About Luis Pou
Luis Lacalle Pou, former president of Uruguay, has been active in political commentary and party events since leaving office in March 2025. In late October 2025, he criticized the administration of President Yamandú Orsi for canceling a contract with the Spanish shipyard Cardama for the construction of two ocean patrol boats. Lacalle Pou stated that the government "is more dedicated to destroying what it found than to building what it does not have a plan for" and said he believed "they dragged the president into a political operation." He argued that the contract had been properly vetted and that the decision exposed Uruguay to legal and financial risks. The National Party, with Lacalle Pou's participation, announced it would seek to interpellate the Defense Minister over the matter.
In earlier appearances, Lacalle Pou reflected on his own administration and the 2024 electoral loss. At a National Party convention in June 2025, he said the party needed self-criticism and acknowledged that "maybe the Broad Front's candidacy wasn't so bad, or ours wasn't better." He also spoke about the concept of "freedom with responsibility," which he said guided his government, and expressed a willingness to return to politics, stating he would "live it again, correcting errors." In September 2025, he criticized the governments of Venezuela and Cuba, saying of Nicolás Maduro and Miguel Díaz-Canel that "the power embraced them, hypnotized them, and they have no way out."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Luis Pou's recent appearances.
Browse all interviews →
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
L
Luis Pou0:02
I know there is an evident difference, a different type, a different nature, but what drives this summit is cooperation in the face of substantive problems in the region. The president, Díaz-Canel, has asked for the floor to make a clarification regarding Cuba, about something that was said about Cuba. I ask you, Mr. President, with all due respect, to be very brief and very specific so that we can continue with the presentation that ECLAC is going to give us.
M
Miguel Díaz-Canel0:47
Agreed, Mr. President. I only thank you, and I do so with the intention of precisely preserving the theme of unity among you, in the things that the current mention made by the President of La Calle denotes his ignorance of reality. The courage and freedom of the Cuban people have been demonstrated for six decades in the face of the aggression and blockade of the USA, fundamental obstacles to advancing further in our development, which the President of La Calle did not mention. Listen to your people, who gathered more than 700,000 signatures against the Omnibus Law that you imposed and that changed the conditions for adjusting fuel prices, evictions, reducing the role of public enterprises, modifying the criminal process—in reality, a neoliberal package. With neoliberalism, instability, speculation, external debt, unequal exchange, the tendency for more frequent financial crises, poverty, inequality, and selfishness between the opulent North and the dispossessed South have multiplied. It is the organization that, at the service of the USA, supported attempts to isolate Cuba, military interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean, coups d'état, military dictatorships, even in your country, which you designed to contain—that the USA designed to contain the resistance of the peoples of our America. The OAS remained silent while torture occurred in our region and in your country. The OAS is the one that remains silent today when Latin Americans are repressed, murdered, and disappeared. It is not in Cuba where these events occur. It is the OAS that has an unworthy Secretary General who contributed, participated, and supported the coup d'état of the government of Bolivia in 2019. Neoliberalism, Monroeism, and that OAS are what the President of La Calle has just defended here. Thank you.
L
Luis Pou2:49
Thank you. You have one minute, President La Calle, and then we continue with Alicia Bárcena.
L
Luis Lacalle Pou3:01
Thank you. The President of Cuba uses arguments about my nation that I obviously do not share and are not true. If there is something that is true, it is that in my country, fortunately, the opposition can gather signatures. In my country, fortunately, the opposition has democratic means to complain. That is the great difference with the Cuban regime. And I want to simply quote—and these are not my words—it is a very beautiful song, and those who sing it feel oppressed by the government: 'Let the blood stop running for wanting to think differently. Who told you that Cuba is yours? My Cuba belongs to all my people.' Thank you very much.
L
Luis Pou3:53
Thank you. I can no longer allow the floor for understanding, because I believe that things should not remain unclarified. It seems that President La Calle has very bad musical taste. That song is totally a lie and a construction by some artists against the revolution. With us, we only want to defend as Cubans a united Latin America that can help us face the tremendous challenges posed by increasingly frequent economic crises and other unexpected ones, like the terrible pandemic that today keeps all governments and peoples of the world under pressure, without ideological or political distinctions. If President La Calle wants to discuss things with us, we ask him to find the appropriate spaces. We can discuss them face to face without having to bring up issues that seem bilateral between our countries to the unity of the city that we advocate. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
