Statement by Wilson Ferreira Aldunate before the Subcommittee on International Organisations of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, dated 17 June 1976, in which he denounces the authoritarian turn in Uruguay.
He denounces the dissolution of Parliament in 1973 and the creation of the Council of State. He mentions the murders of the legislators Zelmar Michelini and Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz in Buenos Aires. He also exposes arbitrary uses of judicial power (confiscations prior to sentencing, prolonged imprisonment even after serving one’s sentence). Furthermore, he maintains that the Uruguayan guerrilla movement was dismantled in 1972 and that, since then, state repression has been directed against the population at large.
He provides figures: between 5,000 and 6,000 political prisoners at that time, and between 50,000 and 60,000 people detained or interrogated since the beginning of the dictatorship; he refers to widespread torture together with mass emigration (at least 300,000, perhaps up to 500,000 people). He highlights the country’s foreign debt and disproportionate security expenditure. He calls on the United States to cease all political, technical and financial support for the Uruguayan dictatorship and to “let the Uruguayans” restore their democracy.
Location: Historical–Diplomatic Archive Department – Section: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in the United States / Series: Wilson Ferreira Aldunate / Year: 1976 / Box 113 / Folder 28
