Los Tupamaros!
LOS TUPAMAROS!:
Los Tupamaros - officially known as the MLN-T (Movimiento de Liberacioón Nacional-Tupamaros, or the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement in English) existed in Uruguay from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. The group, originally established to fight the right-wing government in the South American country, had its political ethos fired by the freedom fighters that had organised themselves in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba earlier in the century.
At the top, you can see the flag of the Tupamaros, which was a banner of defiance in the country at the time. Students. Communists. Radical intellectuals - these were the kind of people attracted to what the Tupamaros were fighting against: the inept government and dirty bureaucrats. Founded originally by Raul Sendic to support poverty-stricken peasantry in Uruguay's rural zones, it grew into a national movement fighting against the endemic corruption of the ruling elite. Uruguay's president from 2010 to 2015, Jose Mujica, was also a member, and paid for his crimes, being arrested, imprisoned and escaping over three times. He was eventually imprisoned for a final time in 1972, not to see the light of day until 1985, when the country's military dictatorship ended and all political prisoners were granted amnesty. He spent the vast majority of his time in solitary. Years that tormented his soul, but also gave him time to 'think'. And this he did. Mujica, known in the media as 'the world's poorest president' during his term, went about town in an old sky blue VW Beatle and lived in the modest estancia owned by his wife, Lucia Topolansky - a politician who served as a Senator from 2005 to 2017 - outside the capital, declining to live in the presidential palace, the palatial Residencia de Suarez.
Jose Mujica, former President of Uruguay. Photo source: Wikicommons
And you may ask - why am I telling you about the fifty-year-old political history of a faraway country in South America whose greatest exports have been the vampire footballer Luis Suarez and the most subliminal of romantic dances, the tango? The reason is simple. My new book, 'The Red Masks of Montevideo', set in the Uruguayan capital in 1969, tells the story of an American agent, Peter Abate, who works for the Office of Public Safety, an American agency affiliated with the US Agency for International Development, which had close links with the CIA. He is sent there to oversee his country's training of President Pacheco's government forces in counter-insurgency techniques against the leftist guerrillas. Abate is loosely based on the real-life agent Dan Mitrione, who was brutally tortured and murdered by the Tupamaros after they had captured him.
The Red Masks of Montevideo - the red masks alluding to the red masks they wear for disguise during kidnappings, interrogations and bank robberies (even though in reality they wore brown canvas sacks) is not only about the violent era regarding the political life in one of South America's smallest states, but it also delves into the history of this country. The main arc of the story is set in 1969 with Abate, but interspersed with chapters starting in 1516 when the Spanish conquistadors first arrived in the Ríio de la Plata in search of gold in the name of the Spanish King. Famous battles, tango, Candombe, and the first World Cup Final all have their own dedicated chapters that go into the Uruguayan experience.
President of Uruguay, Jorge Pacheco Areco, in office from 1967 to 1972. His administration fought against the National Liberation Movement (MLN in Spanish), or Tupamaros for short, the guerrilla movement being the focal point of my next book, 'The Red Masks of Montevideo'. Photo source: Wikicommons.