President: Uruguay to withdraw peacekeepers from Haiti

Uruguay will withdraw its contingent at the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti ( Minustah) in a few days due to lack of democratic progress, President Jose Mujica said on Friday. In his weekly radio address, Mujica said "Uruguay maintains its decision to leave and will withdraw in the next days a part of the forces, which will not be replaced." Mujica referred to his Sunday meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, saying that "we exchanged views on Haiti where, since several years ago, we have tried to help a society which has gone through deep crisis and a devastating earthquake." "We agreed that we cannot become a 'praetorian guard' (security corps for the leaders)," said Mujica, citing the lack of " institutional solutions" in Haiti. "In 10 years we have not resolved these situations. Clearly, we think there has to be another way," he said, hoping that these issues will be resolved gradually. Brazil and Uruguay are the countries that contributed the largest number of forces to the Brasilia-led Minustah. Uruguay currently has some 840 army and 100 navy personnel stationed there. The UN Security Council said in October it was reducing the size of the force, which has been on the ground since 2004.