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Uruguay The Emergence of Militarism, 1972-73
In March 1972, Bordaberry was sworn in as president
(1972-76). He ran as a Colorado, but he had been active in
Nardone's Ruralist movement and had been elected to the
Senate as
a representative of the National Party. Bordaberry's
narrow
victory forced him to seek the support of other political
parties. He found it in Mario Aguerrondo's Herrerist
faction of
the National Party and in the Colorado Party's Unity and
Reform,
led by Jorge Batlle Ibáñez, a son of Luis Batlle Berres,
who had
founded the faction.
Bordaberry appointed Julio María Sanguinetti Cairolo,
who
headed a faction of Unity and Reform, as minister of
education
and culture. Sanguinetti promoted education reform that
brought
together primary, secondary, and vocational education
under the
National Council for Education (Consejo Nacional de
Educación--
Conae) and established secret and mandatory voting for the
election of university authorities. Unity and Reform also
took
charge of economic policy by implementing a five-year
development
plan inspired by neoliberal (free market) and monetarist
principles, which would slowly open the economy to greater
influence from financial and commercial groups, as well as
to
foreign investment.
The Bordaberry administration, however, continued its
predecessor's policies, giving greater budgetary priority
to the
military than to education and other social areas.
Bordaberry
also proposed legislation to eliminate university autonomy
and
enhance the powers of the army and police.
When the Tupamaros finally renewed their armed
activities
following their six-month electoral truce from October
1971 to
April 1972, they faced a firmly entrenched administration
backed
by an increasingly well-equipped and adequately prepared
military, which had a blank check to defeat them. In April
1972,
after a bloody shoot-out with the Tupamaros, Bordaberry
declared
a state of "internal war." All civil liberties were
suspended,
initially for thirty days but later extended by the
General
Assembly until 1973. On July 10, 1972, the government
enacted the
draconian State Security Law. By the end of the year, the
army
had decisively defeated the Tupamaros, whose surviving
members
either were imprisoned or fled into exile. Despite their
victory
over the Tupamaros, the military had grown impatient with
civilian rule. It was now time for the armed forces' final
assault on the Uruguayan polity.
Data as of December 1990
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