Former Uraguay dictator Bordaberry dead at 83

[Judi Lynn]

Former Uraguay dictator Bordaberry dead at 83
The Associated Press

Date: Sunday Jul. 17, 2011 1:50 PM ET

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Former President-turned-dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, whose self-coup launched more than a decade of military rule in Uruguay, died Sunday in his home where he was serving a sentence for leading efforts to eliminate leftist dissent in the 1970s.

Bordaberry had been suffering from breathing problems and other illnesses that kept him from serving the 30-year sentence in prison. His death -- on his 83rd birthday -- was confirmed to The Associated Press by his son, Sen. Pedro Bordaberry.

A wealthy conservative landowner, Bordaberry was elected president in 1971 during a chaotic time in Uruguay, when wealthy elites and leftist Tupamaro guerrillas both saw armed revolution as a real path to power.

The Tupamaros were already crushed when Uruguayans awoke to tanks surrounding the legislative palace on the cold winter day of June 27, 1973. The military had become so powerful that Bordaberry had to give up control in order to survive politically. Rather than lose a minor political fight in Congress, he suspended the constitution, banned political parties, ordered tanks into the streets and ruled by decree until the generals ousted him anyway three years later. Democracy wasn't restored until 1985.

More:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20110717/president-of-uraguay-dies-at-83-110717/

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=102&topic_id=4924185&mesg_id=4924185

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Bordaberry Wikipedia:

~snip~
Bordaberry was elected president as the Colorado candidate in 1971. It has since emerged that he only won due to considerable electoral fraud.<1> He took office in 1972 in the midst of an institutional crisis caused by the authoritarian rule of Pacheco and the terrorist threat. Bordaberry, at the time, was a very minor political figure; he exercised little independent standing as a successor to Pacheco other than being Pacheco's handpicked successor. He continued Pacheco's authoritarian methods, suspending civil liberties, banning labor unions, and imprisoning and killing opposition figures . He also appointed military officers to most leading government positions.

~snip~
Premature end of term of Presidential officeIn 1976, the military, preferring to rule through Alberto Demicheli, already serving in the government and a figure at first thought to be more accommodating to their wishes, ousted Bordaberry from office. The military claimed, whether accurately or not, that Bordaberry wanted to dissolve permanently the political parties and set up a corporatist state according to a pattern with little precedent in Uruguayan history. Bordaberry's anticipated 5-year term of office, 1972-1977, was thus curtailed by the military.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Mar%C3%ADa_Bordaberry