After Pacheco left office, his successor Juan María Bordaberry appointed him as Uruguay's Ambassador to Spain. Later, President
Aparicio Méndez appointed him Ambassador to Switzerland and then to the United States. Pacheco returned to Uruguay in 1982, to run in the all-party primaries of 1982, the first step towards democratization after a military takeover in 1973. The "Batllismo" faction of the Colorado Party, led by
Julio María Sanguinetti, won the primary, bringing Pacheco's faction of the Colorado Party to an end for several years. In 1984, Pacheco ran for president against Sanguinetti again, and lost. Pacheco supported the new Colorado administration, and his UCB Party was represented in the cabinet. Sanguinetti designated Pacheco to be Ambassador to Paraguay. After returning from Paraguay, Pacheco ran for president again in 1989, obtaining the UCB nomination, but lost a third time. Pacheco was part of the coalition government of President
Luis Alberto Lacalle, causing a split with his former running mate, Pablo Millor, tho took with him half of the UCB's elected representatives, in order to form "
Cruzada 94", a new within the Colorados. With his health in a quite frail state, Pacheco ran for President in 1994, losing to Sanguinetti, and then retired from active politics. Making only an occasional public appearance for the rest of his life, he died on July 29, 1998. As the former President of Uruguay, Pacheco was buried with presidential honours at the
Central Cemetery of Montevideo. ==In popular culture==