Uruguay

The tarnished truth

José Elosegui

14/07/2013

Opinión

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Progress and setbacks in the country’s fight against impunity

June 27 marked the 40th anniversary of the coup in Uruguay, when then-president Juan María Bordaberry (1972-76) dissolved the General Assembly with the help of the Armed Forces and began a 12-year-long military rule scarred by human rights atrocities. More than 200 Uruguayans were detained-disappeared in their country, as well as in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay during the era of terror rooted in the coordinated repressive military dictatorships known as Operation Condor.

The organization Mothers and Relatives of the Uruguayan Detained-Disappeared estimates 60 people remain missing in Uruguay, including those who were moved from Argentina. To date, the remains of seven assassinated Uruguayans have been found, most recently those of Alberto Cecilio Mechoso Méndez on May 23, 2012. Before him came Ricardo Blanco in March 2012, Julio Castro, in October 2011, Mónica Benarroyo in 2008, Fernando Miranda and Ubagesner Chaves Sosa in 2005, and Roberto Gomensoro Josman in 2002.

When the leftist Broad Front came to power in 2005, it led to major advances in the establishment of historical truth, and police and military were brought to trial for assassinations and other atrocities committed during the dictatorship, which lasted until 1985.

"Significant progress has been made in finding the truth and we must continue working to permanently end impunity in our country," said Latinamerica Press Washington Beltrán, head of the Human Rights Commission of the PIT-CNT trade association, the combined Inter-Union Assembly of Workers and National Workers´ Convention. "It’s an ongoing task into which we’re trying to dig deeper. The organizations that work in human rights in our country have created an important database of complaints lodged in different districts and locations around the country; we manage that data and we will move this forward together.”

Civil society demands truth

Beltrán said the first three democratically elected administrations after the dictatorship —headed by former presidents Julio María Sanguinetti (1985-90 and 1995-2000), and Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990-95), of the right-wing Partido Colorado and Partido Nacional respectively— denied the military regime had left a legacy of people disappeared, tortured, kidnapped or raped. For that reason, he said civil society´s effort to seek the truth is especially important.

He also highlighted the role of the Uruguayan working class in June 1973, when there was a general strike by the CNT.

"We had already decided to strike a year and a half earlier because we knew the coup was coming, and a path of resistance could be organized because in some way the entire Uruguayan people and their social networks played an important role, so much so, that there is no other case in the world like it,” Beltrán said.

In October 2011, the Uruguayan General Assembly passed Law 18.831. Sponsored by the Broad Front, the new legislation nullified the impunity legislation, which for years blocked the prosecution of police and military officials for crimes committed under the dictatorship.

Still, some police and military officials who held high positions had been jailed because of legal loopholes in the so-called “impunity law,” and because of a more “open” interpretation of the law by the Executive Branch of the Broad Front. Among those cases was Bordaberry himself, who was tried between 2006 and 2010 along with ex-Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Blanco, and sentenced to 30 years in prison for the assassinations of lawmakers Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz. Bordaberry remained under house arrest for health reasons until his death in 2011.

On June 4, 2012, at the Legislative Palace —the seat of the Uruguayan General Assembly— the state recognized its institutional responsibility and unlawful actions from 1968, when the so-called “emergency security measures” went into place that allowed for the suspension of Constitutional rights during internal unrest, until 1985. The ceremony was in compliance with the 2009 Reparations Law (Law 18.596) during the administration of former President Tabaré Vázquez (2005-2010), which provided for symbolic acts of reparation by the state.

Running in reverse

Nevertheless, Uruguay’s Supreme Court made rulings in recent months that have hindered the score in the fight against impunity. In February, the court declared Articles 2 and 3 of Law 18.831 unconstitutional — sections that classified acts committed under the dictatorship as crimes against humanity. However, Article 1 of the law, which establishes the ability to prosecute crimes committed during state-run terror operations, was not tried for unconstitutionality.

Court spokesman Raúl Oxandabarat told the national media the justices held that Articles 2 and 3 are “inapplicable” and the crimes are no longer considered crimes against humanity. He explained “each justice would interpret in each case how the declaration of unconstitutionality pertains.” In effect, he added, the ruling returns the court to the earlier time when other laws were used to try military, police and civilians for the crimes.

The PIT-CNT labeled the Supreme Court’s ruling a “significant setback.” According to Beltrán, it shows there is pressure from political powers and others tied to the traditional political parties and economic sectors. He urged social organizations to be “very vigilant.”

“Either way, there are prosecutors and judges who have made it public that they will continue along a path in which there is no statute of limitations on crimes against humanity,” Beltrán said.

"New generations will have to investigate fully to know the truth and act accordingly," he toldLatinamerica Press. "That´s the most important thing for a society emerging from such a sad period: to build a different reality for the future, based on full knowledge of the truth, and with compromises, so there is never again a dictatorship in our country." —Latinamerica Press.

http://www.lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6849

https://www.alainet.org/pt/node/77707?language=en