The Communist Party of Uruguay will carry out an act 50 years after the murder of eight militants of that community in Sectional 20 of which a new anniversary is celebrated today. This act will be next Saturday, April 23 at 5:00 p.m. in Agraciada and Valentín Gómez, where the headquarters of Section 20 is located.
On April 17, 1972, the premises of the 20th Section of the Communist Party of Uruguay were attacked by more than 500 military, police and paramilitary personnel. On the occasion eight communist militants were killed. In 1987, the newspaper El Popular presented a journalistic investigation detailing the events that occurred. It is reported that around 10 in the morning the military troops made the first raid on the premises of Sectional 20. For several days, many militants had taken turns looking after it, in the face of the wave of attacks and provocations. The deputy Jaime Pérez, who arrived at the time of the rake operation, will remember in the Chamber, two weeks later, what he said to the responsible officer: “While we were going through the premises and looking at everything, I explained how the vandalism assault had been on Friday of the meeting of the General Assembly, to the central office of our Party. And how, if it had not been for the enormous number of people there and for the discipline and serenity they showed, it could have been transformed into many dead. I told him that in these circumstances you have to keep a very cool head, because men can be the toy of situations created by groups that are there for that, to unleash chaos in the Republic, to create the conditions for fascism and repression. fiercest against the people. Saying this, I had no idea that a few hours later we would find ourselves facing the consummation of these events.
After the operation, around 12 noon, the entire area was still under police-military control. Around 8:00 p.m., a street food vendor receives a significant summons from two private individuals, who show police cards. The merchant worked about a hundred meters away selling his products until dawn. The private ones, hearing that the merchant closed at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, ordered him to do so at 11:00 p.m. that same night.
The place is surrounded at dawn by military and police vehicles, the area is surrounded by heavily armed civilian men and soldiers and police stationed on the rooftops in side streets. A shootout breaks out, the order to leave is given, the militants who come out with their hands up are shot. Luis Alberto Mendiola, Raúl Gancio, Elman Fernández, Justo Sena, Ricardo González, José Abreu and Ruben López die at the scene. Héctor Cervelli dies days later in the Military Hospital.
In this operation, the captain of the Cavalry Regiment No. 9, Wilfredo Busconi, was also seriously injured by military weapons. He died in 1974 as a result of the wound. Once democracy was restored, forensic studies determined that it was a projectile that came from the armed forces themselves that fatally wounded him.
