No Longer a Laughing Matter: The Police, the Public, and the Tupamaros during the Uruguayan Dictatorship

During the 1960s and early 70s, the pro-violence group the Tupamaros performed hundreds of radical missions in Uruguay. During these highly publicized and initially popular missions, the Tupamaros wore many different disguises, including police uniforms, army fatigues and wigs. They attacked their government enemies with a creative arsenal of weapons and used everything from vans to hearses to motorcycles. Many radical and moderate leftists throughout the world envisioned the Tupamaros as passionate, committed and most of all, hip revolutionaries capable of outsmarting the police and the increasingly authoritarian Uruguayan government. This paper examines how the armed forces (including the police) reacted to public perception and Tupamaro tactics, changing from something seemingly benign to an authoritarian regime that had captured thousands of political prisoners. It pays particular attention to the role of the U.S. in professionalizing the Uruguayan army to promote its anticommunist security agenda. The U.S. government viewed Uruguay as a country of such strategic importance that in the three years leading up to the 1973 coup it provided extensive military assistance to the country. In 1970, for example, Uruguay received the second highest military assistance in the entire hemisphere, including sponsoring the training of thousands of Uruguayan police officers in 276 courses at U.S. facilities. The support in budget and training resulted in dramatic change for the Uruguayan armed forces. In just a few years, they transformed from the butt of jokes into a fiercely repressive apparatus. Indeed, by 1972, the Tupamaros ceased ridiculing the Uruguayan armed forces as the state had apprehended the majority of their members. Using archival materials from collections in both the United States and Uruguay, this paper illustrates how popular opinion, public image, and geopolitical interests played an essential role in the emergence of a brutal and sophisticated regime.