The initiative will be reflected in a bill, announced the Minister of National Defense, Javier García, after meeting with the board of directors of the National Institution for Human Rights and the Ombudsman’s Office (INDDHH). He explained that the objective is to facilitate access to the documents in the memory archives because, in his opinion, the information must be available to everyone with “absolute transparency.”
The meeting was held on September 21 at the headquarters of the INDDHH. Garcia then revealed that the ministry he leads is working together with Education and Culture on a proposal to enable memory archives to be digitized and freely accessible to citizens. He considered that this type of information should be available to all Uruguayans interested in it. In this sense, he announced that a bill will be presented to modify the regulations and facilitate “transparent and universal” access to documents.
In addition, he indicated that the INDDHH will be able to visit the People’s Prison, today the Defense jurisdiction, so that it can learn about history in an integral way and help it in its function, “in the defense of all human rights in any circumstance and of all people.”
Among other topics discussed, the minister pointed out that he finished the work with the Lidar system (device that allows determining the distance from an emitter to an object or surface by means of a pulsed laser beam), implemented by the Air Force, to search for earth movements, and that the images are analyzed by technicians. “The Ministry of Defense has worked and will work providing all the opportunities and giving all the information so that the INDDHH and the Justice carry out the investigations,” he assured.
He also stated that the meeting raised the question of “being attentive to the stigmatization of our soldiers” and generalizations that harm their dignity as workers. “The grievances cannot be naturalized from the institutional point of view to people who are compatriots like any of us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president of the INDDHH, Marcos Israel, welcomed the idea of socializing the information from memory archives and considered that it should not be the exclusive property of some academic circles.
He added that the organization seeks to create an area that will address different issues related to racism and discrimination.
