Luis Lacalle Pou

Luis Alberto Aparicio Alejandro Lacalle Pou (, ; born 11 August 1973), often referred to by his initials LLC, is a Uruguayan politician and lawyer, serving as the 42nd president of Uruguay since 2020.

Lacalle Pou was born on 11 August 1973 in the capital city of Montevideo.

Lacalle Pou comes from a family with historical ties with the nation's government; he is the son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle and former first lady and senator Julia Pou.

He has two siblings, Pilar and Juan José, and is the great-grandson of Luis Alberto de Herrera on his paternal side.

He is also a distant relative to political figure Joaquín Suárez.

Lacalle Pou lived in the Pocitos neighborhood during his childhood and adolescence.

At the age of 46, Lacalle Pou ended the 15 years of leftist rule in the country and became the youngest president since the end of the dictatorship in 1985.

Nearly half of the country has approved Lacalle Pou's presidency thus far, with a September 2023 rating of 47% of the total population, the highest in the South American continent.

During his presidency, Lacalle Pou has overseen several reforms to retirement and pension laws and the education system.

He led Uruguay's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout, for which he won praise and high approval ratings for his successful handling of the virus.

When his father took office as president in 1990, his family moved to the Suárez presidential residence in Prado.

At the age of 14, a medical consultation in the United States revealed that he had a growth hormone problem.

He underwent treatment with hormone injections that allowed him to reach an adult height of 1.70 meters.

He took up surfing during his youth and also played football for Montevideo Cricket Club.

He was educated at The British Schools of Montevideo.

As his final years at the school coincided with his father's elevation to the presidency, a guard was posted at the school gates while he and his younger brother attended class.

Resisting official protocol to be taken to school in a car by government escort, he instead preferred to drive himself in an old family vehicle.

In 1993 he enrolled at the Catholic University of Uruguay to study law, graduating in 1998.

The son of former president Luis Alberto Lacalle, Lacalle Pou attended The British Schools of Montevideo and graduated from the Catholic University of Uruguay in 1998 with a law degree.

A member of the National Party, he was first elected to the Chamber of Representatives in the 1999 election as a National Representative for the Canelones Department, a position he held from 2000 to 2015.

In the 1999 general elections, he was elected representative for Canelones, serving the 2000–2005 term.

He was re-elected in 2004 under the Herrerist faction of the National Party, a movement founded by his great-grandfather, Luis Alberto de Herrera.

In the 2009 general elections, he was elected for a third consecutive time and served until 2015.

As leader of the opposition, he opposed some laws and principles of the past left-wing government.

He defines himself as religious, which is why he emphasized his commitment to disincentiveize abortion, and resorting to it only when necessary.

He was a candidate for Intendant of Canelones in the 2010 municipal election, obtaining 22.82% of the votes and being defeated by Marcos Carámbula of the Broad Front.

Currently, Lacalle Pou is the leader of the political lists 404 (Montevideo) and 400 (Canelones).

During the first session of the 47th Legislature (2011–2012) he chaired the lower house of the General Assembly.

He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2014.

On 30 March 2014, Lacalle Pou launched his bid for the presidency.

On 1 June 2014 he was nominated as candidate of his party for the presidential elections in October, in which he was elected Senator of the Republic.

He was defeated on the second round of presidential election on 30 November 2014.

He also served as Senator from 2015 to 2019.

Five years later, he defeated the Broad Front nominee and former mayor of Montevideo Daniel Martínez in the 2019 general election and was elected President of Uruguay with 50.79% of the vote in the second round.

In the 2019 presidential primaries, Lacalle Pou competed against Enrique Antía, Carlos Iafigliola, Jorge Larrañaga and the new candidate Juan Sartori.

Lacalle Pou won by 53% of the votes, enough to announce Beatriz Argimón the same night of 30 June as a vice president candidate.

In April 2020, his administration presented a bill under the constitutional label of "Urgent Consideration Law", which after being enacted on July 8, 2020, introduced reforms and restructuring in various areas.

After an opposition campaign, a referendum was held in March 2022 to ask the electorate whether 135 articles of the law should be repealed, with the option to keep them in force winning.

A drought that occurred between 2022 and 2023 caused some protests due to the reduction in water availability and access in the Montevideo metropolitan area for a few weeks.

Added to this were some controversies, with certain figures in his administration, such as Alejandro Astesiano, former chief custodian, who was dismissed from his position and subsequently arrested for forging Uruguayan identity cards and passports to Russian citizens.