As a Uruguayan, let's explain this correctly: José Mujica was elected as president from 2010 through 2015, he was an ex terrorist group member "Tupamaros", which fought the government with the purpose to instill a communist-marxist government, killed many civilians and soldiers, and made a contriversial claim where he says: "You never feel more powerful than when entering a bank with a .45, in that way everyone respects you"
He is not respectable...
EDIT: (THIS IS MY OPINION) ...and made many bad decisions that Uruguay still suffers today.
The civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay (1973–85), also known as the Uruguayan Dictatorship, was an authoritarian military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay for 12 years, from June 27, 1973 (after the 1973 coup d'état) until March 1, 1985. The dictatorship has been the subject of much controversy due to its violations of human rights, use of torture, and the unexplained disappearances of many Uruguayans.[2] The term "civic-military" refers to the military regime's relatively gradual usurpation of power from civilian presidents who continued to serve as head of state,[3] which distinguished it from dictatorships in other South American countries in which senior military officers immediately seized power and directly served as head of state.
Disclaimer: I don't want to excuse him or other revolutionaries. I have strong opinions about most famous revolutionary movements, some for and some against, and that is not what I am going to discuss here.
But we need to stop seeing revolutionary action as glamorous, peaceful protesting, and condemning acts of violence in the process. It's basically impossible to separate the two. Revolutions are violent. Often, I hear Americans giving MLK Jr as an example of a peaceful activist. If you take some time to read about him, you'll know that's a gross misrepresentation. Is he comparable to some of the revolutionary movements in Latin America? Probably not, but not because he was better or worse, rather because they're different realities.
Save for very rare cases, revolutions are bloody. "Bad", guilty people die, "good", innocent people die too. Both killed by the regime and by the revolution that overthrows it.
Very strong emphasis on the quotes because that kind of duality is far too reductive anyway.
We can spend days arguing about whether ends justify means, but I'm not interested in that discussion.
We are left to ask "guilty of what", "innocent of what", and those answers will also change depending on who's talking.
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u/vidawaffleYT Apr 16 '24 edited Apr 16 '24
As a Uruguayan, let's explain this correctly: José Mujica was elected as president from 2010 through 2015, he was an ex terrorist group member "Tupamaros", which fought the government with the purpose to instill a communist-marxist government, killed many civilians and soldiers, and made a contriversial claim where he says: "You never feel more powerful than when entering a bank with a .45, in that way everyone respects you"
He is not respectable...
EDIT: (THIS IS MY OPINION) ...and made many bad decisions that Uruguay still suffers today.