Nibia Sabalsagaray (Uruguay) -- couple graphic fotos

[rabs]

Nibia in 1974 was studying in Montevideo to be a literature professor. She was born in the small town of Nueva Helvecia (New Switzerland) in southwest Uruguay on 10 Sept. 1949. She was described as a brillant student and she was an activist in the PCU -- the Communist Party of Uruguay. She was 24 years old.




On 29 June 1974, at 2 a.m., three men in uniform and two civilians broke down the door of her apartment and took her prisoner. At noon the same day, less than 12 hours after she was taken, the military informed her family that she had hanged herself in a jail cell at an army garrison in Montevideo. A low-ranking army officer named Miguel Dalmao wrote an official report at the time that she was a "subversive" and had committed suicide by hanging herself with a hankerchief -- while on her knees.


The military that same day turned over the body of Nibia in a sealed coffin with express orders not to open it. A medical student named Marcos Carambula, a friend of the family, disobeyed the order and opened the coffin. The body showed signs of severe beating. A Montevideo newspaper said she had been a victim of the "dry submarine," a technique in which a plastic bag is placed over the head of a victim to sufficate them.

----- Flash forward 36 years, to Monday of this week ---


The low-ranking officer who testified he found her dead in a cell hanged on her knees, Miguel Dalmao, was until Monday an army division general. He was still on ACTIVE duty. On Monday he appeared before a judge who ordered Dalmao and retired Col. José Chialanza held in a military prison on an unusally worded charge of "homicidio muy especial agravado (especially very aggravated homicide). Dalmao and Chialanza have not been charged of actually having killed Nibia, but as the "intellecutal authors" of the crime. They will be in prison until their trial begins, which could take days, weeks or months.

The meaning behind this case is that for the first time, the Uruguayan judicial system has opened the door to prosecuting members of the military still on active duty and who are accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing Uruguayan leftist during the dictatorship years. The army high command was reported by El Pais newspaper to have be highly pissed off at the verdict on Monday.

There is a saying in the Southern Cone:

"La justicia cojea, pero llega."

"Justice limps along, but it arrives."

It took 36 years in the case of Nibia Sabalsagaray.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thank goodness the people of Uruguay had the good sense to elect José Mujica

when the opportunity arose, or these arrests and trials may never have come.

Thanks for the new expression, "La justicia cojea, pero llega."

Hope this will open the door to many more dates with justice.

It all proves the right-wing people are simply not conscientious enough to be able to handle power. They all seem to believe having the ability to torture, to murder people for any reason they contrive is a mandate to do it. They can't, and don't want to control themselves. They are the very LAST people in the world who should EVER be given any influence over decent human beings. All trust, all respect placed in them is misplaced. Look what the #### they did to Latin America.

I guess the authorities believed if they could catch her in her sleep, Nibia would be an easy score, just like the Honduran death machine opted to illegally attack the elected President Zelaya while he was sleeping, as well, rather than doing the legal, and decent thing.

It seems there's a pattern, doesn't it?

Killed her in less than 12 hours. Jesus H. Christ. That's one "subversive" teacher they won't have to worry about teaching literature in the universities where their kids would go to study politics or business.

Thank you, rabs, it's good to know Uruguay is going to clean things up now, knock on wood.

[rabs]

4. The blanket amnesty for the military in Uruguay

was overturned during the term of lefty president Tabare in 2005. The amnesty had been ramrodded through by the last rightwing Colorado government in the late 1990s before Tabare was elected.

Mujica yesterday said that justice is not simply something that can be opined, but must be applied.

The jailing of the active duty general and the retired colonel caused "malestar" (ill feeling) in the top ranks of the army. In the bad old days, Mujica would have faced a military coup, but that is unlikely to happen now, in 2010. Still, considering that Mujica was a Tupamaro during that period, well, who knows for sure.

Nibia was but one of the victims of the Nixon/Kissinger/Mitrione legacy in Uruguay, and the Southern Cone in general.

Btw, in another post you mentioned the death of former Junta members Adm. Massera in Argentine. Fyi top-dog dictator Gen. Jorge Videla is facing trial in Cordoba, in northern Argentina, on charges of stealing babies from pregnant prisoners before the mothers were killed.

So for so many years, justice limped, but it is arriving in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.

----------------

Oh, I find unreccs about a subject like this to be moronic ...

[Judi Lynn]

5. Thanks for setting the record straight on when the amnesty was lifted.

It's a wonderful thing to behold, seeing the democratic governments struggling to get their countries away from that violent, vicious, murderous treachery which held them in chains for so long.

And the Videla information is exceptional. So glad they can try these monsters on other charges, as well. Those charges do expose them as true social perverts, hideously twisted, and unworthy.

Hope Videla gets stuffed into the smallest, darkest cell in Argentina. If only!

[roody]

2. unrec? How rude.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Isn't that odd? Someone supports the side of the fascist torturers & murderers. God. n/t