Who Really Holds Sovereignty
Farewell Letter: The Passport as the Only Private Property
Montevideo, February 1, 2026
Dear Mom and Dad,
I’m leaving this letter on the table because saying this out loud hurts too much, and because I know that you, who fought so hard for me to become a professional, are the ones who will feel my absence the most.
But today, I’m leaving.
I’m not leaving because I don’t love this country. I’m leaving because the country has decided that I no longer belong to myself.
I graduated, worked hard, and tried to “be someone,” as you used to say.
But in 2026, being someone simply means being an account number for the absolutism of the moment.
I’m tired of opening my bank account every month and realizing that I am a minority partner in my own salary.
The State, with a voracity that even the kings of France would never have dared to imagine, decides by decree how much my time is worth, how much of my effort belongs to them, and what crumbs are left for me to build a future.
They tell me this is “democracy,” but all I see is a carefully drafted deception.
How can it be democracy when the value of my home is whatever they decide it should be to charge me more?
How can it be freedom when my savings are constantly under threat of confiscation or arbitrary surcharges?
I feel that my life is being expropriated in convenient monthly installments.
You taught me to be honest, but here honesty is punished with fines and efficiency with higher taxes.
I don’t want to live in a place where success is treated as war loot to be redistributed among those who never took any risks.
I feel that if I stay, I will be financing my own suffocation.
I’m leaving for a place where, at the very least, the fruit of my talent belongs to me.
Where the State acts as a referee, not as an owner.
I’m taking my degree, my willingness to work, and the sadness of knowing that this Uruguay is losing people who dream, only to be filled with people who know how to collect.
Don’t miss me too much.
Think that, for the first time in years, I will truly own my own life.
I love you,
The son who had to choose between his country and his future.