Report of a mission carried out in April/May 1974 by Mr Niall MacDermot, Secretary General of the ICj and Miss Inger Fahlander, research officer of Amnesty International.
The mission started in Montevideo from Monday 29 April to Saturday 4 May. They first met senior officials and legal advisers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of the Interior during which the emergency legislation and judicial procedures in force were explained. They later had interviews with two of the Military Judges of Instruction, with the Secretary of COSENA (the advisory council of the Armed Forces to the government), the President of the Supreme Court, the Vice- President of the Council of State (a nominated body to which the powers of the suspended Parliament have been transferred), the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It had been agreed that the meetings with Ministers would be on a confidential basis.
In addition to the official meetings, they met many lawyers having practical experience in relation to political prisoners. They found the information supplied by them was in some respects at variance with that given by the authorities. We were also able to visit a prison (Libertad) where political suspects subject to trial are being held, but we were refused permission to visit any of the military baracks where interrogations are carried out.
Uruguay-political prisoners-fact finding report-1974-eng (full text in English, PDF)
Uruguay-political prisoners-fact finding report-1974-spa (full text in Spanish, PDF)