A miracle, a universe : settling accounts with torturers by Weschler Lawrence

Author:Weschler, Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political persecution, Political persecution, Human rights, Human rights, Torture, Torture, Civil-military relations, Civil-military relations, Tortura
Publisher: New York : Pantheon Books
Published: 1990-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

they had agreed, despite considerable pressure, to shelter his good works. "As soon as we started, there was a big commotion. People would come to visit us—especially the politicians—expressing solidarity. We didn't declare any particular terms for ending our fast. We just asked the population to reflect and to organize itself and to put pressure on the military and to inspire the political leaders, who were all depressed by the collapse of the talks and the new ban on political activity. It was hard to get word out, of course, since all the press was again being rigorously controlled. But we had a network, and people began coming to our office each day to talk and organize. After the second day, the convent was surrounded by the Army, and after the fourth day the phone line was cut. But people kept coming—hundreds of supporters. They would be repressed. The MPs were arresting two hundred at a time. But then more would show up. Everybody knew.

"And on the night of August 25, our old national holiday, the people reacted in a very impressive way. At eight o'clock, the lights all over the city went out. And then, at eight-fifteen, there began a great banging of pots. A huge noise, all over town. We gave up our fast the next morning. A group of diplomats from France and Holland came to help escort us out.

"The military didn't know what to do with us. They decided not to arrest us, but they delegalized SERPAJ. We reorganized under a new name, and some high-up untouchables lent us their support. But the important thing was that the politicians had been revitalized. And a few years later the new civilian government, as one of its first acts, relegal-ized SERPAJ."

The August 25 caceroleo, as it was called {"Hola! Holal Esta noche, hay caceroleo!" the housewives of Montevideo chanted in their darkened back-yards as they smashed their pots together), was the first of several public demonstrations. On November 27, which had formerly been an election day, a huge demonstration, of over three hundred thousand citizens, converged on a central Montevideo square demanding a return to democracy. On January 18, 1984, resurgent unions managed to pull off a one-day general strike. Meanwhile, things were changing all over. The Argentine junta, thoroughly discredited by the fiasco of its 1982 war with Britain over the Falklands, was in fast retreat; a civilian

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