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Edited on Thu Feb-11-10 10:35 AM by Judi Lynn
From a quick search: NIXON: "BRAZIL HELPED RIG THE URUGUAYAN ELECTIONS," 1971
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 71
Edited by Carlos Osorio <cosorio@gwu.edu>
Director, Southern Cone Documentation Project
Research and editing assistance: Kathleen Costar, National Security Archive
Research and translation assistance: Dr. Ariela Peralta, SERPAJ Uruguay, CEJIL USA
Newly declassified documents detail the Nixon administration's broad-gauged efforts to prevent a victory by the leftist “Frente Amplio” in the Uruguayan presidential elections of 1971. The documents show that Nixon was aware of – and may in fact have been complicit in – Brazilian efforts to influence the election results. Six weeks ago, an Associated Press report by Ron Kampeas, citing a newly declassified document from the Nixon collection at the National Archives, first revealed that during a meeting with then British Prime Minister Edward Heath President Nixon admitted, “Brazil helped rig the Uruguayan elections.”
Responding to these new revelations, the National Security Archive’s Southern Cone Documentation Project today releases 15 additional documents pertaining to U.S. policy toward Uruguay during this period. The documents show that the U.S. was concerned that leftist groups not succeed in Uruguay as they had in Chile the previous year with the election of Socialist candidate Salvador Allende. This concern was shared by Brazil as well as Argentina, whose military intelligence components were carrying on close consultations on – and had previously had an agreement to intervene in – Uruguay's political affairs. The U.S. Embassy recommended overt and covert activities to counter Frente publications and also suggested cooperation between Brazil and Argentina to support Uruguay's internal security operations.
Brazilian President Emílio Garrastazu Médici visited Washington on December 7-9, 1971, two weeks after the Uruguayan elections with the outcome still uncertain. Garrastazu Médici held several meetings with President Nixon, the National Security Council adviser Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State William Rogers and the soon to be Deputy Director of the CIA, Vernon Walters. In several of the memos reporting conversations with the Brazilian President, Richard Nixon mentions Brazil’s help in influencing Uruguay’s elections. Henry Kissinger highlights Garrastazu Médici’s support of the "Nixon Doctrine" in Latin America. Under the doctrine, a nation like Brazil, was to be a surrogate regional power acting in U.S. interests.
Uruguay held its elections on November 28, 1971. “Frente Amplio” leaders complained of U.S. and Brazilian-supported harassment of its candidates and campaign. On February 15, 1972, the electoral tribunal announced the victory of Juan María Bordaberry of the incumbent Colorado Party with 41% of the vote, only a few thousand votes more than the Blanco Party candidate who received 40%. To the Embassy’s relief, the “Frente Amplio” ended up in a distant third with only 18% of the vote.
The Historical Context
Since the mid-60’s Uruguay, known then as the “Switzerland of Latin America,” had seen its exemplary democratic tradition and high standard of living decay in face of a crumbling economy, government corruption and social upheaval. Washington established an AID Public Safety office in Uruguay in 1964 to assist the local counterinsurgency operations of the police. In 1969, amidst a growing political crisis and a strong Tupamaro guerrilla challenge, U.S. Public Safety assistance, particularly training, was doubled.
The crisis quickly escalated into a violent conflict in 1970. As the U.S.-trained officers came to occupy key positions in the police, the claims of torture grew. A. J. Langguth in his book Hidden Terrors (Pantheon Books, 1978, p. 286) tells how older police officers were replaced “when the CIA and the U.S. police advisers had turned to harsher measures and sterner men.” He also describes that under the new head of the U.S. Public Safety program in Uruguay, Dan Mitrione, the United States "introduced a system of nationwide identification cards, like those in Brazil… torture had become routine at the Montevideo jefatura.”
Between mid-1970 and early 1971, the Tupamaros kidnapped Mitrione and an American agronomist, as well as a Brazilian and a British diplomat, and requested in exchange the liberation of 150 guerrilla prisoners. After negotiations with relatives and foreign governments the majority of the victims were freed unharmed, but the Uruguayan and U.S. governments as a matter of policy refused to negotiate with the kidnappers. The Tupamaros killed Mitrione and his body was found in early August 1970. Violence between the U.S.-supported police and the Tupamaros spiraled upward.
The year of the presidential elections found Uruguay’s political class in disarray. The traditional Colorado and Blanco parties were losing prominent members to a new leftwing coalition called the “Frente Amplio”. A Department of State memorandum for National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger on the Uruguayan presidential elections depicted Uruguay's society at the time of the elections in these terms: “The most important opposition issue is the widespread sense of malaise and lack of national direction. There is a growing disaffection, especially on the part of middle class youth, caused by lack of opportunity. The Tupamaros phenomenon is itself largely a middle class revolution against a system which is seen to offer no hope for meaningful participation.”
In this context, the U.S. viewed with deep concern how the “Frente Amplio” quickly gained substantial support for the upcoming November 28 elections only months after its creation in February 1971. Some estimates of voters’ preferences at the beginning of the year placed the Frente – a coalition of Communists, socialists, Christian Democrats and dissidents from the major parties – running close behind the Colorados and ahead of the Blancos.
The U.S. government considered traditionally democratic Uruguay to be a role model for Latin America and feared a repeat of the leftist “Unidad Popular” victory in Chile the year before. In mid-1971, Washington's main goal for Uruguay was "to lessen the threat of a political takeover by the Frente,” which was then perceived as a greater threat than the Tupamaro guerrillas.
By this time, the U.S. was involved in supporting a full-scale counterinsurgency sweep including the transformation of the police intelligence component into a national security agency, the National Directorate of Information and Intelligence (Dirección Nacional de Información e Inteligencia-DNII). In September 1971, the Uruguayan government launched a DNII-led joint military and police force in countersubversive operations against the Tupamaros. Former police officers have declared that death squads were run from the DNII.
In 1972, the Colorado party winner, President Bordaberry, gave free hand in the counterinsurgency effort to the military. The military crushed the Tupamaros guerrillas, then repressed university students, labor unions, as well as the political opposition. The military dissolved Congress in 1973 and eventually deposed Bordaberry in 1976. U.S. security assistance to Uruguay, then dubbed a "prison state," continued uninterrupted until 1977. More: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB71/~~~~~~~~Here's something which reflects the quality of life in Uruguay during Bordaberry's own reign of terror: Church Cowed by Uruguayan Military
Penny Lernoux
~snip~
As elsewhere in Latin America, persecution of the left soon led to repression of any individual or group critical of the government. Between 1970 and 1973, when President Juan Maria Bordaberry joined the military in a coup to abolish parliament, the Tupamaros were destroyed, their leaders dead, imprisoned or in exile. Not satisfied with the guerrillas' defeat, the military then set about purging society of all the political, social and cultural traditions of half a century. Just to make sure that everyone understood who was in charge, the army opened fire on several thousand people at a peaceful demonstration a month after the coup in June, 1973. "Since then," said an Uruguayan businessman, "no one has dared open his mouth."
In the ensuing purge, one out of every sixty Uruguayans was imprisoned and some 2,000 Uruguayans — representing an entire generation of political leaders — were deprived of their political rights; 300,000 Uruguayans fled the country.
As always, torture was and is applied indiscriminately with no appeal to justice since the barracks commander in charge of the arrested person is both jury and judge. Typical of the ongoing atrocities, which include burning at the stake, was the case of Eduardo Mondello. Contrary to military orders, Mondello's father opened the casket when the body of his 27-year-old son was returned to him for burial. The face was completely destroyed, the body covered with wounds, the toenails and genitals torn off.
"Believe it or not, you can be arrested for having two guests in your home for dinner," said one frightened Uruguayan, who was imprisoned for "holding a political meeting" when he invited his brother-in-law and a neighbor to join him for supper. More: http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001976/Lernoux/Lernoux07/Lernoux07.html~~~~~~~~We've heard of the November, 2009 election of former guerrila, Tupamaro rebel who was imprisoned and tortured during that time, Jose Mujica as Uruguay's President. So many recent Lain American presidents have, themselves, and their family members suffered greatly at the hands of US-backed right-wing butcher dictators. Ex-rebel Mujica wins Uruguay presidential vote Posted: 30 November 2009 1012 hrs http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1021414/1/.html |
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