Uruguay seeks secret US archives on 'dirty war'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AFP

Uruguay seeks secret US archives on 'dirty war'
7 hours ago

MONTEVIDEO (AFP) — President Tabare Vazquez has asked US President George W. Bush to declassify US documents on Uruguay's "dirty war" (1973-1985) for possible clues to a 1978 murder and other crimes, his office said Monday.

"My government hopes it can count on the cooperation of the US government in clarifying all disappearances and human rights violations during that painful period in Uruguay's history," Vazquez told Bush in a letter already sent to the Whited House.

The letter, Vazquez' office said, was suggested by the opposition National Party (NP) last month to help an investigaton into the 1978 poison murder of Cecilia Fontana, the wife of then NP leader Mario Heber.

A PN lawyer who pushed for the case to be reopened, last year had requested the US Central Intelligence Agency for classified documents on Fontana's murder, but was turned down in June, when the CIA told him the papers were classified.

In addition to information on Fontana's murder -- she was poisoned with a bottle of wine intended for her husband, Vazquez also asked Bush to declassify all documents dealing with Uruguay when it was under the military dictatorship.



Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-c3qf9VxEGbVZP-dgcgBDFJ9K9A

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Presidents Tabare Vazquez, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Mercosur meeting, Uruguay

December, 2007

[Judi Lynn]

1. The ending of this article is worth considering, also:

~snip~
Meanwhile, Quito on Monday said it would investigate alleged CIA meddling in Ecuador, after Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa at the weekend vowed to put an end to the CIA's "infiltration" of the nation's intelligence services.

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that "a top level civilian committee" would be formed to look into the allegations.

The complaints against the CIA follow the sacking Thursday of Army Intelligence chief, Colonel Mario Pazmino, for failing to tell the government about the death of an Ecuadoran during Colombia's March 1 bombing of a Colombian rebel camp inside Ecuador.

On Saturday, Quito's El Comercio daily reported that the CIA paid Ecuador's Army Intelligence 16 million to 18 million dollars a year to "exchange information."
(snip/)

On edit, adding photo of Rafael Correa and President Tabare Vazquez, together:




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Had to post this photo I just saw of a Guatemalan street message painted in anticpation of _{George Bush's} triumphal tour of Latin America, during which he attempted to isolate Hugo Chavez by suggesting other leaders stay away from him, a message he had already sent through both Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice. He was sufficiently resisted everywhere.

"Fuera _Bush asesino" would probably mean, "Out, _Bush, murderer," I'd guess.

[Demeter]

2. Like That Will Happen Before Jan. 20th.

Check back with US later, Vasquez!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Here's a google translation of his Wiki in Spanish,concerning the poisoning of Heber's wife:

In August 1978, Heber, Pereyra and also nationalist leader Luis Alberto Lacalle received two bottles of wine sent by an unknown person who signed only "MDN", and inviting "provide for one's country in its new phase." Recipients it attributed to rumours that in the coming days would lead to a military coup openness within the regime itself. However, when the wife of Heber, Cecilia Fontana, tested the contents of the bottle, died immediately: the wine was mixed with an extremely powerful poison. The crime was never clarified, and the research conducted by the military authorities of the time was widely questioned in the years after the fall of the regime.

Heber died less than two years later, being replaced in the Triumvirate white by Jorge Silveira Zabala.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Heber

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From February 18, 2006, an earlier story:

CIA a Murder Suspect in Uruguay

Montevideo, Feb 18 (Prensa Latina) The major Uruguayan opposition force PN (National Party) resolved on Monday to urge President Tabare Vazquez to demand the US government clarify a politically motivated murder committed in 1978.

At the end of a PN leadership meeting, leader Carlos Julio Pereyra said they plan to ask Vazquez to request that Washington to declassify new documents about the poisoning death of Cecilia Fontana de Heber.

On September 5 1978, the wife of nationalist leader Mario Heber died after drinking wine from one of three bottles sent anonymously to her husband and his fellow party members Luis Alberto Lacalle and Carlos Julio Pereyra.

The bottles arrived with a card reading "on Thursday 31 at noon we will drink a toast to our homeland in its new phase," and signed with the initials MDN. The only person who drank from one of the bottles was Cecilia Fontana.

An investigation by La Republic daily pointed to involvement of the DNII (National Information and Intelligence Office) and ultra right groups, supported by the CIA and the US Embassy, in the homicide.

Recently the US State Department, at the request of Heber's attorney, declassified information relative to the case, but the document was so full of erasures that nothing could be clarified.
(snip/)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[LynnTheDem]

4. Gotta protect the thugs & dictators the US support(ed)s!