Licht-Oase (Light Oasis) was a New Age cult led by Arno Wollensak and Julie Ravell with around 40 members. It was also known as Ramtha. [1]
In the 1980s Arno Wollensak was a follower of Rajneesh, eventually starting his own group. [2] The group lived in Germany, Austria, France and Portugal before relocating to Belize. [2]
Reports of sexual abuse of minors within the cult lead to a police investigation. [3] In 2007 Wollensak failed to appear in court. He and Ravell fled to Uruguay using forged Surinamese documents in 2008.[ citation needed ] The case was transferred to the German Federal Criminal Police in 2014. Wollensak and Ravell were arrested by police in Uruguay and brought to Montevideo on 12 June 2015. [4]
A request for his extradition to Germany was made, but denied by an Uruguay court due to statute of limitations. Wollensak was then released. [5] He was found murdered in Uruguay August 28, 2016. [6]
The practice in the group to separate children from their parents inspired the artwork "Disappearing Mother" by former member Katharina Meredith. [7]
Lea Saskia Laasner described her experiences in the cult in her book Allein gegen die Seelenfänger. Meine Kindheit in der Psycho-Sekte for which she won the Prix Courage in 2005. [8]
Natalia Marisa Oreiro Iglesias is a Uruguayan actress, singer, songwriter, model, television presenter and fashion designer. She began her career in telenovelas but since 2008 she has switched to work primarily in films. Oreiro has worked on social awareness shows and events for organizations like Greenpeace and UNICEF, the latter of which designated her as ambassador for Argentina and Uruguay in September 2011.
Aminatou Ali Ahmed Haidar, sometimes spelled as Aminetou, Aminatu or Aminetu, is a Sahrawi human rights activist and an advocate of the independence of Western Sahara. She is often called the "Sahrawi Gandhi" or "Sahrawi Pasionaria" for her nonviolent protests. She is the president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She was imprisoned from 1987 to 1991 and from 2005 to 2006 on charges related to her independence advocacy. In 2009, she attracted international attention when she staged a hunger strike in Lanzarote Airport after being denied re-entry into Moroccan Western Sahara. Haidar has won several international human rights awards for her work, including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 2009 Civil Courage Prize and 2019 Right Livelihood Award.
Luis Alberto Aparicio Alejandro Lacalle Pou, is a Uruguayan politician and lawyer, serving as the 42nd president of Uruguay since 2020.
María Noel Riccetto Barusso is an Uruguayan ballet dancer, television personality and arts administrator, who currently serves as the artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay. A former soloist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT), she was awarded the Prix Benois de la Danse in 2017.
Ope Pasquet Iribarne is a Uruguayan lawyer and politician of the Colorado Party.
Alba Roballo was an Uruguayan lawyer, poet, and politician, who served three consecutive terms from 1958 to 1971 in the Senate of Uruguay and a fourth term in the early 1990s. After graduating with a law degree from the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, she began to write. In 1942, her first book, Se levanta el sol, won first prize from the Ministry of Education. Later she founded two journals, Mujer Batllista and El Pregón. In 1954 she became the first woman to sit on the Montevideo Departmental Council and was elected Senator for the Colorado Party. A prominent Afro-Uruguayan, she was the first woman in South America to serve as a cabinet minister, appointed in 1968; she resigned this post following authoritarian actions by the government. She was a founder of the Frente Amplio in 1971 and though she ran for re-election, that year she was defeated.
Immigration to Uruguay began in several millennia BCE with the arrival of different populations from Asia to the Americas through Beringia, according to the most accepted theories, and were slowly populating the Americas. The most recent waves of immigrants started with the arrival of Spaniards in the 16th century, during the colonial period, to what was then known as the Banda Oriental.
Ana Carolina Cosse Garrido is a Uruguayan engineer and politician who is the vice president-elect of Uruguay after winning the 2024 general election. She has been Intendant of Montevideo from November 2020 until her resignation in July 2024. A member of the Broad Front, she served as Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mining from 2015 to 2019 during the second administration of President Tabaré Vázquez. In the 2019 Uruguayan general election, she was elected to the Senate of Uruguay, taking her seat on 15 February 2020. On 27 September 2020, she was elected Intendant of Montevideo, the capital of the country.
Gerardo González Valencia is a Mexican convicted drug lord and high-ranking member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a criminal group based in Jalisco. He is part of a clan that heads a CJNG money laundering branch known as Los Cuinis. He was responsible for coordinating international money laundering schemes by using shell companies to purchase assets in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. His wife Wendy Dalaithy Amaral Arévalo was reportedly working with him on this large money laundering scheme when the couple moved from Mexico to Uruguay in 2011.
Beatriz Argimón Cedeira is a Uruguayan politician and notary of the National Party currently serving as the 18th Vice President of Uruguay since 1 March 2020, being the first woman to be elected in that position.
Cabildo Abierto is an Uruguayan political party founded in 2019. The party is described as right-wing populist, nationalist and conservative, as well as mostly characterized as far-right on the mainstream political spectre. However, it defines itself as Artiguist and is referred to as a third position party by some sources. It participated for the first time in an election the same year of its foundation, obtaining 11.04% of the votes, three senators and eleven representatives. It is led by Guido Manini Ríos, descendant of a traditional Colorado Party family and former Commander in Chief of the Army.
The 2019 Uruguayan constitutional referendum, officially referred to as the referendum for constitutional reform on security matters, took place alongside general election of that year, on 27 October 2019, to ask the electorate whether a constitutional reform in public security should be approved. The proposed amendments to the Constitution would create a national guard, forbid early release for some serious crimes, introduce life sentences for crimes of rape, sexual abuse or homicide of minors as well as aggravated homicide of adults, and allow the police to conduct night raids. The referendum resulted in 46.8% of the votes cast in favor of amending the Constitution; however, not reaching the necessary 50%, the amendment was not approved, being rejected by 53.7% of the votes.
Karina Pankievich is a Uruguayan trans rights activist. She is the president of Trans Association of Uruguay.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay has resulted in 1,042,557 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7,694 deaths.
Got Talent Uruguay is a Uruguayan reality television series, and part of the global Got Talent franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Natalia Oreiro, it is produced by Fremantle along Syco Entertainment, and broadcast on Channel 10. The show debuted on June 22, 2020, being, its first episode, the most watched program of the day, reaching 17.7 rating points. It airs every Monday at 9 p.m.
Julio Daniel Salinas Grecco is a Uruguayan neurologist and politician of Open Cabildo (CA), who served as Minister of Public Health of Uruguay from 1 March 2020 to 13 March 2023.
The Honorary Scientific Advisory Group was an advisory committee created by President Luis Lacalle Pou in April 2020, as a support group on the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay.
Maximiliano Ricardo de la Cruz Reffino is a Uruguayan television host, actor and comedian.
Patricia Erika Wolf Fernández is a Uruguayan model, actress and television personality.
Lea Saskia Laasner Vogt is a Swiss author. She became known through her bestselling book Alone against the Soul Catchers, which she published in 2005 with the help of Hugo Stamm.