Uruguay: Broken Promises
Uriarte, Mercedes Lynn de
In an impressive show of displeasure with the military government which holds the country in a dictatorial grip, an estimated 400,000 Uruguayans-almost half the population of the nation's...
...In an effort to maintain control after civilians take office, military leaders would like to impose CONSENA, a military advisory council which would be authorized to intervene to protect national security-efined in sweeping terms to include social, economic and political matters...
...Uruguayans switched off household lights, then banged on pots and pans and blew car hornms in what has become a familiar Latin American protest cacophony, copied from Chilean middle-class women who first expressed displeasure with President Salvador Allende that way...
...On August 2, the government banned all public political activity...
...Although few guidelines exist for avoiding their wrath, the military continue to intimidate by acting suddenly and capriciously against press establishments that have offended them...
...Opposition candidates won easily...
...In the process, they may also set an example for the rest of South America to follow...
...Romero claimed she was kidnapped and interrogated for two hours...
...Noting that she is a drama teacher, military spokesmen say that the matter is the result of an "imaginative mind tending towards the dramatic," according to reports received by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (OOHA), a Washington-based human rights group...
...Military Thwarts Process For all the grand design on paper, the military continues to thwart the process, though there are signs of a split within the 27man junta between moderates, who favor a transition as planned, and hard-liners who support Gen...
...On September 16, laborers held a 10-minute work stoppage and a vigil of silence in protest at the imprisonment of peaceful demonstrators and other political pri43update . update . update . update soners...
...on August 25, Montevideo grew dark and noisy...
...Those who were candidates for local or national office in 1966 or 1971 (while Uruguay was still under civilian government) were proscribed...
...Soon after the coup, the military government set up a computerized citizen categorization system, labeling Uruguayans as "A", "B" or "C...
...This goal has also united factions within the parties...
...Press Heavily Censored According to the Amnesty report, at least 1,000 political prisoners, including a number of journalists, remain in jail, The press remains heavily censored and journalists continue to be harassed, detained and jailed for offending the government...
...The latter classification, considered sympathetic to the opposition, is the most restricted, being barred from all government jobs (about 25% of the economy) and free travel...
...In an effort to deny the protestors an organizational base, the government outlawed the Peace and Justice Service-Uruguay's sole human rights group--on August 30...
...Months of Conflict That solidarity has been gathering force since the tenth anniversary of the military takeover...
...The press has long been one of the regime's scapegoats...
...Meanwhile, the government continues to impose proscriptions and to limit freedom of expression...
...As Uruguay's economic and social crisis grows steadily more serious-45% inflation, 17% unemployment and a $4 billion foreign debt-and its goverment more reluctant to step out of politics as promised, citizen protest grows more insistent...
...Last August, during the crack-down on dissidents, coverage of all political activity was forbidden unless explicitly permitted by the government...
...From the start, the talks were shaky and came to a halt entirely in July amidst the protests...
...On August 19, police cordoned off the area around the office of the Peace and Justice Service, Uruguayan chapter of an ecumenical human rights group headed by Argentine Nobel Prize winner Adolofo Perez Esquivel, and detained 173 people overnight...
...Just three years ago, after voters handed them a resounding plebiscite defeat, rejecting a military proposal that they retain a permanent role as governors, the military promised a gradual return to democracy...
...Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte is a Los Angeles Times staff writer, an Alicia Patterson fellow and a part-time professor in the Latin American Studies Center at UCLA...
...Alvarez's attempt to remain in power for another two to five years...
...Party conventions in December will assess the current situation and plan strategy for the future...
...The transition process began last year with elections to select Blanco, Colorado and Civic Union representatives to negotiate the transition with the military...
...In April she led an international investigation team to Uruguay for the Committee to Protect Journalists...
...The process is to culminate in national elections in 1984 and the assumption of office by civilians in 1985...
...Among those held in July during a month-long wave of political arrests was Professor Glenda Rondsn de Romero, executive secretary of the Colorado Party leader...
...In the process, Uruguayan military brutality appears to have dispelled most lingering illusions of a gentle return to democracy for the approximately two million citizens who have not fled into exile...
...It is part of a sophisticated repressive tactic they have used since the takeover...
...The march was the latest in escalating civilian opposition which began to gather momentum last June on the tenth anniversary of the military coup and has united political parties across the spectrum and the population across gender and generation...
...In an impressive show of displeasure with the military government which holds the country in a dictatorial grip, an estimated 400,000 Uruguayans-almost half the population of the nation's capital, Montevideo-marched in protest on November 27...
...Widespread opposition to this proposal is one of the major stumbling blocks in the transition negotiations...
...Amnesty International's November 9 report on the status of human rights in Uruguay confirmed the mistreatment of at least 30 students...
...Uruguay's most experienced political leaders have been proscribed until recently, including the exiled Wilson Ferreira and Jorge Batlle Ibbrez, opposition leader of the Colorado Party...
...Proscriptions of all political leaders except for Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, most liberal of the Blanco Party presidential candidates in 1971 and the biggest vote-getter, were lifted by the military on November 14...
...Gregorio Alvarez, who was imposed as president in 1981, banned all press coverage of the fast...
...At the same time, if they can be convinced to gracefully relax their ruling grip, Uruguay's military still has a chance to show other hemispheric dictators the path to a peaceful restoration of self-determination...
...the restoration of employment rights to those forbidden certain jobs because of past political afJan/FNb 1984 filiations or perceived sympathies, and press freedom...
...Scores of students have been imprisoned and tortured for their participation in peaceful demonstrations, according to reports received by human rights organizations...
...Military resistance to the swift return to democracy has solidifed what might otherwise have been competing political factions...
...In June, the first mass rally since the coup drew about 8,000 to demonstrate support for a return to democracy and amnesty for political prisoners...
...Among conditions made last October by the Blanco, Colorado and Civic Union for the resumption of transition talks with the military were the lifting of proscription (the denial of all political rights) against individuals and parties...
...If they do have to face elections, the military is thinking of organizing a political party, thus legitimizing a military candidate for president in the promised general elections...
...Whatever the outcome, it seems certain that Uruguayans will continue to insist on the restoration of full democracy...
...Reluctant to release power, the 44 military has proposed one plan after another to stay in controlsomething they maintain is necessary to combat "Marxist subversion...
...In mid-August two Catholic priests -Fathers Luis P6rez Aguirre and Jorge Osorio-and a Methodist minister, Ademar Olivera, went on a two-week hunger strike of protest slated to end August 25...
...Not only have the three legally recognized political parties-the Blanco, Colorado and Civic Union, all of which are centrist-joined forces to oppose the military government's slow-motion transition, but they are working with those parties still outlawed in an effort to open the political process to them as well...
...Nevertheless, in a further show of solidarity, both the representatives of the legal parties and those of the Frente Amplio, a coalition of liberal to left parties, sat together on the reviewing stand during the November demonstrations...
...Alvarez claims that the Uruguayans, whose democratic traditions date back more than 40 years before the 1973 military coup, are not yet ready for a return to democracy...
...The military has, however, recently moved to lift the proscription against Batlle...
...A report issued last June by the New Yorkbased Committee to Protect Journalists, after an on-site investigation of freedom of expression in Uruguay, detailed repeated military abuses...
...Several thousand young people marched through the dark streets shouting anti-government slogans...
...In an attempt to stave off the work stoppage, 48 of the more than 400 detained since the demonstrations began were released in September...
...B's who do not show loyalty to the regime are suspect...
...In the meantime, the elected political representatives and government authorities were intended to write a new constitution under which Uruguay would reestablish a civilian administration...
...Military officials deny the charge, however, and are seeking court proceedings against her for making a slanderous charge against the authorities...
...The three clergymen are affiliated with the service...
...At 8 p.m...
Vol. 18 • January 1984 • No. 1
