2024-02-28 20:36:55
The government of Uruguay eliminated the term “state terrorism” from the country’s schools to talk regarding the last civil-military dictatorship. The measure unleashed a wave of repudiation due to the advance of the denialist discourse and the complaints of the teaching unions. In 2022 something similar had happened, but Luis Lacalle Pou’s Executive backed down.
The measure was announced days ago and came to light when the Association of History Teachers of Uruguay (APHU) denounced that in the new study program for the first year of Higher Secondary Education the concept “state terrorism” was eliminated to talk regarding arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearances by state forces.
“It is not an innocent change”
Instead, the right-wing government of Lacalle Pou, which took office under the umbrella of the Blanco Party, proposes to speak in a light tone of the “suspension and subjugation of the constitutional guarantees of citizens” to talk regarding the 12 years of dictatorship ( between 1973 and 1985), where 197 people disappeared and thousands had to go into exile.
Given this drastic change in educational programs, teachers reported that “it is not innocent,” but rather seeks to deepen the denialist discourse in the country. In fact, the APHU recalled that in 2022 the same discussion took place with changes in the Ninth Year History program of Integrated Basic Education, until the authorities backed down.
“As it did in 2022, the Board of Directors considers it essential to denounce these modifications in the new history programs, which constitute interventions of a political and ideological nature,” said the teaching organization. In a harsh statement, the APHU expressed its condemnation of these decisions “which once once more affect the approach to the recent past, distancing the contents of the programs from national and international historiographical production, and which, ultimately, harm the secular and scientific teaching of history.
The teachers also criticized the introduction into the program of content with the name “guerrilla movements and human rights violations”, alleging that the statement “lacks foundations, given that it ignores countless legal regulations and bibliography.”
Unlike 2022, this time the measure was carried out without the history teachers finding out. Although the teachers indicated that the new concept appeared in a preliminary version approved in November, it had later been eliminated from the final program, which days before the start of classes was made official by the National Public Education Administration (ANEP).
Uruguayan authorities denied that the measure seeks to “hide state terrorism,” but instead aims to protect the right to the truth. Juan Gabito, representative of the ANEP Board of Directors from the National Party, said in statements to Channel 12 that the objective is for State terrorism to be part of “a broader social, political and historical reality,” and argued that the proposal of teachers was “partial and incomplete.
“Overturn the narrative of history”
Professor and historian Carlos Demasi expressed his agreement with the APHU statement to La Diario. According to Demasi, Lacalle Pou’s government seems to adopt “a denialist vision” that “attempts to dampen what the dictatorship and that entire period of state terrorism represented for Uruguayan society.” In that sense, he explained that the final version of the history program follows a plot line that “was classic in the dictatorship,” since it blames the actions of the guerrilla prior to the coup for the human rights violations of those years.
Demasi agreed with the APHU that “none of the human rights conventions states that an individual can violate human rights, unless they exercise the conditions of state power.” The historian recalled that the National Liberation Movement-Tupamaros in Uruguay “never violated human rights”, although they did “commit crimes that are provided for in the Penal Code”, and remarked: “The fact of equating the crimes in the Penal Code that “The State must punish and that they were also harshly punished during the dictatorship with human rights violations is an attempt to overturn the narrative of history.”
Demasi’s statements to the newspaper and other media provoked the reaction of the lawyer and representative of the Colorado Party Ope Pasquet. “I suppose that Professor Demasi expressed himself poorly and did not mean what he said. The crime of homicide suppresses the right to life of the victim, which is obviously a fundamental human right,” said Pasquet and added: “The crimes committed by “State agents are more serious and deserve greater penalties, without a doubt. But crimes such as homicide or rape also harm human rights, even if they have been committed by private individuals.”
The Broad Front senator and teacher Sebastián Sabini also reacted to the news. “For years saying that classrooms are indoctrinated, insulting teachers and underestimating students, to try to impose a biased view and once morest all historical evidence,” he complained regarding the current government through a tweet. “Uruguay suffered state terrorism, although the deniers want to hide it,” Sabini added.
1709156669
#Uruguay #government #eliminated #term #state #terrorism #educational #programs #Alarms #raised #due #advance #denialist #speeches
