Uruguay's last dictator Gregorio Alvarez gets 25 years

[Judi Lynn]

Uruguay's last dictator Gregorio Alvarez gets 25 years
October 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian


MONTEVIDEO: Uruguay's last military dictator, Gregorio Alvarez, has been jailed for 25 years for murder and rights violations during his 1981-1985 rule.

Alvarez, 83, was handed the sentence yesterday by a judge who found him responsible for 37 "aggravated homicides", prosecutor Oscar Goldaracena said.

Alvarez was not in court because he was ill, the lawyer said.

Alvarez played a key role in the country's 1973 coup before going on to be commander-in-chief of the army and ultimately becoming the final president of Uruguay's civilian-military dictatorship.

He has been in detention since 2007, when he was found guilty of kidnapping exiled leftist activists living in Argentina who were sent to Uruguay and executed in 1978.

More:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26251113-36235,00.html

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[rabs]

1. It has taken time but justice is being done

Uruguay joins Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay in punishing the war criminals, more than three decades after the dictatorships.

I hope Alvarez will be able to watch on prison TV as Pepe Mujica is inaugurated into the presidency.

[Judi Lynn]

2. An epic moment in history!

He's bound to be a big celebrity in prison, wouldn't you think?

He'd better forget about using that haughty nose-in-the-air look around his fellow inmates. They might decide to squash that honker in for him.

Good luck, Pepe Mujica.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Last Uruguayan dictator sentenced to 25 years

Posted on Thursday, 10.22.09
Last Uruguayan dictator sentenced to 25 years
By RAUL O. GARCES
Associated Press Writer

~snip~
Alvarez - who has said he knew nothing of illegal abductions and forced disappearances - was detained by Uruguayan authorities in 2007, in a step human rights groups hailed as historic.

Prosecutors argued that Alvarez was in a position to know what happened to the political prisoners as army commander in chief and later as de facto president.

Alvarez was not in court Thursday for health reasons. In an earlier appearance, he raised his cuffed hands and told the court he thought he "was going to die in prison."

Alvarez's wife, Rosario Flores, protested the sentence, charging it was orchestrated for political purposes ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

"I want to know what proof they have and where are the bodies?" she told The Associated Press.

The judge also sentenced navy Capt. Juan Larcebeau to 20 years in prison for 29 homicides related to clandestine prisoner transfers in 1978.

About 150 Uruguayans disappeared in the secret flights from Argentina in the late 1970s and an additional 29 people went missing in Uruguay, according to a commission of families of the detained and missing. U.S. intelligence services provided secret help in "Operation Condor."

Current President Tabare Vazquez has made human rights prosecutions a priority, and emboldened courts have detained a number of suspects in recent years. Among them are Alvarez and Juan Maria Bordaberry, the first chief of the military-dominated government.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1295738.html