Between Law and Politics: The Continuing Struggle Against Impunity in Uruguay

Written by Joshua Frens-String
Wednesday, 07 January 2009

Uruguay and the Ley de Caducidad

The popular campaign to annul an impunity law that has protected many Uruguayan officials from prosecution for human rights abuses committed over two decades ago continues even as a hotly contested presidential election has begun to dominate political discussion in the small Southern Cone country.

The controversial Ley de Caducidad, or expiry law, had, until 2005, prevented the investigation of members of the Uruguayan armed forces and state police for assassinations and forced disappearances, among other crimes, committed during 12 years of dictatorial rule (1973-1984). However, with the national election in 2005 of Frente Amplio, Uruguay’s broad front left-of-center coalition party, special provisions granted to the Executive branch under the law to conduct investigations against state officials for human rights violations were exercised for the first time, leading to the exemption of nearly 50 cases from their prior position of impunity. To this point, the majority of such cases have involved Uruguayan military officials who committed their crimes outside of national territory through the coordinated operations of the region’s military governments in the mid 1970s as part of the now infamous Plan Condor.

However, as new claims continue to be brought forward, the controversial 1986 law remains on the books and has become a dangerous political hurdle with questionable legal merit according to many human rights activists and legal scholars who are seeking to annul the impunity law through a national plebiscite in the October 2009 elections.

Less than one month after the 22nd anniversary of the Ley de Caducidad’s enactment, labor activists, students, and human rights groups active in the campaign through the Coordinadora Nacional por la Nulidad de la Ley de Caducidad have nearly reached 200,000 of the 254,000 voter signatures needed to place the impunity law before voters next October. And while many Uruguayans head to coastal beach towns to vacation during the month of January, movement organizers plan to be there as well in an attempt to collect the remaining 50,000 plus signatures by the late April deadline. At the current rate, some activists claim they will surpass 300,000 adherents by that time ...

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1654/1/

right-wing-inflicted impunity for their monstrous torture and slaughter of leftists. Things will never be right there until they get that filthy fascist part of their history completely cleansed and illuminated.

Good to know they have gotten some formerly classified papers opened, good to know they have a chance to get the required 250,000 names on that petition. What a shame it has had to take this long.

Hope to be able to keep October, 2009 in mind and to hear that they finally are going to be able to move beyond the nightmare when their country's fascist held them prisoners, with the constant threat they could be picked off the streets, tortured, sometimes to death, and some being unlucky enough to be tortured to death by the American torturer, working for the State Department of Richard Nixon at that time (though he formerly worked for Eisenhower), Daniel Mitrione, former police chief of Gary, Indiana.

Uruguayans and Brazilians learned in the 1960's and 1970's that their bully neighbor to the north cared enough to send torturers to assist their right-wing police states in keeping the countries silent, and paralyzed by fear. Dan Mitrione worked in both countries terrorizing, devastating young dissidents like Uruguay's Tupamaros.