This Friday, May 20, the 27th March of Silence takes place under the slogan: “Where are they? The truth is still hidden. It is the responsibility of the State”

For truth, memory and justice. On the city walls.

The Association of Mothers and Relatives of Detained-Disappeared Uruguayans calls for participation in the 27th March of Silence that will begin in Montevideo at 7:00 p.m. from Rivera and Jackson to Plaza Libertad, under the slogan: “Where are they? The truth is still hidden. It is the responsibility of the State”. It will also be held in different cities inside and outside the country.

This Friday there will be a new March of Silence, returning to presence. The date commemorates the murders of Zelmar Michelini, Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz, William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo, and the disappearance of Manuel Liberoff, in Buenos Aires, and the almost 197 Uruguayans who disappeared.

In this sense, the Association of Mothers and Relatives of Detained-Disappeared Uruguayans states that it is the three powers of the State that have in their hands the obligation and responsibility to provide answers about the fate of the detainees disappeared at the hands of State terrorism.

The March “is also a response to those who intend to hurt and distract the collective memory again with lies.”

Statement

Through a press conference, the Association of Mothers and Relatives of Detained-Disappeared Uruguayans issued a statement, the full text of which is reproduced below:

“Tomorrow, May 20, we will walk the streets again, we will walk alongside our detained and disappeared relatives in a new March of Silence. Ours, everyone’s.

We want to thank each and everyone who has made this March, throughout these years, such an important and heartfelt event.

A profoundly political expression, non-partisan, intense, committed, of all.

Together we have built an immense expression and claim for values that unite and permeate us as a society: the value of life and freedom, of never again dictatorships or State terrorism.

The growth of the March throughout the country has been thanks to the care and commitment of countless people. To the work of each group, union, student center, organization, reaching each house, each wall; displaying creativity and autonomy in activities of all kinds, whose axis is the memory of State terrorism; that during the pandemic we could not materialize it in the streets, as we will do this year, they managed to sustain the demand for truth and justice, and make it even more visible.

The photos of our disappeared men and women, who will lead the March as always, symbolize the deepest pains that our society experienced.

In them, in their bodies that the Armed Forces keep kidnapped, all the suffering of a society overwhelmed by the most atrocious authoritarianism is represented.

With them is the heart of our mothers, who started this fight, and opened a light in the darkness of impunity, demanding Truth and Justice, to clarify their destiny, where are they?

It is the three powers of the State that have in their hands the obligation and the responsibility to give us these answers. That is our first claim.

It was the State that decided and committed these crimes.

The one that keeps them hidden until today, allowing that crime to continue to be committed.

As we have not stopped denouncing: the detailed information of all the operations of the Armed Forces, executing arm of State terrorism, they continue to have in their possession, in their classified files, which surely only some superior officers and their high command have access to. .

The one that can and should be demanded by the President of the Republic and Minister of Defense, senior commanders of the Armed Forces, subordinate to democratic power.

All these actions were carried out by state agents, or with their support. From our first missing by the Death Squad in 1971 to the last on our list in 1982.

The evidence of the actions of the Armed and Police Forces, or individuals at their service, in Uruguay, Argentina and the region, exists; and are in the public domain. Also those that show that an innumerable amount of them were transferred to Uruguay, as in the 2nd death flight of Operation Condor, declared by the commander of the Air Force, Enrique Bonelli. The birth of María Claudia’s daughter and the transfer of so many survivors.

On this date that recalls the horror of the terrorist actions of the State, with the murders of Zelmar Michelini, Héctor Gutiérrez Ruiz, William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo, as well as the kidnapping of their three small children that the grandfather manages to recover a month later, and the disappearance of Manuel Liberoff, in Buenos Aires, the March, is also a response to those who try to hurt and distract the collective memory again with lies.

We already live it. For years they covered us with silence, falsehoods, misrepresentations, which we were confronting, disputing, clarifying. All this information was supplemented with trials, academic research and documents from their own archives.

We are not going back on this discussion.

There weren’t two demons! Who violates Human Rights is the State.

Our answer lies in this immense wave of active memory.

These attacks that are taking place today mainly from the military party, which uses Parliament to carry out an anti-democratic campaign, validate the actions of State terrorism and the “service to the country” that they did to us.

With great coherence, it pursues specific objectives: attacking the Specialized Prosecutor for Human Rights Violations, attempting a House Prison Law for soldiers, policemen and civilians, murderers, torturers and “disappearers.” And even revive the infamous Expiration Law. Nothing is new, but it is very serious.

It also supports a campaign to block or eliminate the National Human Rights Institution, for which civil society and its organizations, among whom we count ourselves, have fought so hard.

We will claim each time that its directors must be proposed by civil society, highlighting their suitability and commitment to such an important function, regardless of which party they vote for. This is how we proposed our candidates who have honored that distinction with their work, and we will continue to do so.

This day, the memory of the disappeared, also reminds us where the path of authoritarianism led us. Today again, this speech advances and once again endangers our coexistence.

The State has been insufficient and ignored in this defense. For years he handed over Justice to the power of impunity. That fragile Justice is also opening a path with the latest sentences, with the work of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office, but it is not enough either. We have a new sentence from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, when the one from 2012 has not yet been fulfilled, which once again points out the profound obligations of the Uruguayan State with the truth, the investigation, the guarantees of a justice that does not admit further delays to crimes against humanity, which continue to plague our society.

These marches, which are replicated throughout the country, are a place of struggle that we have been conquering inch by inch with great humility, but with the firm determination to confront impunity in all its forms, replacing it with the ethical values and dignity that they knew how to cultivate our founding mothers, restore the truth and try to see justice done. Where all, without partisan distinction or age difference, in each Present against impunity and for Never Again, we open the hope of a more just, free and supportive society.

We call then to overflow the streets, the walls and parks of photos and margaritas and to join us in an immense demonstration that shouts in each present:

Where are they? The truth is still hidden. It is the responsibility of the State

Mobilizations and marches May 20, 2022 in Uruguay and abroad.

URUGUAY

ARTIGAS

Beautiful Union: 5:00 p.m. Concentration in Plaza Varela

CANNELLONI

Atlantis: 12:00 p.m. Memory Space Luisa Cuesta: Memorial Disappeared Atlantis

Ciudad de la Costa: Intervention in the Human Rights Square from 11:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Locomotion from the Costa de Oro Cuchilla Alta 16:00 (from the Anchor); Parque del Plata 5:00 p.m. and Salinas 5:30 p.m. -Contact Eduardo 098592018-

Saint Lucia: 7:00 p.m. From the Carlos Alfredo Space to the Main Square

The Stones: 12:00 p.m. Plaza de las Piedras intervention. From 4:00 p.m. exhibition images of memory: Carlitos Cultural Center. 6:00 p.m. Bus departure to Montevideo.

SUBURB

Carmel: 7:00 p.m. from the Giratorio Bridge to Plaza Independencia

Colonia del Sacramento: 6:30 p.m. in the Plaza del Reloj

Nueva Helvecia: 8:00 pm We march from the Artigas Monument to the Nibia Sabalsagaray Monument.

Rosary: 7:00 p.m. Concentration in the area of corporeal letters. We left for Benito Herrosa.

Juan Lacaze: 6:00 p.m. Departure from AOT.

LONG HILL

Rio Branco: 6:30 p.m. Concentration, 7:00 p.m. March from Plazoleta V Saravia del Liceo to Plaza General Artigas

Mel: 6:00 p.m. Plaza Constitución, from Aparicio Saravia to Plaza Saravia

PEACH

Peach City:

Sarandí del Yí:

FLOWERS

Flowers: 7:00 p.m. fondar esq. Artigas to the Holy Trinity

FLORIDA

Florida: 7:00 p.m. From Independencia and Cardozo to the Memorial of the Disappeared

LAVALLEJA

Mines: 5:30 p.m. Concentration in the House of Margaret (25 and Pérez del Puerto and Marchamos to the square of Human Rights

MALDONADO

Aiguá: 6:00 p.m. We gather at the five corners and march

Gregorio Aznárez: 4:00 p.m. from Bautista Churi Square (Av. Artigas corner with Ferreira Aldunate)

Piriapolis: 5:00 p.m. Roundabout of Ave. Piria and the Rambla de los Argentinos, where we will plant daisies, to go to Plaza Artigas where a concentration will be held.

Sugar Loaf (city): 5:00 p.m. from Route 9 and Felix de Lizarza.

San Carlos: 5:00 p.m. Plaza 19 de Abril to Av. Rodó, Walk through Memory.

MONTEVIDEO

Montevideo: 7:00 p.m. Rivera and Jackson towards Plaza Libertad.

PAYSANDU

City of Paysandú: 6:00 p.m. Plaza constitution.

BLACK RIVER

Fray Bentos: 6:30 p.m. Concentration in Plaza Artigas.

Young: 6:00 p.m. Concentration in Plaza Sardo march volumetric poster.

RIVERA

Rivera: 7:00 p.m. Flowers Square

ROCHA