Broad Front (Uruguay)
Uruguayan left coalition; opposed Katoen Natie 2081 concession; reported Black Cube target
| Broad Front (Frente Amplio)
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Political coalition / party |
| Area served | Uruguay |
| Remarks | Left-leaning Uruguayan coalition; its 2024 presidential candidate Yamandú Orsi won the run-off. Reported as a target of Black Cube work for the Huts family of Katoen Natie |
This page is about the Uruguayan political coalition. Other parties and coalitions also use the name Broad Front. The Broad Front (Spanish: Frente Amplio) is Uruguay's main left-leaning political coalition. Its candidate Yamandú Orsi won the 2024 presidential run-off. The coalition opposed the 2021 extension of Katoen Natie's Montevideo port concession to 2081. In July 2026 Intelligence Online reported, citing a single source, that before the election the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube had sought evidence of illegal Broad Front financing for the Huts family of Katoen Natie. Black Cube denied conducting political investigations in Uruguay.
Port concession dispute
In February 2021 the government of Luis Lacalle Pou agreed with the Belgian logistics group Katoen Natie to extend its Montevideo container-terminal concession to 2081. Intelligence Online reported that the extension "triggered a wave of opposition", including from the Broad Front, which challenged its legality.[1] In March 2022 Broad Front senators Mario Bergara and Charles Carrera ratified a criminal complaint with prosecutors over the agreement.[2]
A separate surveillance case involving the same senators — a Miami firm, Vertical Skies, asking presidential security chief Alejandro Astesiano for personal "files" on Bergara and Carrera — was reported by la diaria in November 2022. Nothing in the reporting links that case to Black Cube or to the Huts family.[2]
2024 election and reported Black Cube targeting
Constitutional limits on consecutive terms meant Lacalle Pou could not stand in 2024. The governing coalition nominated Álvaro Delgado of the National Party against Broad Front candidate Yamandú Orsi. Orsi won the run-off with 49.8 per cent of the vote.[1]
According to Intelligence Online, Karl Huts, son and business partner of Katoen Natie owner Ferdinand Huts, feared a change of business-friendly policies, and the family "enlisted" Black Cube "to gain information that could be leveraged about Orsi's inner circle and his political associates". A single "source familiar with the operation" said the firm "sought to obtain evidence of illegal financing by Broad Front, including by recording conversations with party members". The article does not say that any recording was made. It reported that "false claims spread widely during the campaign" but that "no scandals emerged to suggest Black Cube's probing had paid off".[1]
Black Cube replied through an English law firm, citing client confidentiality and denying political investigations in Uruguay. No response from the Broad Front or Orsi is reported in the article.[1] The wider account is on Black Cube in Uruguay.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Matt Bernardini and Michael Sweeney, Black Cube, business and politics in Latin America, Intelligence Online, 15 July 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lucas Silva, Empresa de "seguridad e investigación" con sede en Miami le encomendó a Astesiano la elaboración de "fichas" con "información personal" sobre Mario Bergara y Charles Carrera (Miami-based "security and investigation" firm asked Astesiano to compile "files" of "personal information" on Mario Bergara and Charles Carrera), la diaria, 28 November 2022.