From the Izquierda Socialista de los Trabajadores (IST), the Uruguayan section of the IWL, we share in the “maximum repudiation” expressed in the communiqué by the mothers and relatives of the disappeared who learned of the miserable statements made by Lucia Topolansky (1). For our part, we extend our repudiation to former President José Mujica, who has expressed his support for her.
Topolansky was a member of the Uruguayan guerrilla movement Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros (MLN-T) in the 1960s, together with her husband José Mujica. She was also vice president and senator of the Frente Amplio.
The statements
Topolansky affirmed that there were some witnesses who lied in the trials in which members of the military were held responsible for human rights violations during the last military dictatorship (1973-1985). She said that “there are people who lie in their testimonies,” adding that “we know who lied within the left, but we are not going to say it because we are neither traitors nor snitches”. These statements were made in interviews that Topolansky and Mujica gave to the journalist Pablo Cohen for the book Los Indomables, which was published in December. At the end of this note, it was announced that the Justice Department would summon Topolansky to testify after their statements.
The day after the declarations were made public, José Mujica came out in support of Topolansky’s statements in a radio interview: “These things are true, yes,” he said.
General rejection
The condemnation was immediately unanimous and made generalized among popular organizations. The communiqué of the Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Prisoners was preceded by that of CRISOL (Organization of Former Political Prisoners).
Then dozens of others joined in, such as Uruguay’s only trade union federation, the PIT-CNT (Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores – Convención Nacional de Trabajadores), as well as numerous unions, social and neighborhood human rights organizations, and human rights personalities and lawyers, such as Pablo Chargoña.
A flood of workers, FA grassroots militants, former prisoners, relatives of the disappeared, and fighters in general broadcast their personal rejection of the statements on social media and in conversations in the streets and workplaces. The Frente Amplio itself was forced to issue a communiqué from its political bureau distancing itself from the statements of Topolansky and Mujica.
Statements in the service of impunity
These statements are an attack on the struggle against impunity. This is a struggle that has been carried out for decades with much difficulty by the relatives of those disappeared and tortured, workers, and youth. And further, these groups have pursued justice despite all of the obstacles and tricks that have been put in place both by the Parliament, starting with the disgraceful Law of Expiry (2), and by the Judiciary.
At the same time, these statements favor the military’s false claim that they are the victims of “revenge”. Based on these statements, the lawyers of the Military Center, who defend human rights violators, have quickly announced that they will ask for a review of all cases in light of these statements.
These statements become more serious when we have similar regional examples, such as Milei or Bolsonaro, who have carried out a permanent campaign to deny the crimes of the dictatorship, accusing the organizations and fighters for human rights of being a “hoax” and liars.
In other words, these are statements that feed the most reactionary discourses and interests of the defenders of the dictatorship.
Many honest comrades from the rank and file wonder why these statements are being made. The reason is that the defense of capitalism has led these leaders to compromise with the military high command since the Naval Club Pact (3). Most of them have still gone unpunished, although 40 years have passed since the end of the dictatorship.
Mujica was shown to be an example in his alliance with imperialism and the world bourgeoisie. He went from defending the revolution and the armed struggle to praising and governing capitalism while denying socialism.
Moreover, progressives around the world, who deny the socialist revolution, paid homage to him. Mujica has put all his prestige as a former political prisoner at the service of a thorough defense of capitalism and has become the standard-bearer of the military’s impunity.
In this way, he has rendered a great service to the Uruguayan and world bourgeoisie. This is the sad role of Mujica and Topolansky. Today, their miserable statements have made this clearer than ever.
A deep crisis breaks out
Mujica and Topolansky are the main leaders of the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP) (4), the overwhelming force of the FA in the last elections. Orsi, the president-elect, comes from this sector and also had to quickly distance himself.
In Mujica’s and Topolansky’s own house (the Chacra del Cerro) all the leaders of the future government paraded, as well as the South American presidents Lula and Petro, during the Mercosur meeting.
Recently it became known that Guido Manini Ríos, ex-military and founder of the far-right party Cabildo Abierto (which collapsed in the elections but gained two deputies who intend to negotiate their votes with the FA so that the latter has the necessary majority to legislate in that chamber), also visited Mujica at his farm at the end of November.
The scandal and crisis created by these statements show, as we said in our last editorial, that “the FA’s leadership is turning more and more to the right (…) they are preparing for all kinds of agreements with the right-wing parties, even with the defenders of the torturers of the Abierto Cabildo” (5).
The new government has not yet taken office and it already has its first crisis. And it is not just any crisis. It is a crisis on one of the most sensitive issues between the workers and Uruguayan society. The mobilization against state terrorism, which takes place every year on May 20, gathers several hundred thousand people (in a population of three and a half million), with a strong youth presence, who continue to take the demand into their own hands.
In Uruguay it is very common to have a relative, a friend, or to know someone who has suffered the consequences of State Terrorism. To have an idea, the prestigious historian of the University of the Republic, Gerardo Caetano, affirms that Uruguay “had the highest number of political prisoners in relation to the population of all the dictatorships in Latin America” (6).
Down with impunity!
From IST we support the struggle for truth, trial and punishment; we raise our banner for the disappeared comrades. We stand in solidarity with all the persecuted, tortured and exiled people who have not hesitated to give their testimonies and join in the struggle for justice, overcoming the most difficult personal obstacles and those imposed by the judiciary and parliament.
The real liars are the military. They lie when they say they know nothing about the disappeared. They lie when they point to false grave sites. They lie every time they minimize or deny their crimes.
From the IST, we call on the workers, the base of the FA, and all the defenders of democratic freedoms who reject state terrorism, to extend and deepend the mass rejection of Topolansky and Mujica’s statements. We call on you to redouble our shared efforts in fighting together against impunity.
Let us take to the streets to demand the annulment of the Law of Impunity, the opening of all the archives of the dictatorship, a common prison for human rights violators, through commiss¡ions of inquiry and popular juries, integrated by trade unions and human rights organizations, to end impunity.
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Sources:
1) Communiqué of the Mothers and Relatives of the Disappeared: https://desaparecidos.org.uy/2024/12/15523/
2) The Law for the Expiry of the State’s Claims for Punishment was passed in 1986 by the National Party and the Colorado Party in order to avoid trials against the military and to leave the decision of whether or not to try a particular accusation in the hands of the executive. It is popularly known as the “Law of Impunity”.
3) The Pact of the Naval Club was the negotiation between the military commanders, the leaders of the Colorado Party and the Frente Amplio, in which a negotiated solution to the dictatorship was agreed upon. It was agreed that elections would be held in 1985 and that the military would remain in power. The National Party, which initially did not participate in these negotiations because of the imprisonment of its leader, Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, later agreed to vote with the Colorado Party for the Expiration Law to prevent the military from being tried. This event was inspired by the Moncloa Pact of the Spanish State.
4) The Movement for Popular Participation (MPP) was founded in 1989 by former Tupamaros guerrillas. It gradually assimilated into the bourgeois-democratic system, eventually becoming part of the Frente Amplio. In this process, it suffered some splits from groups and leaders who criticized this path, such as the late former guerrilla Jorge Zabalza. The main leaders of the MPP are Mujica and Topolansky.
5) Editorial Rebelión 92. https://www. ist.uy/para-quienes-gobernara-el-fa/
6) https://www.clacso.org/uruguay-tuvo-el-mayor-nivel-de-presos-politicos-de-las-dictaduras-de-america-latina/
