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A mechanical engineer, he had spent the majority of his years in fossil fuels, with many of them at Montevideo’s José Batlle y Ordóñez, then the largest thermal plant in the country.

The reformist President José Batlle y Ordóñez had just stepped down, leaving a legacy that included state secularism, divorce rights for women, and a wide range of workers’ protections.

He was related to 19th-century presidents Jose Batlle y Ordonez and Lorenzo Batlle.

Uruguay's anticlericalism dates back to the two terms in the early 1900s of President Jose Batlle y Ordonez, who was ahead of his time in promoting social change, from the eight-hour workday and maternity leave to separation of church and state.

Anthropologist Daniel Vidart, author of a study on Uruguayan identity, told the BBC that the country values its liberal traditions, which date back to a raft of social reforms introduced by President Jose Batlle y Ordonez a century ago.