Recipients of the Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay

Sofía (born 2 November 1938) was Queen of Spain from 1975 to 2014 as the wife of King Juan Carlos I. Born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Σοφία), she is the first child of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover. As her family was forced into exile during the Second World War, she spent part of her childhood in Egypt, returning to Greece in 1946. She completed her secondary education in a boarding school in Germany before returning to Greece where she specialised in childcare, music and archaeology.

Jacques René Chirac ( SHEER-ak, ZHAHK sheer-AHK, 29 November 1932 – 26 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously the Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as the Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.

Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the 44th president of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He was also a Senator for La Rioja Province from 2005 until his death. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. He served as President of the Justicialist Party for thirteen years, and his political approach became known as Menemism.

Carlos Salinas de Gortari (born 3 April 1948) is a Mexican economist and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as President of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. He is widely regarded as the most influential and controversial politician in Mexico since the 1990s. Earlier in his career he worked in the Budget Secretariat, eventually becoming Secretary. He was the PRI presidential candidate in 1988, and was declared elected on 6 July 1988 after accusations of electoral fraud.

Václav Havel ( 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, writer and former dissident, who served as the last President of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as the first President of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs.

Lech Wałęsa ( born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the first democratically elected president of Poland from 1990 to 1995. A shipyard electrician by trade, he became the leader of Solidarity, and led a successful pro-democratic effort which in 1989 ended the communist rule in Poland and ushered in the end of the Cold War.

Juan Carlos I (Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from November 1975 until his abdication in June 2014. In Spain, since his abdication, Juan Carlos has usually been referred to as the Rey Emérito ("King Emeritus").

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi ( 9 December 1920 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian politician and banker who was the 49th Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and the 10th President of Italy from 1999 to 2006.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso GCB GCTE GCoIISE GColIH GColL GCM RE DMN CYC OMRI (Portuguese: born 18 June 1931), also known by his initials FHC (), is a Brazilian sociologist, professor and politician who served as the 34th President of Brazil from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2002. He was the first Brazilian president to be reelected for a subsequent term. An accomplished scholar of dependency theory noted for his research on slavery and political theory, Cardoso has earned many honors including the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation (2000) and the Kluge Prize from the US Library of Congress (2012).

Ion Iliescu ( born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 1989 to 1996 and from 2000 until his retirement in 2004. Iliescu was a senator for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), of which he is the founder and honorary president.