Source:
CBCHis popular short stories chronicled Uruguay's middle class and specifically, that of the capital.
"Montevideo is a city whose climate and lifestyle are almost provincial, where strangers feel comfortable," he noted in an interview in the late 1990s.
An ardent leftist, he lived in exile from 1973 to 1983 — taking residence in Argentina, Peru, Cuba and Spain — during his country's military rule and was an active supporter of the Cuban government.
"An intellectual's weapon is writing, but sometimes people react as if it were a firearm. A writer can do a lot to change the situation, but as far as I know, no dictatorship has fallen because of a sonnet," he once said.
Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2009/05/18/benedetti-obit-uruguay.html