Senate will vote “in the next few days” project to repair victims of the guerrilla
Senator Gustavo Penadés told the Montevideo Portal that the government coalition will seek “in the next few days” to approve the bill promoted by the Executive Power to repair the victims of “armed groups for political reasons” in the period between 1962 and 1976.
“There is political will to treat it and vote on it in the coming days,” said Penadés. The referent of the National Party bench emphasized that the idea is to approve it “certainly before the end of the year”, and that for that the ruling party has the votes of the coalition.
Once approved in the Senate, the bill must be debated in Deputies, where the ruling party will seek to give it final sanction in 2023.
The text sent to Parliament on December 20 proposes “moral, social and economic compensation” to civilian, police, and military victims and their families who “have suffered damage to their person and property as a result of the illegal acts that occurred between December 1 January 1, 1962 and December 31, 1976, by members of groups armed for political reasons”, as established in the bill.
“The State will promote material or symbolic actions of moral reparation in order to restore the dignity of the victims of the illegitimate use of power exercised by members of armed groups, as well as honor their memory,” said the articles in its fourth article.
The bill also stated that the expenses generated from the application of the eventual law will be financed from General Revenue. The text was signed by the ministers of President Luis Lacalle Pou and was a claim by the Cabildo Abierto, a party led by senator and former Army commander Guido Manini Ríos.
The explanatory statement of the draft Law stated that “the aforementioned victims and their families have suffered damage to their person and property and their right to pecuniary compensation has been violated.” “It is justice for these compatriots and their families, who have been the object of illegal acts and who, as a consequence of them, have suffered the violation of their rights,” added that part of the text.
The bill creates a Special Commission that will deal with “the investigation, substantiation and definitive resolution on the applications for amparo” as well as “the granting of the benefits provided”.
The persons covered will be all those who “have suffered a violation of their right to life, their psychophysical integrity or their freedom for political or ideological reasons, and who can irrefutably prove the damage and its causal link, with respect to the events that occurred in the designated period”.
