Tupamaros
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- Not to be confused with the Peruvian Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.
Tupamaros, also known as the MLN (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional or National Liberation Movement), was an urban guerrilla organization in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. The MLN is inextricably linked to its most important leader, Raúl Sendic, and his brand of social politics.
The Tupamaro movement was named after the Inca revolutionary Túpac Amaru II. Its origins lie in the union between the Movimiento de Apoyo al Campesino (Peasant Support Movement) and the members of trade unions funded by Sendic in poverty-stricken rural zones. It grew in proportion to the ascending powers of Uruguay's military, which culminated in a notoriously oppressive dictatorship between 1973 and 1984.
The movement began by staging the robbing of banks, gun clubs and other businesses in the early 1960s, then distributing stolen food and money among the poor in Montevideo. By the late 1960s, it was engaged in political kidnappings, "armed propaganda" and assassinations. Of particular note are the kidnapping of powerful bank manager Pereyra Rebervel and of the British ambassador to Uruguay, as well as the assassination of Dan Mitrione, the FBI agent alleged to have taught techniques of torture to police forces in various Latin American countries.
The peak of the Tupamaros was in 1970 and 1971. During this period they made liberal use of their Cárcel del Pueblo (or People's Prison) where they held those that they kidnapped. In 1971 over 100 imprisoned Tupamaros escaped the Punta Carretas prison. Nonetheless, the movement was hampered by a series of events including important strategic gaffes and the betrayal of high-ranking Tupamaro Héctor Amodio Pérez, and the army's counteroffensive, which included the Escuadrón de la Muerte (Death squad), police officers who were granted liberal repressive powers to deal with Tupamaros.
The Uruguayan military unleashed a bloody campaign of mass arrests and selected disappearances, dispersing those guerrillas who were not killed or arrested. Their usage of torture was particularly effective, and by 1972 the MLN had been severely weakened. Its principal leaders were imprisoned under terrible conditions for the next 12 years.
Despite the diminished threat, the civilian government of Juan María Bordaberry ceded government authority to the military in 1973 in a bloodless coup that led to further repression against the population and the suppression of all parties.
After democracy was restored to Uruguay in 1985, the Tupamaros returned to public life as a legal political party, the Movimiento de Participación Popular (Movement of Popular Participation). Today the party comprises the largest single group within the ruling left-wing Frente Amplio coalition.
Raúl Sendic died in 1989 of Charcot disease.
After the Frente Amplio's electoral victory of 31 October 2004, two old-time Tupamaros, José Mujica and Nora Castro, became presidents of the two Chambers of the Congress.
