WOMEN UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP

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Thursday, 25th July, from 2 to 4 pm

 

 

With Sonia F. Lauro and Martina Chavez

 

 

We will address the situation of Uruguayan women under the dictatorship that took place in the country from 1973 to 1985, at the time of Operation Condor.  Operation Condor was the name given to a campaign of anti-guerrilla actions, assassinations and tortures in Latin America, led by the Chilean, Argentinian, Brasilian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan secret services with the help and support of the United-States between 1970 and 1985.      

Thousands of activists and leftists made political prisoners suffered terrible tortures that often led to death and/or disappearance. Women – composing a small part of the prisoners group – were considered as spoils of war and violently attacked.  The aim was to destroy them through their particular state of being women. 

After the restoration of democracy, a group of women started to assemble from 1997 in order to address the terrible abuses they suffered – including sexual abuses – and thus recover dignity. Meetings occurred regularly for several months, gathering about 300 women. 28 of them lodged a formal complaint – personal as well as collective – to demand justice and to make known the facts that every women had endured and that could not be further ignored by society.      

That legal fight is still ongoing today.  The entire society should know about it and women should be able to free their speech !  We will talk about the difficulties encountered while fighting for the recognition of these lese-humanity crimes, a fight that still has to be pursued today, 40 years after the facts.

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The Human Rights defender Martina Chavez from Argentina will be with us to share her dreadful trestimony as a former political prisoner in her country.

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Sonia F. Lauro is a Human Rights defender.  She is involved in the association Dónde están? (Where are they?) and used to be a public servant specialised in education.

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An ethno sociologist and Human Rights activist, Martina Chavez is involved in an organization of former political prisoners of Argentina.

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Mairie de Montreuil

Free entry

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A prize pool will be organized to raise funds that will be donated to the 'Donde Estan association?'
for actions to support the families of missing and murdered detainees in Uruguay during the dictatorship.
Donations can be made directly to the festival or via the registration form, noting the amount.