Civilian power, military power and human rights in recent Uruguay history

This article presents the development of the basic Uruguayan ideology over the coarse of this century, an important contradiction between Uruguayan historical values and the citizens decision to ratify a law which absolves the violators of human rights and sets a different standard of justice for them. It refers to the principal moments following the dictatorship 1984-1989 the public debate concerning the human rights Violations that occurred during the dictatorship and the fate of those responsible for human rights violations, a long discussion between the civil and military authorities which ended with a legislative solution to the problem. The article attempts especially to reconstruct the circumstances that prevailed when the law was Passed by the legislature, recreating the social moments that led to the ratification of the constitutional referendum.