Re: [Marxism] Ex-guerrillas expected to win in Uruguay

["Nestor Gorojovsky" <nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Today's elections will prove a turning point in Uruguayan history.  

The Frente Amplio ("Broad Front") will come to power after a long 
political march that began during the early 70s,  and is by no means 
limited to the "guerrillas" of Sendic and his people.  The Tupamaros, 
by the way, were not _urban_ guerrillas (their single feat of 
bloodshed in urban environment was the killing of Dan Mitrione, the 
CIA agent and teacher of torture techniques who met more or less like 
the fate encountered by the "international experts" in Iraq today). 
They were the political group that defended the sugarcane workers of 
North Western Uruguay, a particularly exploited mass of rural workers 
and peasants.  Their political origin, BTW, was not the usual 
Uruguayan "Left" but the "Blanco" party.  As representatives of the 
sugarcane workers, they faced violence from the bosses, and had to 
resort to self defence.  That is the way they took to "guerrilla" as 
it is usually said.  In fact, they were union organizers in an 
environment where you have to wear (and oftentimes use) weapons to 
defend your rights.

The most important political feats of the Tupamaros were not the 
"guerrilla" actinos, but the multitudinary marches of 

What really matters here is that the Frente Amplio, etc., will bring 
to the palace of Government of Uruguay, for the first time since the 
days of Artigas (that is, 200 years ago), a coallition of the rural 
poor with the urban poor and the best of the Uruguayan 
intelligentsia.

What is bursting asunder here, perhaps for ever, is the old Uruguay 
which turned its back to Latin America, the Uruguay of Battle Ordóñez 
and the great days of the Colorado (port-city) tradition.  The main 
issue here is that the FA, through the activity of the former 
Tupamaros, has rooted itself in the countryside as well as in the 
city.  This is the new thing in Uruguayan politics that the FA 
represents. 

Even Uruguay turns Latin American, at last!

Best news, impossible to find.

Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 
"Sí, una sola debe ser la patria de los sudamericanos".
Simón Bolívar al gobierno secesionista y disgregador de 
Buenos Aires, 1822
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