Uruguay nunca más

In response to the radical activities of the Tupamaros in the late 1960s, the Uruguayan military was urged by government and civil leaders to restore order. The military did not stop there, however. By 1973, they had dissolved the parliament and purged the country of its political, cultural, educational, medical, and labor establishments. Civil society was perceived as the enemy, and the rate of political incarceration was unprecedented. Based on hundreds of interviews. A survey of ex-prisoners, and published testimonials, Uruguay Nunca Mas documents the atrocities that were committed during the military dictatorship in Uruguay from 1973 to 1984. The organization Servicio Paz y Justicia-Uruguay (SERPAJ) traces the various stages of the military government's twelve years in power, noting the progressive distortion of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Detailing the means by which civil liberties were abrogated by the. Repressive regime, this report examines how the Doctrine of National Security affected daily life in a country that had previously been hailed as "the Switzerland of America." Uruguay's long democratic tradition may have contributed to the fact that only a small number of dissidents were killed, but the percentage of Uruguay's population that was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured (one out of every five citizens) was greater than in any other Latin American country. Prisons were organized with the explicit purpose of destroying personality, and long-term imprisonment was a policy. In its political and ideological purge, the government classified three million people "A," "B," or "C," according to their degree of compliance with military domination. The classifications determined each person's ability to work, or even live, in Uruguayan society. Unlike the bloody, highly publicized events in Chile and Argentina, the hushed repression. In Uruguay was carried out with unprecedented sophistication. Describing some twenty forms of torture, disappearances, and other mechanisms of repression, Uruguay Nunca Mas documents how the population at large was subjected to abuse, terror, and lies, amid economic depression and social upheaval. This disturbing report by SERPAJ cites as its purpose the words of George Santayana: "Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat it." It should serve as a. Cautionary lesson for citizens in any democracy.