Gendered political violence in Uruguay: party policy and women’s narratives in the left-wing Frente Amplio

Recent studies exploring how gendered political violence (GPV) limits women’s political inclusion have produced typologies of the diverse forms this violence takes. These provide a useful framework for measuring its prevalence, and allow for between country comparisons. However, in regions like Latin America, where some countries experience extreme manifestations of political violence (death threats or murders, as in Bolivia or Mexico), in countries which do not experience such cases, political violence is often rendered invisible or minimized. Uruguay is a case in point. In recent years it has stood out in the region in terms of legislative and policy advances in women’s rights (the decriminalization of abortion, an integral law against gender-based violence, and a National Care System), it also has stable and highly institutionalized party and electoral systems, and comparatively low levels of social violence. However, a 2021 study based on quantitative and qualitative evidence (survey and in-depth interviews with female office-holders) showed high levels of psychological and symbolic violence, perpetrated through a range of patriarchal practices rooted throughout the Uruguayan party and electoral systems. This paper presents findings from a second study of GPV centred on the left-wing Frente Amplio (FA), the only Uruguayan party to have voluntarily adopted gender parity in its electoral lists (2018) and a protocol for addressing cases of GPV among its ranks (2020). Despite these advances, the 2021 study showed that levels of violence against women in the FA is not lower than in other parties. This study seeks, first, to understand how the party came to adopt the protocol, and the problems affecting its implementation, based on analysis of internal party records and semi-structured interviews with members of the FA’s decision-making bodies, its women’s rights unit and the body responsible for investigating complaints of GPV and applying sanctions. Second, it aims to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the specific characteristics and impacts of GPV from an intersectional perspective, through narrative inquiry carried out with both current and former members of the party, victims of GPV.