Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz (Montevideo, 1934 - Buenos Aires, May 20, 1976) was a Uruguayan political figure, who died by assassination in the framework of Operation Condor. He arried with Matilde Rodriguez Larreta , had 5 children: Mark, John Paul, Magdalena, Facundo and Matthew.
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He served as a Uruguayan deputy, and was member of the National Party. President of the Chamber of Deputies at the time of the coup d'État in 1973, he exiled himself in Argentina.
Héctor Gutiérrez was found dead on May 21, 1976, at 9:20 p.m. in a red Torino sedan that had been abandoned at the corner of Perito Moreno and Dellepiane in Buenos Aires. Also found in the automobile were the bodies of former senator Zelmar Michelini, and of Tupamaros militants William Whitelaw, 29, and Rosario del Carmen Barredo, 26, both also Uruguayans and living in Buenos Aires since the military coup in Chile of September 11, 1973. All of them, abducted May 18, 1976 in Buenos Aires by a paramilitary group, had been tortured and shot; they had their hands and feet bound. Also kidnapped was Benjamín Liberof, 55, a Communist doctor born in Argentina and a naturalized Uruguayan, whose whereabouts remain unknown.
On November 16, 2006, judge Roberto Timbal assigned to preventive detention former dictator Juan María Bordaberry as well as the former Chancellor Juan Carlos Blanco Estradé as the organizers of these crimes. Uruguayan police officer Hugo Campos has also been suspected of being responsible of this assassination.[1]