Do we like them?

Do we like Yamandú Orsi?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and a government that talks to LGBTQ+ groups, but a thin record and an unresolved vehicle row.

Orsi is the president of Uruguay, in office since March 2025, and in March 2026 he gave his first-year address to the General Assembly, defending stability and announcing a planned Justice Ministry. MercoPress's first-year wrap reported unemployment and crime falling, wages edging up and growth moderate. That's the broad picture: a steady, centre-left government rather than a firebrand one.

The story that has hurt him is the vehicle. MercoPress reported he bought a Hyundai Santa Fe for about US$54,000 in February 2025, days before taking office, against a market value of about US$79,000. He described it as a vehicle swap at a reasonable price and offered to pay any difference an oversight body decides. The opposition accused him of mocking the public over his answer, and says the transparency body's handling is being used politically. No outcome from that review turned up, so call it unresolved.

On the harm check, nothing nasty from him turned up on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate. Reporting from the Washington Blade's partner Watermark on the 2025 Diversity March said activists wanted his government to enforce the existing trans law, and one organiser praised it for opening dialogue the previous administration hadn't. That's a government being pushed to deliver, not one pushing harm. To be straight, the record I could check is thin, and I found no big speeches either way.

Politically he's under pressure. MercoPress reported May 2026 polls with approval around 29 per cent and disapproval around 46 per cent, and tension inside his own Frente Amplio over low approval. His May visit aboard the USS Nimitz also drew opposition claims of unconstitutionality, which is a fight about process, not about harm to anyone.

On the good stuff, the honest answer is that I couldn't verify specific charity or personal acts this time, so I'm not padding it. What the sources do show is a government that has kept channels open with LGBTQ+ groups and a president willing to take the heat in public. That earns a reasonably warm look, not a gush.

So where do we land? On the harm test he looks fine, and on being a decent bloke the car row is a real question mark rather than a verdict. If a transparency finding comes out against him, that changes the good-person result. Until then it's a lean yes with an eyebrow raised.