by the turn of the century, half the nation had to survive in the informal economy. in 2002, the economic crisis of brazil and argentina spread to uruguay. this crisis was caused by the lack of productive power. in august of that year, the nation received 1.5 billion us dollars from the imf to try and help with the crisis. the ruling colorado party’s response to the crisis was to flood police into the poorer neighborhoods. this was the state of the nation when the broad front began campaigning for the 2004 election.