The Board of Directors of the Military Center issued a statement after the Justice decided to prosecute former Lieutenant Colonel Juan Rebollo for three very especially aggravated homicide crimes as co-author.
The measure refers to the murders of Diana Maidanikc, Laura Raggio and Silvia Reyes, known as “Las Niñas a abril”, in the context of a military operation carried out on April 21, 1974.
The Military Center reported that on that date “a National Army patrol carried out an order and carried out an operation to arrest members of the National Liberation Movement – Tupamaros in a house in the city of Montevideo.”
“When the troops commanded by the heads of the units, those who moved in front of their men, entered the home, they were attacked from within by rioters who fired their portable weapons and threw fragmentation grenades. Under this fire, one of the members of the patrol, Captain Julio Gutiérrez, was mortally wounded and was removed from the direct reach of the enemy by then Lieutenant Colonel Juan Rebollo, who was also wounded in this heroic action”, it is indicated. in the statement.
Unfortunately, after 48 years the false story prevails over the historical truthprosecuting with prison the boss who, putting his life at risk, tried to protect that of his subordinates, in the face of an unexpected attack,” says the Military Center.
They affirm that the “iniquitous, provocative and arrogant” act is part of a common praxis in the judicial courts of our Republic, controlled by an ideology that makes resentment, prejudice and contempt for the Armed Forces and the Constitution its only and holy action guide”.
The military maintain that such an “impassive outrage” cannot be allowed to pass.
“It is necessary for citizens to know in whose hands their rights are and what the institutions whose mission is to protect freedoms, dignity, the good of people and the values that have always impregnated our laws have become. And that understands that there is no possible Republic where the State fails in its primary duties of safeguarding the integrity, rights and honor of the inhabitants, where officials instead of serving the rules that we have freely given ourselves serve foreign interests which clearly establishes our legal system”, is expressed in the statement.
The Military Center reaffirms that the Armed Forces “have served the country with honor, which were called by the political power to protect it from the aggression of subversive groups, moved by external forces, fully fulfilling the assigned mission.”
“The political system as a whole has to answer for these overflows, which leave exposed to the absolute discretion of actors who seek to consecrate the triumph of a policy destined to replace the vote of the citizens, the right of the citizens and the transparency and intangibility of the institutions by deliberately twisted forms of historical revenge”, they say.
The Center states that it is also the duty of the political system to assert the votes that it granted at the time in favor of the two amnesties that were given in the country and to demand “respect for the two popular pronouncements that clearly supported the Expiration Law.”
The Judiciary allowed itself to be assaulted
“There is also a clear responsibility of the Judiciary, which has allowed itself to be assaulted by factions that use it to carry out not Justice, but a political plan to modify historical memory through lies and revenge,” they denounce.
They also assure that the Executive Power “is also affected by the duty of truth and harmony, since it is evident that it does not lack legal instruments and representation and political power to put an end to this set of deviations that deeply hurt the fabric of the system. democratic”.
great soldier
The Military Center states that Lieutenant General Juan Rebollo is “a great soldier and a great person, who honored the institution when he presided over it.”
“Go also to the soldiers and police officers unfairly tried and imprisoned, for those who are alive and for those who agonized and died in prison, our tribute, our respect, our inalienable determination not to lower our arms”, indicates the Military Circle.
