Safety in Uruguay

Uruguay has the reputation of being one of the safest if not the safest country in Latin America.

We would like to hear from Uruguayan Expats and folks who have spent time in Uruguay and other L.A. place(s)?  How do they compare?

What about Montevideo, the biggest place in URU?  Is it especially safe for a Latin American metropolis?

Is the beachside jewel of Latin America, namely Punta del Este, super safe?

cccmedia in Ecuador

I live in Punte del Este. I not only feel safe here I am safe here, safer than I was in Southern California; from evil public or private. I have lived here several years and the high safety has remained steady.

The only crimes that seem to occur are non-violent and not against people. I have heard that empty houses in outlying areas (most housing except during the summer) are sometimes broken into. Adolescent style graffiti tagging is frequent but without noticeable gang activity or sign. I feel safe walking at anytime, observing only reasonable, habitual cautions.

In the summer there are out of area/country tourists everywhere, greatly outnumbering the locals, and even they have been almost entirely civil. PdE has been a very safe place.

Ditto that. There was a German guy killed here recently but it turned out that his sister paid to have him hit. Nice!

I think the only place you have to be really alert would be parts of Montevideo where violent crime is committed relating to drugs and in that respect I think I read recently there has been one murder per day this year.

Hi
In my own experience I can say that Montevideo is a safe city. And the litle towns more, but the local people claim that is unsafe.
Safe is about what are your expectations and which were your past experiences in other countries.
I has been living in Montevideo two years and in this period  a man grab a fan a run away, and 5 times the robbers has broke my car windows.
But in comparison with Colombia, Buenos Aires, Venezuela is very pretty safe.
Regards

Martin Nino wrote:

Safe is about what are your expectations and which were your past experiences....I has been living in Montevideo two years and in this period  a man grab a fan a run away, and 5 times the robbers has broke my car windows.
But in comparison with Colombia, Buenos Aires, Venezuela is very pretty safe.

Yes, Señor Niño, I agree, feeling safe is largely about expectations.

Frankly, though, five incidents of car-window smashings in two years is way more than my expectations.

In the U.S., where I lived in many places as a car-owner over a period of decades, I had such break-ins only twice.  Once was when I foolishly left two cases of vino de durazno in plain view on the back seat, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC, no less.  The ladrones left me one case and a window-repair bill to pay.

I believe the last sentence in your post lost something in the translation, and you meant to say that you believe that Montevideo is safer than Venezuela or those other places.

cccmedia in Ecuador

I visited Montevideo for 14 days and found the people of this fascinating city to be extremely friendly and caring. You can't go out and walk down some dark street alone and expect not to be robbed.... There are sections of the city that are dangerous especially in the night...... use common sense. I found their Higher Ed. both private and public to be very good and their public higher ed. is FREE, yes Free. So looking at the city and its people, I think that many of our own cities in the US are far more dangerous then Montevideo, Uruguay.

Higher Ed is only "free" in the public universities and they are so crowded, many students do not even get into the classroom but sit on the floor outside the room trying to hear.

Also once you get a job, your taxes will be higher than someone who did not go to pay back the cost.

Depends where you come from if you feel Uruguay is safe. I come from a small town in Canada and find Montevideo in particular much less safe.  There have been 230 shootings so far this year in Montevideo with 68 deaths.  Almost every home and business has bars on the windows and alarm systems, more cameras are being installed in the streets and many restaurants employ armed guards.


Security and the lack of it is the number one  concern of the population according to polls.