teleSUR Reports – Nine Lunatics

On September 7, 1973, nine leaders of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement were furtively taken out of the Libertad Prison where they were being held. The Colonel in charge of the operation said, “Since we couldn’t kill them when we caught them, we’re going to drive them crazy.” At that time all the jails in Uruguay were flooded with political prisoners due to the fierce repression under the Bordaberry dictatorship. Through interviews with the nine hostages, as they were called, this short film gives a glimpse of the origins of their political-military organization and of what kept them going while they were being held in isolation. “We always lived with the idea that it was going to end and that we were going to go back to our old ways. We never dreamed that one day we’d be in the Presidency.” But after their release in 1985 they went on to organize the March 26 Movement and the Broad Front, whose presidential slate won the elections in Uruguay in 2004 and is still in office today. teleSUR