In Cerro Chato, Uruguay (1927), women voted for the first time in Latin America but were ignored

The Cerro Chato Plebiscite of 1927 was a referendum held on July 3, 1927 in the town of Cerro Chato, (today Cerro Chato city), in Uruguay. The purpose was to define to which department would correspond the jurisdiction of the town. It was the first time in Latin America that women exercised the right to vote.
Cerro Chato is located in the limit of three departments in the 8th section of the department of Durazno, 4th section of Florida and the 6th section of Treinta y Tres, on route 7 and km 280 of the Montevideo railroad , Melo, whose station gave birth to the town.
Cerro Chato has a population stabilized by 3,2000 inhabitants. Almost half correspond to Treinta y Tres, .144 inhabitants, one third to Durazno, and the rest to Florida
For that reason, some services are repeated: there are three police sections, three local boards, each with jurisdiction over the area that corresponds to the town,

Plebiscite
In 1927 extensive efforts were completed by an active Neighborhood Commission, which advocated for the integration of the territory of Florida and Treinta y Tres for Durazno.
The Electoral Court issued a decree dated May 31, 1927, which authorized the completion of the plebiscite, noting in Article 10: "People without distinction of nationality and sex who wish to intervene in the plebiscite must register in advance in the Registry that will open the Special Parliamentary Commission "indicated later that" the registration period will begin on June 5 and will last until the 28th of the same month ". After expressing a series of rules to which voters should adjust, it expressed: "The departmental councils of Durazno, Florida and Thirty-three, may intervene by means of equal number of delegates, in the comptroller of all plebiscitary acts"
The vote was carried out on Sunday, July 3, 1927, by secret ballot, observing all the formalities established in the Elections Law, including the female vote, something that occurred for the first time in South America. A work carried out by the Historical Studies Center of Cerro Chato indicates that the first woman to claim her right to exercise citizenship was not Uruguayan, but of Brazilian origin, a 90-year-old Afro-descendant immigrant named Rita Ribeira.

Realization of the plebiscite
A Commission of Neighbors of Treinta y Tres, mostly composed of women led by Bernardina Muñoz, opposed the plebiscite with a proclamation that said: "We have a remarkable weapon: Abstention. We have to brandish it to make way for the mocking recruited mobs who will be absorbed in their despicable mercenary position. " Then he said: "... by the right of Treinta y Tres that flames bravely in all the progress of Cerro Chato; for the affection for our cause that is as respectable as the honor itself; for the decorum of our democracy that abhors electoral masquerades: abstain "
The Durazno Women's Commission conducted a fervent electoral campaign in favor of the unification of the entire territory for the aforementioned department, it was led by Modesta Fuentes de Soubiron, known for maintaining a harsh polemic with the newspaper El País of Montevideo, as a result of a publication that put into question the civic capacity of women and especially those of Cerro Chato.
In this context, the town experienced a climate of national rather than plebiscitary election, motivating a different dynamic in the town. Closed the voting schedule was met with the scrutiny.

Result
An official letter dated July 4, 1927, sent by the Committee Pro Annexation of Cerro Chato to Durazno with the signature of its President, Luis Soubiron, and Secretary Ramón Díaz; communicated to the then President of the Board of Administration of Durazno Alcides Aldama, the results of the vote count, stating that: "... in the plebiscite act held yesterday in this town, Durazno's cause had a resounding triumph, with the following scrutiny thrown Results: Peach 354 votes; Florida 2 and a vote annulled because three different lists were found in the envelope. The percentage of votes cast in relation to the total number of registered members is 94% and the percentage reached in the registration, in relation to the number of persons authorized to register within the plebiscite zone, reached 75%, a percentage that is also higher than any calculation optimistic, especially taking into account that the Committee of Thirty-Three, proclaimed the non-registration, distributing a manifesto of which I accompany a copy "
However, the results of the plebiscite were never taken into consideration by the authorities of the time, and the annexation initiative was lost in time, maintaining the same situation today.