From 1985 onwards, after the end of the
military dictatorship and the amnesty that freed those
Tupamaros imprisoned during the regime, there was debate among different factions within the Tupamaros about whether or not to participate in the legal political system. In the end, those who favored the democratic ways prevailed. In 1989, the Tupamaros were admitted within the ranks of the Broad Front and, together with other groups of the radical left such as the
People's Victory Party (PVP), the
Oriental Revolutionary Movement (MRO) and the Socialist Workers' Party, they created the
Movement of Popular Participation (MPP). However, the Tupamaros within the MPP declined to participate in the
elections. As a result of the legislative elections of 1989, the MPP won two seats in the
Chamber of Deputies:
Helios Sarthou (a Union lawyer) and Hugo Cores (PVP). It has since become the largest faction within the Broad Front, the leftist coalition which won the elections in 2004 and took power in March 2005. Its main leader was
José Mujica. In 1992, the MRO decided to leave the MPP (and soon afterwards, the Broad Front) due to political differences with the direction the MPP was taking, stating that "it was growing apart from the ideas of
Raúl Sendic regarding the foreign debt, the nationalization of banks and external trade". In the
elections of 1994 former guerrilla members participated in Uruguayan elections for the first time as candidates for Parliament. The MPP gained in votes, thus obtaining two seats in the Chamber of Deputies (
José Mujica and
Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro) and one in the Senate (Sarthou). The Fourth Congress of the MPP was held between late 1998 and early 1999. The leadership of the MLN-T, headed by Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, José Mujica and Eduardo Bonomi, managed to impose within the MPP a strategy of
programmatic moderation and support for Vázquez's leadership that had been outlined at the beginning of 1995. Sarthou and Zabalza, emblematic figures of the early years of the MPP, left the MPP. By 1999, Mujica had become a major political phenomenon, due in part to his blunt style and his clarity. In the elections of that year, Mujica ran for the Senate and the turnout for the MPP increased, giving the party two seats in the upper chamber. The growth in popularity continued so that in
2004 the MPP got six seats in the Senate, and contributed to the victory of presidential candidate
Tabaré Vázquez who then became the first left-wing president of the country. During the Vázquez administration, several members of the MPP held key positions. Mujica was Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, and
Eduardo Bonomi was Minister of Labor. Since 2007 new trends within the MPP have led to the creation of the
CAP-L, led by Huidobro. In the primary elections of 2009, the MPP reasserted its supremacy as the most important faction in the Broad Front. Mujica quit the MPP after the primary elections so that he would not be tied to any particular group within the Broad Front. He subsequently won the elections in the same year in November. == Election results ==