National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros

The Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros (MLN-T), commonly shortened to Tupamaros, is an armed movement in Uruguay that acquired notoriety for becoming an extreme left urban guerrilla during the 1960s and early 1970s (see: Actions of the Tupamaros). independent leaders, the Popular Participation Movement (MPP).

The name "Tupamaros" It seems to derive from the contemptuous nickname that the Spanish police authorities of the colonial era in the Río de la Plata foisted on the patriots who had adhered to the independence movement of 1811. It is also present in the novels of Eduardo Acevedo Díaz, a realist writer from the end of the century XIX, the word had its origin in the indigenous uprising that had occurred in the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1780, led by the leader indigenous José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Túpac Amaru II, and which was harshly repressed by the Spanish.

History

Rise in the 1960s

Logo characteristic of MLN-Tupamaros.

The movement arose in the first half of the 1960s, from the linkage of various dispersed groups of the Uruguayan political left, plus the contribution of various individual militants. Despite the ideological diversity of the early days —it included members of the Socialist Party, Maoists and some anarchists— a Marxist vision of historical reality ended up predominating among them, although by no means orthodox.^{[citation needed]} According to the leader of the organization Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, the birth of the tupamaros formally took place in 1965. Despite this, in 1963 they had already carried out an assault on the Tiro Suizo and another on the Collection Bank (in which Julio Marenales and Jorge Manera were arrested).

Organized in response to a series of incidents between left-wing and extreme-right groups in the early 1960s, the Tupamaro movement had, like others of its time in various Latin American countries, an identification with the Cuban Revolution of 1959, which influenced his ideological path and his subsequent actions. It was then organized as a guerrilla group, initially without ties to any existing political party.

In November 1964, this name appeared for the first time, linked to the Uruguayan political movement, in a flyer distributed at a University Convention where it read: "T N T Tupamaros no transamos". A year later, he appeared for the first time claiming a statement:

The "Tupamaros" rubbish for the first time on August 9, 1965, on the steering wheel that accompanied a powerful bomb flying the deposits of the German company Bayer. "The Yankees Killing Vietnam... The Bayer, a Nazi company, helps with gas the intervention of the gringos. Get the free gringos out. Long live the Vietcong! Long live the revolution! The same firm appears in the leaflets accompanying a bomb that explodes at the Brazilian embassy."

First steps of the Tupamaros

According to its founders, in the early days the actions of the MLN-T were to supply weapons and funds for a fight of greater proportions. Although public opinion at the time was deeply impacted (for or against) by the appearance of the armed political struggle in Uruguay, it should be noted that after the defeat of the last uprising of Aparicio Saravia, in 1904, there were two coups d'état; in 1933 executed by the then president Gabriel Terra, and in 1942 by Alfredo Baldomir.

Since 1966 a very active movement was glimpsed. The year began with some assaults and theft of weapons. In particular, the theft of 63 rifles and a set of shotguns, revolvers, pistols, and police uniforms, on the same day of the 1966 presidential elections, was reported. The act was quickly attributed to the Tupamaros, who had already robbed banks disguised as police officers..In December 1966, a FUNSA premises were assaulted, and a guerrilla fighter was killed in the fray. The leadership of the guerrilla organization would soon fall, dismantling the movement for the moment.

After being practically disrupted by the police in 1966, the MLN-T recovered, beginning a series of actions that combined the collection of funds and materials for organization and political propaganda.

The authorities at that time prohibited the press from reporting on the Tupamara actions or mentioning their existence. The unnamables, as some press called them, began to be known outside of Uruguay when some actions were publicized, such as the publication of financial information related to the handling of money by certain well-known companies or individuals or —one of the most famous— the seizure of a truck loaded with food from a well-known warehouse company of the time, left in the hands of the inhabitants of a marginal area of Montevideo.

These actions gave the MLN-T international prestige that in some cases became a legend with romantic overtones. The American magazine The New York Times awarded them –in 1969– to be the “Robin Guerilla Hood.”

For its part, within the country the MLN-T aroused strong resistance. In the first place, and as was logical, from the traditional political system, at that time greatly deteriorated by the economic crisis unleashed since 1955. White and Colorado politicians condemned the armed struggle, even though some of them, as was later verified, had maintained contact secret with the Tupamaros.^{[citation needed]} In the early years, the Tupamaros expressed their intention to bet on the armed route:

"We dismiss the possibility of peaceful transit to power in our country. The armed struggle will be the main form of struggle of our people, and the others must be subordinated to it. The organization aims to be the organized vanguard of the classes exploited in its struggle against the regime."

From that time are the first documents of the MLN-T (Document 1 and Document 2), in which it is possible to access the ideological alignments of the new movement.

1968-1972: reactivation of the armed struggle

Police operation to search for members of the MLN-Tupamaros in the cloacal network of Montevideo.

In June 1968, then-president-elect Jorge Pacheco Areco in 1967, trying to suppress a series of labor protests, declared a state of emergency and revoked all constitutional guarantees. The government imprisoned political dissidents, used torture during interrogations, and brutally suppressed demonstrations. These government actions were instrumental in the Tupamaros' decision to resort to armed political struggle and political violence. Thus, in 1968 there was an attack and bombing of the Ariel radio station, the first of the two kidnappings of UTE president Ulysses Pereira Reverbel and an assault on the Hotel Casino Carrasco, with the theft of several million pesos to continue financing the fight. armed.

The parliamentary left, especially the Communist Party of Uruguay, initially disavowed the tupamaros, however within its ranks it allowed members wanted by law to exist and even sheltered legislators who financially supported propaganda actions navy. It is not known for sure how many active members the movement had during the period prior to the military dictatorship. Historical sources handle disparate figures, ranging between 3,000 (active members) and 10,000 people (collaborators and supporters).

During 1969, they assaulted the Monty financial firm, the San Rafael Casino in Punta del Este (where they extorted a loot of 70 million pesos) and three bank branches. They also broke into Radio Sarandí, in full sports broadcast where the legendary Carlos Solé reported a match between Nacional and Estudiantes de la Plata, and issued a statement. In June, on the occasion of the visit of the American diplomat Nelson Rockefeller, the MLN-T burned down the offices of General Motors. In September, he kidnapped the banker Gaetano Pellegrini Giampietro, released 72 days later on payment of a ransom. And on October 8, Pando was taken over by the MLN-T; Three guerrillas (Ricardo Zabalza, Jorge Salerno and Alfredo Cultelli), a policeman (Enrique Fernández Díaz) and a civilian (Carlos Burgueño) died.

Towards 1970 the armed struggle acquired greater proportions, with which the police were often overwhelmed. At that time, the MLN-T carried out some of its best-known actions, such as the kidnapping and subsequent murder in August 1970 of the American official Dan Mitrione, sent as an adviser to instruct the police and the military in a more rational use of and effectiveness of torture, within the framework of the United States Agency for International Development. This historical fact is the basis of the screenplay for the Costa-Gavras film État de Siège (State of Siege in its Spanish version). Attacks against civilian targets also continued, such as the one at the Carrasco bowling alley in September.

Other notable events were the massive escape of women from the movement in the so-called Operation Star, in which 38 prisoners escaped from the Cabildo Prison, and the escape from the Punta Carretas Prison in 1971, one of the largest prison escapes of history, in which more than a hundred detained men escaped.

Dating from this period are other outstanding Political Documents, 3, 4 and 5. Around this time the MLN-T clandestinely edited its publication "Mate amargo" from where he makes his political vision of the Uruguayan reality known.

Based on the premise of being a political movement in arms, from Columna 70 and through those close to the movement (such as the bank unionist Kimal Amir, the port leader Rubén Sassano, the poet and writer Mario Benedetti and the lawyer Washington Rodríguez Belletti) a "political arm" for the presidential elections of November 1971, the Movement of Independents March 26, which was part of the nascent left-wing coalition Frente Amplio (founded in February 1971). From that space the newspaper La Idea and the magazine Cuestión were published..

In elections accused of fraudulent by the National Party that would receive 40.1% of the votes, the Broad Front would obtain third place with 18.6%, the Colorado Party emerging triumphant with 40.3%, due to the re-election attempts of President Jorge Pacheco Areco. As a result, the MLN-T unilaterally abandoned the truce that it had offered to the government, and which it had been complying with for several months; attitude that was manifested in the proclamation of Paysandú (12/31/1971) and the subsequent actions of the movement -such as the "take" from the city of Soca-.

With the inauguration in 1972 of the president-elect, Juan María Bordaberry, and the task of the Armed Forces to defeat the guerrillas —which, in the political lexicon of the time, was invariably called sedition— led to bloody clashes.

The MLN-T was so zealous to hide its hideouts that in an episode in December 1971 they executed the rural laborer Pascasio Báez, because he happened to come across a weapons shelter belonging to the organization. One of the bloodiest days was April 14, 1972, when Column 15 of the MLN-T carried out four operations against members of the "Death Squads", a far-right paramilitary group, which culminated in the death of Armando Acosta and Lara, as well as Deputy Commissioner Oscar Delega, Agent Carlos Leites and Lieutenant Commander Ernesto Motto. The guerrillas Nicolás Gropp and Norma Pagliano died in the operation.^{[citation required]}

In the afternoon of that day, the forces of order launched a crude repression against the MLN-T, in retaliation for the events, which culminated in the death of several militants. That afternoon, the journalist Luis Martirena and his wife Ivette Jiménez were murdered in his house, and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro and David Cámpora were arrested; and in another procedure at 4396 Pilcomayo street, Jorge Candán Grajales, Armando Blanco, Gabriel Schroeder and Horacio Rovira, son of the owners of the house Filomena Grieco and Carlos Rovira, who were arrested, were executed. The operations were led by Hugo Campos Hermida and inspector Víctor Castiglioni.

On May 27, 1972, after intense efforts by the security forces, the "Cárcel del Pueblo" was discovered. It was located in the Parque Rodó neighborhood, in a house on Calle John Paullier 1192; Ulysses Pereira Reverbel, Carlos Frick Davie, the British ambassador Geoffrey Jackson and several other people were kidnapped in it.

At the same time, the top brass of the organization fell into the hands of the military, with whom they had maintained a series of political contacts in order to discuss the bases of a political project of economic and social changes. Some common ideas between the two sides, although very lackluster, encouraged such talks, which were abruptly interrupted very soon after.

The MLN-T was defeated militarily, its armed apparatus being defeated and dismantled. Certain of their military triumph, the commanders of the Armed Forces at that time declared their intention to "continue fighting sedition" and they acted against the rest of the political left and the unions. President Bordaberry, still without political support within his party, the Colorado Party, yielded to the requirements of the Armed Forces, which shortly after would act against the parliamentary political system, launching the Coup d'état on June 27, 1973., which dissolved parliament, banned political parties and declared union and student organizations illegal.

From 1973 to 1985: prison and exile

The military held the Tupamaro leaders Raúl Sendic, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, Mauricio Rosencof, José Mujica, Adolfo Wasem, Julio Marenales, Henry Engler, Jorge Manera and Jorge Zabalza as hostages and as war trophy, during the time that the military dictatorship lasted, that is, until 1985. The Tupamaro leaders were almost entirely defeated and imprisoned.

Other Tupamaros went into exile in France, Sweden and other countries. In exile, the Tupamaros remained expectant and did not trigger subsequent actions in Uruguayan territory, although they did participate in various campaigns to denounce the military.

After 1985: laying down arms and entering the electoral arena

In 1985, with the return of parliamentary democracy in Uruguay and, with it, the release of political prisoners, the tupamaros became an unknown quantity for the political system, since it was not known for sure what position they were going to adopt This intrigue was cleared up a short time later, when Raúl Sendic, in a public act, affirmed that the MLN-T was going to opt for the legal political framework, proposing an ideological struggle and formal integration into the Broad Front.

We were not alone, but a big popular sector gave us breath in that decade of the 60s so convulsed... Our initiative to take a step forward in the social struggles was after the military type, from the moment the military attacked the popular demonstrations with great death and then invaded all the institutions (...) We continue (1988) however, with our political proposal forward, knowing that we are not masters of the truth. We do not consider ourselves the vanguard of anything, but one of the elements that will contribute to the struggle of the Uruguayan people. [NR: speaking of the guerrillas]...we have to contemplate the mentality of a people (...) that preserves a series of peaceful traditions and that we try to contemplate at our previous stage, when we did that famous white glove guerrilla, seeking the least possible violence.

Barreiro, Jorge. "Keep the torch lit" (interview to Raúl Sendic), Cuadernos de MarchaMontevideo, year III, number 29, March 1988.

News

Since 1989 the MLN-T joined the Broad Front, and then became part of the Popular Participation Movement (MPP).

As was the case with other guerrilla groups in the region, in recent decades the MLN-T has moved through political channels. In 1989, the year of the death of Raúl Sendic, they were admitted (although not unanimously) to the Broad Front, and soon after they formed, within it, a coalition with other groups, known as the Popular Participation Movement, and later as Espacio 609 in allusion to the list number used in the Uruguayan electoral system to identify the various sectors that participate in it.

In 2004, and after several years of electoral progress, Espacio 609 became the sector with the most votes within the Broad Front, the ruling coalition. As of the 2004 presidential election, several of the members of the movement began to occupy important positions in the Uruguayan government. This is the case, for example, of the teacher Nora Castro, president of the Chamber of Deputies during the period 2005-2006, and of José Mujica, Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries between 2005 and 2008; plus other ministers such as Eduardo Bonomi and Julio Baraibar in Labor.

Access to the Presidency of the Republic

On December 14, 2008, José Mujica was proclaimed official candidate of the Broad Front Congress for the October internal elections, and was elected presidential candidate for the October elections. On the occasion of the internal ones, two lists with Tupamara inspiration had an electoral demonstration: the already usual list 609, and also the novel CAP-L with its list 7373. Both obtained significant votes, which augured varied electoral expressions of the former guerrillas urban.

In the elections of November 29, 2009, the former Tupamaro leader José Mujica was elected President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, winning with 52.39% of the votes. On March 1, 2010, Mujica assumed the presidency of Uruguay.

Reappearance of the debate on the end of the guerrilla warfare

In May 2013, after decades of unknown whereabouts, the figure of Amodio Pérez reappeared on the scene, with extensive press coverage. Many former colleagues accused him of treason and of having been one of those responsible for the military defeat of the MLN, while he affirms that he was used as a scapegoat to justify it.

Operatives

The actions of the Tupamara guerrilla were signed by different operatives. Many times, its impact and its consequences marked turning points in the history of the movement. These actions varied in their method and purpose, including sabotage operations, selective assassination of those considered "members of the repressive forces of the regime", dynamite attacks, kidnapping and imprisonment in the "Cárcel del pueblo" of those who considered "key figures and men of the regime, henchmen of the repression and foreign representatives", equipping, occupying homes of "members from the repression, from the government, from the oligarchy, from imperialist foreigners, among others", and propaganda operations using flyers, radio auditions or interference in radios and television audio.

Influence in other countries

The European press gave wide publicity to the Tupamaro guerrilla operatives. Likewise, his example was imitated in other latitudes. By way of example, it is worth mentioning: Red Army Faction (since 1968, led by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof), June 2 Movement (since 1967, led by Fritz Teufel), Tupamaros Munich and Tupamaros West Berlin, all four in Germany Western.

It also had regional influence. There was a guerrilla group in Venezuela called MRT (Revolutionary Movement of Workers), which changed its name after media manipulation by the Venezuelan press, which confused its acronym and related it to the MLN-T. Later, this movement was renamed Tupamaro, the new name being the acronym for Unified Tendencies to Achieve the Movement of Organized Revolutionary Action.

Some authors maintain links between members of the Tupamaro movement and ETA throughout the years of guerrilla action, with relationships that transcended economic reasons such as the search for financing to articulate a more effective deployment.

Main Tupamaro guerrillas

José Mujica, president of Uruguay between 2010 and 2015, and his wife Lucia Topolansky, were some of the leading Tupamar guerrillas.

Some of the guerrillas most identified with the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros are:

• Raúl Sendic
• Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro
• July Marenales
• Jorge Zabalza
• José Mujica
• Mauritius Rosencof
• Adolfo Wassen
• Juan Fernando Zerboni
• Henry Engler
• Jorge Manera
• Héctor Amodio Pérez
• Lucia Topolansky

Filmography

• State of siege (État de siège), a Costa-Gavras film inspired by the Tupamaros.
• "Raúl Sendic-Tupamaro", a documentary directed by Alejandro Figueroa. The documentary tells the life and work of Raúl Sendic, how he went into hiding, and other members of the MLN-Tupamaros also tell their experiences and life during the time.
• "The circle", directed by Aldo Garay and José Charlo and co-produced between Argentina and Uruguay, travels the life of Henry Engler, a Tupamaro guerrilla, a Uruguayan doctor who during the dictatorship of his country was political prisoner for 13 years and then exiled in Sweden.
• "Tupamaros", a documentary made in 1996 by directors Heidi Specogna and Rainer Hoffmann of German television. The documentary shows interviews with MLN-T members, for example the twins María and Lucía Topolansky, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, José Mujica, Graciela Jorge, Carlos Rivera Yic and others.
• "Seven Instants", documentary by Diana Cardozo, released in August 2010, about women who were guerrillas in Uruguay in the early 1960s.
• The 12-year premiere night in 2018, directed by Alvaro Brechner. The film is inspired by the years of confinement and isolation suffered by three Uruguayan figures: José "Pepe" Mujica, Mauricio Rosencof and Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro.
• "Rethinking the origins of the Tupamaro Movement", a documentary by Manuel Martínez Ruesta and FIT-DG. (2021)