After the 1994 elections, Pacheco retired from active politics, and only occasionally would make any public appearance. He died on July 29, 1998, being buried with Presidential honours at the Cementerio Central.