Luis Lacalle Pou is a Uruguayan politician and lawyer who served as President of Uruguay from 2020 to 2025. His leadership marked the end of 15 years of left-wing governments in the country and was characterized by a liberal approach, structural reforms, and a notable management of the pandemic.
His political career began in 1999 when he was elected as a deputy for the National Party. He was re-elected for three consecutive terms (2000-2015) and presided over the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2012. He later served as a senator (2015-2019). In 2014, he ran for the presidency but lost in the second round to Tabaré Vázquez. However, in 2019, he won the election against Daniel Martínez (Broad Front), consolidating an unprecedented multi-party alliance in the country’s history: the Republican Coalition.
Presidency and Legacy
As president, Lacalle Pou led an ambitious reform agenda, including:
- COVID-19 Management: Implemented the "responsible freedom" strategy, avoiding mandatory lockdowns and positioning Uruguay as one of the best-managed countries during the pandemic.
- Urgent Consideration Law (LUC): Introduced a broad reform covering key areas such as public security, economic deregulation, education, and housing.
- Pension System Reform: Led one of the most significant transformations in social security, despite opposition from labor unions and left-wing sectors.
- Education Reform: Promoted structural changes aimed at improving the quality and equity of the education system.
- Foreign Policy: Took a firm stance against authoritarian regimes in Latin America, condemning the dictatorships in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba while advocating for democratic restoration in these countries in international forums.
Career and Personal Life
Coming from a family with a deep political tradition, he is the son of former President Luis Alberto Lacalle Herrera (1990-1995) and former Senator Julia Pou. His great-grandfather, Luis Alberto de Herrera, was one of the most influential figures in the history of the National Party and Uruguay.
Born in Montevideo, he grew up in the Pocitos neighborhood, studied at The British Schools, and graduated as a lawyer from the Catholic University of Uruguay in 1998, although he never practiced law. Passionate about sports, he has been involved in surfing and rugby since his youth and remains active in both.
In 2020, he took office as President at the age of 46, becoming the youngest head of state in Uruguay since the return to democracy in 1985. His term ended on March 1, 2025, leaving a significant mark on Uruguayan and Latin American politics.
Francis Fukuyama is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), resident in FSI's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, effective July 2010. He comes to Stanford from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, where he was the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of SAIS' International Development program.
Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to democratization and international political economy. His book, The End of History and the Last Man, was published by Free Press in 1992 and has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His most recent book, The Origins of Political Order, was published in April 2011. Other books include America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy, and Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap between Latin America and the United States.
Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation from 1979-1980, then again from 1983-89, and from 1995-96. In 1981-82 and in 1989 he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State, the first time as a regular member specializing in Middle East affairs, and then as Deputy Director for European political-military affairs. In 1981-82 he was also a member of the US delegation to the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. He served as a member of the President's Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004.
Dr. Fukuyama is chairman of the editorial board of The American Interest, which he helped to found in 2005. He is a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, and a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Center for Global Development. He holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), Kansai University (Japan), and Aarhus University (Denmark). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, the Board of Directors of the National Endowment for Democracy, and member of the advisory boards for the Journal of Democracy, the Inter-American Dialogue, and The New America Foundation. He is a member of the American Political Science Association and the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to Laura Holmgren and has three children.
