Uruguay

Uruguayan government officials have engaged in illegal surveillance of Marcelo Abdala, president of Uruguayan trade union federation PIT-CNT and general secretary of National Union of Metal Workers and Related Branches (UNTMRA). In February 2023, Uruguayan media published audio recordings of the former presidential security chief Alejandro Astesiano confirming that he used surveillance cameras from the Ministry of the Interior to follow Abdala’s route on a public highway after he was involved in a traffic accident in February 2022. Trade unions have denounced these acts of surveillance as a serious violation of individual rights and civil liberties.

On 7 September 2022, dairy industry workers in Uruguay carried out a 24-hour strike to protest union persecution and repression at the company Fritran, a distributor of ice cream. The company had suspended all workers affiliated with Sudec (Sindicato de Distribución de Helados Conaprole) for having participated in an assembly and had unjustly dismissed the union president, in addition to various violations of the sectoral agreement.