A new defeat
for the Uruguayan junta
Daniel JEBRAC nouncement of the results was greeted with an explosion of joy in the streets of Montevideo. The Partido Blanco had eclipsed On November 28, primary elections were held to chose dele- the Partido Colorado, the party more openly linked to the dictagates for the conventions to reconstitute the three parties to torship, winning 46% to its rival's 40%. which the dictatorship agreed to give legal status. More importantly, the big winners were the dissident factions Uruguayans could vote in them, they were also a test of the of the traditional parties. In the Partido Blanco, it was the relative strength of these parties, as well as the various currents candidates of the "For the Homeland" current, linked to the exiled leader Wilson Ferreyra Aldunate; and those of the Mocha
The three legal parties were the Partido Nacional (Blanco) Movement who topped the poll. They got 70% of the vote. And and the Partido Colorado, the traditional bourgeois parties; in Montevideo itself, their score reached 78%. The progovernand the small Catholic party, the Union Civica, which represents mental current garnered only 9.4%. a recent resurrection of a formation that dissolved itself in In the Colorado Party, the current led by Jose Maria San-
For each, 500 national and departmental-convention guinetti and Jorge Battle (who had his civic rights suspended by delegates were to be chosen. the regime) won 330 convention seats and 67% of the vote. The
The respective national conventions are to select the party progovernment current got only 148 seats and 28.6% of the executives, which will then be charged with working out the vote. Only 1% of those who voted cast ballots for the Union platform and designating candidates for the elections that are to be held in 1984, in the framework of the "process of demo- The Socialist and Communist parties (the latter's position cratic restoration" promised by the junta. What the dictatorship wanted to get out of the exercise was cow) called for a vote for the "progressive" candidates in the was expressed by its exiled leader Rodney Arismendi in Mos- 0 to get a firm grip on the political apparatuses of the legalized tolerated bourgeois parties. In opposition to this, a significant bourgeois formations. Coming after the 1980 constitutional ref- current developed around the call for a blank vote, representing erendum, in which the junta's proposals were defeated by a 57% a rejection of the dictatorship and its rules that had made it "no" vote, the party primary elections were a new political test impossible to cast a class vote. for the military dictatorship. The blank-ballot call was supported by the Partido de Vitoria
The military had taken every precaution to assure that it was Popular (PVP) and the Partido Socialista de Los Trabajadores not dealt another rebuff. First of all, only old bourgeois for- (PST). But it was also supported by Opcion and General Liber mations were legalized. Every other party, from the Christian Seregni, the former leader of the Frente Amplio, who was arDemocracy to the Communist Party remained banned, in parti- rested in 1973. From prison, he issued a courageous appeal for d cular those that belonged to the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) Si coalition that was formed in 1971 and won 18% of the vote in This position was also supported by Uruguayan emigre circles the elections of that year. in Brazil, and it was backed up by the Brazilian workers move-
Moreover, even the officially recognized parties were sub- ment in a petition with a long list of signers. jected to restrictions and harassment, such as the "suspension" the leaders of the Workers Party (PT), including Lula and parlia- al of the civil rights of their main leaders. mentary deputy Djamla Bom; trade-union leaders such as manded that more than 600 persons be taken off the slates of Paolo Skromov; and figures in the PMDB, the main bourgeois candidates drawn up by the various parties, those it considered opposition party, such as Fernando Enrique Cardoso. U "unsuitable" for various reasons. When the ballots were counted, 11% were blank, represent-
Wing a very substantial success for a campaign of this sort
The weekly paper of the Christian Democratic Party, Opcion,
As soon as the results were known, Ferreyra Aldunate's was permanently banned because it called for casting a blank
It was accused of "acting like a political party and daughter, Silvia, called for a common front of all the opposiserving as a mouthpiece for the Frente Amplio." The magazine tion groups and currents to fight for a restoration democracy.
This bourgeois opposition gained some new legitimacy as a of the opposition in the Partido Blanco, Democracia, was sus- result of the primary elections. But it was not able to do anypended, as was a publication of Catholic groups, La Plaza. thing to follow up on the massive "no" vote against the dictahad raised the question of the political prisoners in an editorial entitled "Mercy for the Vanquished." torship in 1980. In fact, its failure allowed the dictatorship to press the claim that the vote had simply been against any charge
The military issued warning after warning to the leaders of the traditional parties, who, it said, "cannot find their proper in the regime.
For their part, the military have announced their intention cooperate with the boards of the elections." At a of holding a new constitutional referendum in 1983, preparapress conference on October 18, the minister of the interior, tory presidential elections in 1984. Both of these dates remain General Yamandu Trinidad, said: "There are factions in the the constitution, the militraditional parties that want to go back to the old ruts and tary are sticking to their proposal of a "fourth branch of governwhich are not helping either the process or the country." ment," the Consejo de Seguridad Nacional (COSENA), which
A few days late, Yamandu Trinidad threatened "to bring to would perpetuate military involvement in government. (military) justice any politicians who fail to conform to the scheme of the military started a groundswell of support for norms that have been laid down." the bourgeois opposition already in 1981.
Despite all this intimidation, the outcome of the elections As regards the projected presidential elections, the prorepresented a setback for the military dictatorship. About 70% spective civilian candidates acceptable to the military were al of the 2 million registered voters went to the polls. The an- buried in the primary elections.