Weather
Warm temperate; freezing temperatures almost unknown.
Terrain
Mostly rolling plains and low hills; fertile coastal lowland.
Currency
Uruguayan Peso (UYU)
Languages
Spanish, Portunol, or Brazilero (Portuguese-Spanish mix on the Brazilian frontier)
Religion
Roman Catholic 66% (less than half of the adult population attends church regularly), Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, nonprofessing or other 31%
Ethnic groups
white 88%, mestizo 8%, black 4%, Amerindian, practically nonexistent
History
A violent Marxist urban guerrilla movement, the Tupamaros, launched in the late 1960s, led Uruguay's president to agree to military control of his administration in 1973. By yearend, the rebels had been crushed, but the military continued to expand its hold throughout the government. Civilian rule was not restored until 1985. Uruguay's political and labor conditions are among the freest on the continent.
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