Human rests were found in Pando

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After four months of digging and a lifetime of waiting

Twenty years after the finalization of the dictatorship in Uruguay the left party has won the elections and is now the ruling government. The tide has changed, former Tupamaro guerilla activist are now government senators, the once prosecuted are now in power.

On a controversial initiative the government has requested the military forces to provide reports on the locations of the buried political prisoners in the de facto government, and the explanations on the main events that took place related to the 150 persons that went missing, 30 of them said to been buried in Uruguay. The request was made on august the 8th. Four months of digging in the signaled locations have passed with no results, at least until very recently.

Last Tuesday human rests were found in one farm in Pando, one of the places signaled by the air force report. The rests are presumed to belong to José Arpino Vega, a construction worker, which militated in the communist party, who disappeared in 1974.

The place declared by the army (which is the force responsible for most of the disappearances) stills shows no results. Some think that the information provided by that force is untrue and misleading. Word on the street is that if there are no results the higher hierarchies in the army will be uprooted and replaced. Some even go as far as saying that the recent findings were planted by the government to appease the population. I guess only time will tell, the findings will be studied by a team of anthropologists from Uruguay and Argentina, who will define their validity.

Among those that are against this process the claims are that it’s unwise to open old wounds. Others think that until this matter is settled there will be no peace of mind for some sectors of the population. Others think that the will be no total forgiving and healing until the protagonist generation passes away.

Anyway, I’m optimist and I like to think that what’s been found is for real, that these findings have shed some light in the investigation process, and renewed the hope in everyone in Uruguay who wishes to end this black chapter in Uruguay’s history once and for all. ...