Uruguayan Lower House votes to revoke military amnesty

The Uruguayan Lower House is summoned to vote on the annulment of a law that prevents military personnel to be prosecuted over crimes against humanity committed during the country's dictatorship. The twelve year dictatorship (1973-1985) remains a sensitive theme among the 3.5 million inhabitants of the small South American country.

In two different referendums Uruguayans have voted to maintain the law but the Supreme Court has ruled it as unconstitutional in 2009. Now, the lower house takes on a historic challenge to revoke what became known as “Ley de Caducidad” (Expiry Law). The session takes place just one day before the March of Silence, a protest for the disappeared over the dictorship years.

Current president José Mujica, a former Tupamaro guerrilla man, who spent most of the military regime behind bars, has lost popularity over ambiguous managing of the subject. He said, however, that he would not veto the lower house resolution.

In 2003, a peace commission found that the authoritarian regime killed over 175 activists.

Militants supporting the overturning of the Ley de Caducidad congregated next to pictures of those disappeared during the military dictatorship outside the Legislative Palace, in Montevideo.