Uruguay Opens Records of the Terror Years

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Geo: -34.8939, -56.1568

We've learned a little of the country's history in the short time we've been here--history you won't read in schoolbooks.

In 1858 the remaining indigenous people were rounded up into a valley and slaughtered by the Uruguayans, consequently there is no indigenous population in Uruguay--a dark piece of the country's conscience.

In 1973 Uruguay was taken over by a military dictatorship and much like today's Taliban the people were under strict rule regarding even their hair cutting and the shaving off of all beards. This military dominance and the horror of imprisonment of many notable Uruguayan people lasted until 1984.

Andrea and her mother, Nala, told us about Nala's sister who was thrown in prison for no offense at all. They gathered up artists, the educated, the young—anyone they perceived as thinking contrary to the state. Andrea remembers spending every Saturday of her childhood visiting her aunt in prison, seeing her gaunt, hollow face and feeling the consuming fear in the place.

The president of today's Uruguay was himself imprisoned during that time. He was in solitary confinement for years in a deep well with only room to curl up in a fetal position. Guards threw food down to him as they would to an animal.

You can read in Uruguay's papers today about how children born to prisoners during those years were stolen from their parents by the guards. Some of these lost children are now being reunited with their birth families. The parents died in prison, but the grandparents of those prisoners spend every day searching for their grandchildren and some have been successful. Many parents of prisoners have yet to learn where their children were buried.

Files are being opened now and information is beginning to be easier to get. The wounds inflicted during this terrible time are beginning to be cleaned.

"A country without memory," Andrea says, “is no good.”

It's ironic now she says that this prison full of tears and terror is now a shopping mall in a wealthy part of town. They've kept the entrance gate and the tiny windows prisoners looked out from, but little else.

From 1920 to 1940 Uruguay was a wealthy country. Those times are gone. Uruguay does not have many exports—mostly cattle, some soya and a little wheat. Although the soil is excellent and the climate generally warm, violent storms bring floods and devastating hail across this very flat country way too often. The dairy industry flourishes, but nowhere do you find fruit—grapes, berries, peaches, they should all be grown here, but the climate is unfriendly for this type of cultivation.

There is very limited tourism from the US; tourists here are mostly from Argentina (where they have no beaches) and Brazil (where they have no safety). Colonia and the beaches of Punta del Este and northward are the big tourist draws. You wouldn't think there was anything else here.

Our new friend Keis (pronounced Case) moved here 50 years ago from Holland. Somewhat of an expert on Uruguay by now, he tells us that as long as he can remember Uruguay has had 3 million inhabitants. It doesn't grow because the young people, after having taken advantage of the educational opportunities here, leave, searching for decent paying jobs.

“The best are leaving,” he tells us. When he interviews for positions at the café, where we met over coffee and Coca Light, he bemoans the fact that the most promising and brilliant of the country's young have gone.

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