Chinchulín, Pact of

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Chinchulín, Pact of

The Pact of Chinchulín (Pork-Barrel Pact) was an October 1931 power-sharing agreement between two of the principal party factions in Uruguay. Under the 1919 Constitution, executive authority was divided between the president and a nine-member National Council of Administration. Reflecting votes cast in the 1928 elections for the council, the Colorado Party had five seats (of which three went to the Batllist faction) and the Blancos, four. The Batllists sought support for their proposal to create a new public corporation Ancap (National Administration of Fuel, Alcohol, and Cement). The urban-oriented, elitist principista faction of the Blancos agreed to enter the pact with the Batllists on the condition that the directorates of all public corporations reflect the party composition of the National Council of Administration. The Blancos thus secured an enhanced share of patronage in the public sector. The pact was opposed by the Herrerist Blancos, who supported the overthrow of the constitution by Gabriel Terra in 1933.

See alsoTerra, Gabriel; Uruguay: The Twentieth Century; Uruguay, Constitutions; Uruguay, Political Parties: Blanco Party; Uruguay, Political Parties: Colorado Party.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Göran G. Lindahl, Uruguay's New Path: A Study in Politics During the First Colegiado, 1919–1933 (1962).

Gerardo Caetano and Raúl Jacob, El nacimiento del terrismo, 1930–1933 (1989).

                                         Henry Finch