Referendum vote lets military and police
PANCHO
URUGUAY
1972. In 1980, facing growing popular hostility, it embarked on a transition policy by presenting a proposal for a constitution that would legalize the interference of the armed forces in Uruguayan political life. Despite the weight of the repressive apparatus, this project was rejected in a referenthugs off the hook dum by 57.8% of the voters.
The road to the elections at the end of 1984, which brought to power the current president, Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party, was marked out by popular struggles, strikes and mobilizations.
THE REFERENDUM on the so-called "Statute of
Limitations" has been won by those who want to retain it.
Despite an important popular mobilization, the military and the government have succeeded in keeping this law, which grants immunity from prosecution to those responsible for crimes committed under the dictatorship.
This is a serious defeat for a movement that was capable of gathering the number of signatures needed to call the referendum, as well as mounting a vigorous campaign to win the vote.
Thousands of brigades went out over the whole country to confront the blackmail and intimidation of the government and the armed forces.
The article published below gives an account of the referendum campaign. It was first published in Combate, paper of the Liga comunista revolucionario, section of the Fourth International in the Spanish state.
LUIS ALFONSO
HE REFERENDUM on the law that allows police and military personnel to escape trial and punishment for crimes committed during the 12 years of the military dictatorship took place on April 16. Some 770,000 voters (43%) chose the green slips indicating their support for the repeal of the law,
AND WE WON
TOTALLY LEGALLY!
18
International Viewpoint #164 • May 29, 1989 while over a million (57%) voted with the yellow slips to keep it. [The population of Uruguay is 3 million] So those who tortured, confiscated and murdered will remain unpunished. The government and the military have won their position.
The dictatorship was imposed in February 1973 after the terrible repression of
AN UNPRECEDENTED FACT!!
### Amnesty for political prisoners
Popular pressure for the release of political prisoners achieved its objective, and an amnesty law was adopted in 1985. At the same time, the campaign for bringing to trial all those police and military personnel guilty of more than 350 crimes of repression snowballed. There were 33 disappearances in Uruguay, 5 children kidnapped and never seen again, 78 deaths in prison and 53 deaths in the course of operations by the forces of repression, apart from innumerable cases of torture. Furthermore the dictatorship in neighbouring Argentina was responsible for the disappearance of a further 118 Uruguayans.
The government turned a deaf ear however, and in 1986 it approved the Statute of Limitations. A big mobilization began for the repeal of this law, but, according to the constitution 500,000 signatures had to be collected for a referendum to be held.
In fact, 600,000 signatures were gathered. A number of attempts were made to invalidate some of them, but in the end the necessary number was obtained and the government was obliged to organize the referendum.
The campaign was led by the whole of the left, as well as by minority currents in the Colorado and Blanco parties. This unity was maintained in the call for a green vote, but there was no agreement on what to do in the case of victory or on the type of campaign to conduct.
The official campaign for a yellow vote was conducted through all the means at the disposal of the state, and above all the television. This has a big influence in the interior of the country which it is difficult for militants from the popular movement to reach. The spokesperson of the campaign was the vice-president of the republic with the support of all the state institutions, including the armed forces.
The minister of defence made it clear that he would not respect the verdict of the ballot box if it was contrary to his military oath. He stated that "nobody can legally oblige military personnel to present themselves before a civilian court." Two days before the vote General Paulos, ex-chief of the information services, added: The enemy of yesterday wants to weaken the armed forces today in order to come to power by a
A unified and militant campaign
COMBATE phoned a leader of the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores [PST — Socialist Workers' Party], ficult and the outlook for the forthcoming elections in November is negative. *
1. Frente Amplio (Broad Front), a united left-wing electoral front formed in 1971 as an attempt to break-out of the bourgeois two-party system of the Blancos and Colorados.
final assault". A flood of rumours formed the backdrop to these statements. In the capital, Montevideo, there was talk of possible actions by the Tupamaros and it seems that some provocations were stirred up. The president of the republic asserted on the eve of the referendum that if the Statute of Lim-
URUGUAY