Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today was born into a family with a long political pedigree,

and Louis L'Kayepo is maintaining the tradition.

He won the Uruguayan presidency in 2019, emulating his father 30 years before.

Indeed, the family's dominant role in the right of center

national party goes back to his great-grandfather who served as party leader and his mother,

who was a senator. The current president came to power promising sweeping legislative reform

to tackle crime, deregulate business and open up trade.

In short, his is a classic form of free market conservatism at a time when much of the rest of

Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, has shifted leftward.

Inevitably, that means tension, not least within the Mercosur trading block of South American countries.

Uruguay is determined to push ahead with free trade deals with the likes of China,

even if its Mercosur partners are reluctant.

At home, President La Cayet Po has been accused of showing signs of authoritarianism

in his approach to crime, labour rights, and even free speech. So why is Uruguay taking a different path

right now from much of Latin America? Well, President La Cayae Po joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you very much.

Mr. President, what is it like being a center-right politician on a continent which is quite

clearly moving to the center-left? You are swimming against the political tide.

We have a strong coalition of five parties that supported this government. You have further right,

center right, center and center left. So I have to balance in between these five parties.

We have a program that we took to the election to the citizens. So if you read the

program, you will not be able to define center-right. You're a relatively small country, which

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