Hours after justice give rise to the amparo action presented by the Uruguayan Society of Tobacco against the government on the decree that makes cigarette packaging more flexible, the opposition’s response was swift.
In addition to the legislators, the Broad Front recalled this Wednesday a video of former president Tabaré Vázquez when Uruguay won the trial against tobacco company Philip Morris.
With the hashtag #LaSaludPrimero, the political force recalled when Vázquez invited other nations to join “to combat the scourge of smoking”. According to the tweet, he did so “without fear of reprisals from the powerful tobacco companies, just as Uruguay did.”
The Broad Front referred to the ruling of the World Bank arbitration tribunal who responded in favor of the Uruguayan government in the lawsuit imposed by that tobacco company to avoid the application of anti-smoking measures. In 2010, the tobacco company sued the Uruguayan State for US$25 million for considering that its policies were commercially detrimental to the company.
In the national chain replicated by the Broad Front, it was noted: “The Uruguayan State has come out ahead and the claims of the tobacco companies have been roundly rejected. The sanitary measures that we have implemented to control tobacco, and above all to protect the health of our people, have been expressly recognized as legitimate. and they were also adopted based on the sovereign power of our Republic,” he said.
In another excerpt, Vázquez adds: “We firmly ratify the commitment to continue the most frontal and direct fight against tobacco consumption, in order to reduce, day by day, the heavy burden that this epidemic places on our people, and not to give up the full implementation of the Framework Agreement for Tobacco Control, inviting nations to join in the fight against this scourge, without fear of reprisals from the powerful tobacco companies, as Uruguay has done”.
