1. The Laguna Garzón Bridge in Uruguay is designed as a circle, over the water. Its design forces drivers to slow down and to allow for pedestrian access along the one-way circular route, including crosswalks that allow pedestrian access to either the inner or outer sidewalks of the circle. – Source
2. In Uruguay, up until 2017, if you caught your spouse in bed with someone else, it was within your rights to beat or kill either of them. – Source
3. Former President of Uruguay, José Mujica, was considered the poorest president in the world and would donate 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities and would even wait his turn at public hospitals. – Source
4. In 1919, after becoming an officially secular country, Uruguay renamed the holidays of Christmas Day to “Family Day”, Holy Easter Week to “Tourism Week”, and Epiphany to “Children’s Day”. – Source
5. In the 1950 FIFA World Cup final in Brazil (with the hosts up against Uruguay) a speech congratulating Brazil on the win was prepared, 22 gold medals with the Brazilian player’s names imprinted on them were made and a song on Brazil’s victory was written prior to the finals. Uruguay won 2-1. – Source
6. Charrúa people were the indigenous people of Uruguay and the surrounding areas. In 1831, the first president of Uruguay, Fructuoso Rivera, organized a campaign to eradicate the Charrúas. They are now considered ethnically extinct. – Source
7. In 2014, a cemetery in Uruguay started incorporating QR codes on headstones that link to obituaries. – Source
8. There is a 135-year-old micronation inside Uruguay that doesn’t allow discussing politics, religion, and sports and doesn’t give citizenship to women. – Source
9. A Uruguayan city called Treinta y Tres, or “33” in Spanish is so named for the militant group which founded Uruguay. By coincidence, it lies almost exactly on the 33rd parallel south. Also, its postal code is 33000, and, with two other cities, it forms a population center of about 33,000 people. – Source
10. The official name of Uruguay is “Oriental Republic of Uruguay”. – Source
11. There is a town named San Javier in Uruguay, that was founded by Russian settlers in 1913. Russian is the second official language after Spanish. – Source
12. Uruguay is one the leading nations in progressive drug reform and also happens to have some of the strictest tobacco regulations in the world. – Source
13. In 1964, a meat processing plant in Uruguay caused an outbreak of Typhoid in Scotland. – Source
14. The Tupamaros rebels of Uruguay were largely composed of students/white collar workers who used political kidnapping as an alternative to assassinations. – Source
