Uruguayan criminal prosecutor Stella Llorente has requested to declassify two files on the so-called “tupabandas” that assaulted banks and companies in the 1980s and 1990s.
Before Llorente’s request, court prosecutor Jorge Diaz sent a book to the criminal prosecution in which journalist Maria Urruzola stated that the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) was financed with money from the “Tupabandas.”
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According to sources at the Prosecutor’s Office, the memorandum stated that the book “Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, With No Remorse” came to “his knowledge for objectives that he considers relevant.”
The book was sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the 11th district due to the fact that it was in charge of investigating the case of “superbandas”, “polibandas” or “tupabandas”, all organized crime groups. Llorente’s investigation makes the information in question particularly relevant.
The book accuses the organization of having received approximately USD $20 million over nine years of the organization’s criminal activity.
However, the movement has rejected the accusations with an ironic message that it published on Twitter, in which it made reference to the ruling party’s in reference to the reform of military pensions, and to an audio recording in which former president Jose Mujica was accused, as well as vice president Raul Sendic, MPP senator Lucia Topolansky, and MPP congressman Luis Fratti, of buying a farm near Santa Clara de Olimar.
The left-wing MPP is a key segment of the Broad Front coalition that has dominated Uruguayan national politics for more than a decade. Its current leader, Lucia Topolansky served as First Lady during the presidency of Jose Mujica. Now politically stable, Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s was rocked by political unrest and dealt with several militant left-wing guerrilla movements, of which Mujica and Topolansky were once a part.
Sources: El Observador; Montevideo; La Red 21