Who is Carolina Cosse? The elected Mayor of Montevideo Carolina Cosse Garrido was born between Villa Española and Curva de Maroñas. How old is Carolina Cosse? Carolina Cosse’s date of birth was December 25, 1961, so she is 59 years old as of 2021.

She sensed a love for mathematics in public education in her native Uruguay. This is how she later finished her studies as a Master in Mathematical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, UDELAR, near the Punta Carretas neighborhood, where Carolina Cosse lives today.

Childhood and Family

Who is Carolina Cosse’s father? And the mother?

She is the daughter of the history teacher Zulma Garrido and the daughter of the renowned actor Villanueva Cosse.

Politics was always lived at home. Her grandfather, a farmer who distributed the produce of his farm with the laborers, passed away when she was very young. It was a component of the Communist Party in Cerro Largo in the 1950s.

Her adolescence

Carolina’s adolescence was spent in the midst of the dictatorship, with some of her family members imprisoned and her father, outlaw in Buenos Aires. While studying at high school, she taught math to get money.

She remember the complex and authoritarian environment that was lived in the study centers. As a student, she witnessed the gradual loss of the teachers who knew the most, persecuted by the dictatorship.

Siempre se definió como frenteamplista, pero recién empezó a militar gremial y políticamente en 1983, cuando reengancho sus estudios en la Facultad de Ingeniería y se afilio a la Juventud Comunista.

She always defined herself as a Frente Amplio, but she only began to be a member of the union and politically in 1983, when she reengaged her studies at the Faculty of Engineering and joined the Juventud Comunista.

Her children: Rodrigo and Ángeles

It was after being a mother at the age of 19, which forced her to temporarily suspend her career.

Carolina lived with her spouse at that time in her mother’s home and had great help from her mother, her grandmother and even her neighbors to raise her children.

Shortly after, she divorced her husband, a separation that took place on good terms and did not imply the severing of the bond with the children.

 Carolina Cosse Family Children
Mayor Carolina Cosse with her children

According to Carolina, as a mother, she was not possessive. Both children are now independent adults, aged 37 and 36 respectively, their son Rodrigo is an architect, and Ángeles her daughter is a speech therapist, and although they are both in a couple, they have not yet given him grandchildren.

Performance in the private area

Carolina Cosse mainly dedicated her professional activity to the private sector, providing services for companies such as Claro, Banco de Seguros del Estado, Siemens, Edesur, Verizon, etc.

In 2004, she was responsible for training 18,000 operators of fingerprint capture devices for the country’s National Electoral Commission in the recall referendum in Venezuela. In addition, she was also responsible for installing local PC networks and fingerprint capture devices at 3,000 polling sites across the country, and was responsible for supporting the implementation and management of call centers to install and support operators.

Likewise, between 1994 and 1999, she provided professional services to public sector companies, including UTE, BPS (in both cases as a representative of the Gartner Group of Uruguay) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IMM, Antel and MIEM

After a career in the private sphere and working as a teacher in the Faculty, she was president of Antel (May 2010 – February 2015), during the government of José “Pepe” Mujica and Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining (March of 2015 – January 2019), under the management of Tabaré Vázquez.

But something that not many people know is that her political activity really began in 2008, when she served as Director of the Information Technology Department at IMM. Among the tasks that I perform in this position, the management of the technical implementation of the urban transport system (STM) of the city stands out.

President of Antel

Since she assumed the presidency of Antel in May 2010, she has fully implemented a strategy towards new information technologies and a democratization of Internet access in Uruguay.

The Universal Hogares service was created, which is a free basic internet connection. It also created the Antel Integra plan, which included the reconditioning of discarded computers to extend their useful life and thus be able to donate them to the community.

During her presidency, Antel developed an investment plan of more than USD 500 million to provide the fiber optic network in the home and in public schools across the country.

It consolidated Antel’s strong presence in educational activities, through agreements with the state ministries of education and the University of the Republic, they sponsored the construction of the first Uruguayan satellite in consultation with the Faculty of Engineering: Antelsat, and created the Research area Antel Scientist.

Antel Arena

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Tabaré Vázques with the then Minister of Industry Carolina Cosse, the true promoter of Antel Arena, and the then president of the organization, Andrés Tolosa, at the inauguration of the center. (Photo: Verónica Caballero)

In November 2018, Carolina Cosse participated in the inauguration of the Antel Arena. The multifunctional entertainment center began its project, design and construction during the engineering process. Cosse in charge of Antel.

-> Antel Arena: a step towards the future

Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining

During her diligence in the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, he generated a great promotion of new technologies in addition to other areas of industrial development.

these are the most outstanding points of the management of the ministry in charge of Cosse. They reflect the strengthening of software exports, contributing 2% of Uruguay’s GDP.

Presidential bid 2019

In 2018, Cosse began to be seen as a possible candidate for the presidency or vice-presidency of the 2019 elections. Since then, several sectors of the Frente Amplio decided to support her candidacy for the presidency of the Republic: Popular Participation Movement (MPP), groups Rumbo de Izquierda, De Frente, Frente en Movimiento, and the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores.

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Carolina Cosse in her presidential candidacy (2019)

In November 2018, the National Plenary of the Broad Front decided to elevate the names of Carolina Cosse, Daniel Martínez, Óscar Andrade and Mario Bergara as pre-candidates to the internal elections to the Congress of that party. In December of that year, the pre-candidates of Carolina Cosse and the other three candidates, being then the first woman candidate for the presidency of Uruguay. The then minister accepted and indicated that she would remain in office until the end of the year, and then begin her political campaign.

In February 2019, at the ceremony for the 48th anniversary of the Frente Amplio and together with her other 3 companions, she launched her electoral campaign after her pre-candidacy for the presidency. Of the 4 candidates for the Presidency of the Republic for the Frente Amplio for the internal elections, Cosse obtained 27% of the votes, remaining in second place, after Daniel Martínez.

You may also like: Frente Amplio

Campaign for the Senate

After the internal elections were over, there was speculation about whether Cosse would accompany the second place in the presidential formula of the Frente Amplio to candidate Daniel Martínez, since he had been second in the internal elections. But finally, the candidate chose Graciela Villar as her presidential running mate.

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Mayor Carolina Cosse in her campaign for the Senate

Finally, a few days later, Cosse announced his candidacy for the Senate with the Broad List at a press conference in La Huella de Seregni, headquarters of the party, and criticized the trial for the appointment of the candidate to Vice President, claiming that it did not contribute to compliance of the party.

Since the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) did not offer Cosse a place on its list to the Senate, Carolina made a political-electoral pact with the equally former candidate Oscar Andrade for the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. Both were elected to the Senate.

Campaign for the Municipality of Montevideo

Before Cosse assumed her position in the Senate, her name began to appear for the Municipality of Montevideo. It was then that her candidacy was materialized and finally, in January 2020, he received the support of the Socialist Party, a sector to which Daniel Martínez belongs, causing a great disjunction in the intern. Later he also won the support of the Partido Comunista, Casa Grande and the Partido por la Victoria del Pueblo.

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Daniel Martínez, Mayor Carolina Cosse and Álvaro Villar, in the Plenary of the Frente Amplio

On January 29, the Departmental Plenary of the Broad Front in Montevideo proclaimed Carolina Cosse, Daniel Martínez and Álvaro Villar as candidates.

Carolina Cosse 2020 Lists

Among the lists in favor of Cosse are List 90 that identify the Socialist Party headed by Nicolás Lasa; the 1001 List of the Communist Party and its allies; the Casa Grande 3311 List; List 567 of the Party for the Victory of the People; List 6009 of the Broad Front Congress, and List 42020 known as the Broad List.

On the other hand, El Abrazo accompanied the three candidates from the Frente Amplio.

Carolina Cosse as Mayor of Montevideo

The inauguration ceremony was held on Thursday, November 26, 2020 before a notary public and with the participation of directors that make up the new departmental cabinet

National and municipal authorities, representatives of civil organizations, civil servants and civil servants, neighbors and neighbors were present.

The day featured an artistic show by Cristina Fernández, Eli Amic, Christian Cary, Ruben Rada, accompanied by the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Given the reduced capacity due to the health emergency, the ceremony was broadcast live on TV Ciudad and through the institutional social networks of the Municipality on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Departmental Cabinet 2020

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Carolina Cosse and her departmental cabinet 2020

Carolina Cosse’s cabinet is made up of Olga Otegui as General Secretary of the IMM, while the prosecutor is Daniel González.

Among the directors, Environmental Development is headed by Guillermo Moncecchi, who succeeded Cosse in the Ministry of Industry.

The direction of Urban Development is in charge of Adriana Gorga, Planning of Luis Oreggioni, Montevideo Rural of Isabel Andreoni, Juan Canessa of Institutional Coordination. Mauricio Zunino from Financial Resources and Gustavo Cabrera from Economic Development.

The journalist María Inés Obaldia works in Culture, Federico Graña in Social Development, María Eugenia Corti in Sustainable Development, Jorge Mesa (former National Labor Director) in Human Management and Ana de Rogatis in Communication, who acted as Cosse’s press advisor both in the municipal campaign and in the internal campaigns of the Frente Amplio

Pablo Inthamoussu, Director of Mobility, will continue to be responsible for the next five years. Inthamoussu was one of Álvaro Villar’s main advisers, supported by the MPP.

Solana Quesada also follows the Gender Equality Advisory.

Regarding the divisions, there are Fabiana Goyeneche in charge of International Relations and Cooperation, Gonzalo Márquez continues to lead Transportation, Baltasar Brum in Arts and Sciences, Sebastián Moreno in Lands and Habitat, Mariella Pellegrin in Personnel Administration, Ignacio Lorenzo in Cleaning, Mauricio Fernández in Sanitation, the former Colorado deputy Fernando Amado in Tourism, Martín Delgado in Public Spaces and Buildings, Virginia Cardozo in Health, Carolos Varela in Transit, Mara Moya in Territorial Planning, Tamara Paseyro in Social Policies, Federico Penino in Planning and Budget Execution , and Enrique Barrenchea in Income Administration.

Political Future of Carolina Cosse

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Fourth Government Broad Front 2024! Up those who fight!

Carolina Cosse is considered a possible member of the Frente Amplio formula for the 2024 elections. You can show your support for this probable candidacy in the following Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/carolinacossecom

These elections will be held on Sunday, October 27, 2024. If the adhesion of no candidate reaches 50% + 1 of the total votes, the second electoral round will take place on Sunday, November 24, 2024.

The best phrases of Carolina Cosse

When we talk about Carolina Cosse, phrases, thoughts and speeches directed to the social conscience are going to be left over. We could literally write a book only with its countless messages, speeches or phrases about education and science. Among his most iconic phrases we have:

  • “The people of Uruguay have established a political system that shocked the world by making the president and the next one enter international events arm in arm.”
  • “We have an excellent team, but for you it will be the best.”
  • “We are committed to working without pause solving the present, building the future, always close to go further.”
  • “And that we come to a time when each one of us wonders ‘what part of the solution is up to me?’ “

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