Within the framework of the activities that are being carried out in different parts of the country, in memory of the teacher Elena Quinteros, in the Pasaje de la Vía, Acevedo Díaz street, between Miguelete and Nicaragua (in front of the former Cabildo prison) where Elena was detained between 1969 and 1970, the Memory Site Commission of the former Cabildo Prison will carry out a commemorative act in tribute to the teacher and social and political activist who disappeared in 1976. The event has the support of Municipality B.
The first women’s prison in Uruguay and the first prison for political prisoners were located there, and it was there that the inmates staged two historic escapes: “Operation Paloma”, carried out on March 8, 1970, which made it possible for 13 prisoners to escape for the door of the Church that is located on the premises of the establishment; and the “Operation Star” that allowed the escape of 38 prisoners.
Elena Quinteros was born on September 9, 1945. She studied Teaching and was a leader of the Association of Teaching Students (AEM). After graduating, she worked as a teacher and was a member of the Uruguayan Federation of Teachers (FUM). She joined the Student Worker Resistance (ROE) and later the People’s Victory Party (PVP).
On June 24, 1976, she was kidnapped from the house where she lived at 3044 Ramón Massini Street, apartment 103. After days of torture, probably in the clandestine detention center known as “300 Carlos” that operated in warehouse number 4 of the Service of Material and Armament of the Army, in avenue of the Instructions 1925, convinced the soldiers who were interrogating her, that she had arranged a meeting with a fellow militant in a corner near the house where the headquarters of the Embassy of Venezuela was.
On the morning of June 28, she was transferred to the place under guard. When Elena Quinteros approached the house, she ran and jumped into the Embassy garden from the neighboring garden. She called out her name and asked for asylum. The kidnappers invaded the diplomatic headquarters and dragged her out of her place. Uruguayan citizens who were taking refuge in the Embassy witnessed the kidnapping from a distance, while Counselor Frank Becerra and Secretary Carlos Olivares tried, without success, to prevent her from being taken away.
After the kidnapping, Venezuela broke diplomatic relations with Uruguay, which were resumed at the end of the dictatorship, in 1985.
The responsibility for the operation fell to the Army Division, the Anti-Subversive Operations Coordinating Body (OCOA) and, also, the Naval Fusiliers Corps (FUSNA) where Elena Quinteros may have been detained before the kidnapping at the Embassy.
The testimony of people kidnapped in the “300 Carlos” allows corroborating that they were taken there after the escape attempt. Nilka Regio de Gutiérrez heard her being tortured and was able to see her at one point. She was kept separate from the rest of the detainees, in a special regime. Another hostage, Cristina Marquet, assures that in August 1976 the teacher was still in the “300 Carlos”.
It is possible that she was killed in October or November of that year and buried in the 13th Infantry Battalion, but her body has not been found to date.
Elena Quinteros’ mother, María del Carmen “Tota” Almeida, had to go into exile in Venezuela, after the disappearance of her daughter. “Tota”, as she was popularly known, dedicated the rest of her life to denouncing the kidnapping and searching for the whereabouts of her daughter.
