The Abduction of the Fusilados de Soca

Date
8/11/1974

On 20th December 1974, five members of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros (National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros, MLN-T) were assassinated close to the small city of Soca (Canelones Department, Uruguay). Floreal García Larrosa, Héctor Daniel Brum, Graciela Marta Estefanel, María de los Ángeles Corbo de Brum and Mirta Yolanda Hernández had been captured in Buenos Aires on 8th November 1974 during a family gathering. They were then secretly transferred to Uruguay in the context of the repressive coordination between the Argentine and Uruguayan intelligence and police services.

This kidnapping operation led to the disappearance of a young toddler Amaral, who was the son of the couple Floreal García and Mirta Hernández. Amaral was appropriated by the family of an Argentine police officer.

The assassination of the militants was an operation that sought to instill a message of fear and warning. The episode was framed as an act of retaliation carried out by a far-right commando unit following the assassination of a member of the Uruguayan Army, Ramón Trabal, in Paris. At the time, Trabal was the military attaché of the Uruguayan Embassy in Paris and he had been the Chief of the Defence Information Service (Servicio de Información de Defensa, SID).

Media description
Photograph of the Fusilados de Soca memorial.
Credits
Intendencia de Canelones