Uruguay: Lacalle Seeks to Whiten the Dictatorship's History

On Friday, Relatives of Disappeared Uruguayan Movement member Ignacio Errandonea denounced that President Luis Lacalle sought to whiten the history of Juan Bordaberry’s dictatorship (1973-1985) by receiving representatives of the group "Relatives of Political Prisoners," which claims the freedom of the dictator's executioners.

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The group members alleged that their relatives were deprived of liberty illegitimately and arbitrarily because the Judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office committed infractions when they established their about-20-year prison sentences.

“Such situation violates the legal certainty principles, which are fundamental to guarantee the rule of law," they told Lacalle, who agreed on the need not to bias the facts while attending to their demands.

Errandonea forcibly rejected these statements, arguing that the criminals in question assassinated 95 people and disappeared nearly 197 citizens during the Bordaberry dictatorship and that the Uruguayan state currently holds them in optimal prison conditions.

"I perfectly understand that no one likes to have a relative imprisoned, but Lacalle is giving this group's members a treatment that they should not receive," he said, stressing that the meeting took place at the President's residence.

The Open Council (CA) party, to which several ministers belong, recently presented a bill that appeals to a "humanitarian spirit" and calls for an alternative regime, such as house arrest, for prisoners over 65 of age.

The law approval would benefit over 20 prisoners who were prosecuted for crimes committed during the dictatorship and whom the CA leader, senator, and head of the Uruguayan Army Guido Manini had visited several times in prison.