Cuando el Uruguay dice yo: discurso presidencial en Naciones Unidas (1985-2024)

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of the Uruguayan presidential voice at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) between 1985 and 2024, identifying how presidents introduce individual markers that modulate the state’s diplomatic discourse. Framed within international political communication, the paper draws on genre theory and the French School of Discourse Analysis, mobilizing the notions of discursive ethos, enunciative scenes, and State individuality. Based on an original longitudinal corpus, it examines six presidential series. The analysis shows that, within a tradition of multilateralism, adherence to international law, and pacifism, the presidential figure operates as a space of controlled variation: some reinforce the tradition (Sanguinetti; Lacalle Herrera), ideologize it (Batlle), reorder it (Vázquez, Lacalle Pou), or push it to the limits of generic rupture (Mujica). The presidential enunciator, endowed with democratic legitimacy, occupies a singular position that enables enunciative shifts inaccessible to professional diplomacy. These findings contribute to understanding Uruguayan presidential discourses in light of their foreign policy traditions and can offer a reference for the studying the participation of other heads of state of small states.