MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Uruguayan dictator and minister jailed

Former Uruguayan president turned dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry and his Foreign Affairs minister Juan Carlos Blanco have been prosecuted in connection with four political killings in 1976 during the military rule.

The two men are accused of involvement in the killing of two congressmen and two left-wing militants thirty years ago in May 1976 in the city of Buenos Aires where they had taken refuge.

Elected democratically in 1971, Bordaberry dissolved Congress and banned political parties in June 1973 at the behest of military leaders. The military eventually ousted him in 1976, and Uruguay remained under the control of a right-wing dictatorship until 1985.

During the past year, Bordaberry has come under intense scrutiny by court investigators probing the deaths of Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutierrez, two prominent lawmakers who fled the dictatorship, and suspected guerrillas William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo.

The lawmakers were seized from their homes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 18, 1976, and their bullet-riddled bodies were found days later along with those of the suspected rebels.

Human rights groups have long contended that the killings were the result of secret cooperation by the two countries' military dictatorships. Some 180 Uruguayans were killed during military rule, most of them in neighboring Argentina Under the so-called Operation Condor, authoritarian governments that dominated South America during the sixties and seventies of the 20th century worked together to crack down on rebels and political dissidents, resulting in the death and disappearance of unknown thousands.

As civilians Bordaberry and Blanco are not protected by an amnesty passed after the end of military rule in 1985. Bordaberry presented himself to the authorities at the central prison in Montevideo, on Friday, a day after judge Roberto Timbal ordered his arrest.

Confidential documents from the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that Minister Blanco denied the exiled Congress members new passports, forcing them to live in Argentina which was not a safe haven at the time, and had instructed diplomats to report Uruguayan dissents' activities overseas.

Although no documents linking the former president to the killings were found, Bordaberry was prosecuted given his political responsibility at the time as head of government.

On Friday evening the Bordaberry family surrounded by relatives and friends made an official public statement accepting the course of justice but rejecting the charges and anticipating the ruling will be appealed.

The family also regretted that the Uruguayan justice system and magistrates were working under such "political motivated pressure".

Judge Roberto Timbal's office did not comment on the announcement, as is customary with Uruguayan judges on criminal proceedings.

Uruguay's president Tabare Vazquez who is supported by a left wing coalition and has made prosecuting human rights violations under the dictatorship a priority, told reporters that "the justice system has spoken" but otherwise did not comment on the arrest warrants.