Tabaré Vázquez, before the military crisis in Uruguay: "I assume all responsibility and justice will have to decide"

The president of UruguayTabaré Vázquez said on Tuesday that he was baduming "full political responsibility" in court the the omission of the confession of the crime of the former military officer Jose Nino Gavazzo in the case of the disappearance and death of a Tupamaro guerrilla in 1973.

"I badume all the political responsibility and it will be the justice that will govern," said the president to the Uruguayan network VTV and he stated that this now constitutes an "important chapter" in the government's "legal, political and institutional" phase.

In this regard, he stressed that the legal phase will be resolved by justice "freely and sovereignly" and that, politically and institutionally, he had already acted to send back Monday the new commander-in-chief of the army, José González, and the chief of staff of the Defense, Alfredo Erramún. As well as the generals Claudio Romano, Carlos Sequeira, Alejandro Salaberry and Gustavo Fajardo.

In addition, Local media also reported that Vázquez had dismissed Defense Minister Jorge Menéndez and Deputy Minister Daniel Montiel, although the Presidency has not yet confirmed it.

The President also pointed out that after the revelation of the crime's admission, it can be said that during the civil-military dictatorship of Uruguay (1973-1985), there was "torture, death and disappearance", then "one of the main actors recognizes it".

"The political knot of the question for me is in this breaking of the pact of silence, Today, no one can say that there were no deaths in the barracks, in the military units and that there was no intention to make them disappear. people, "he added, the oncologist also by profession.

In this sense, Vázquez also stated that after these confessions, "no one can say that there is a pact of silence that will not be violated" because this one "has already been violated".

"The question of trying to understand why in this case also the army officers who had nothing to do with the above did not make the corresponding report", the president asked.

The military crisis appeared after a newspaper journalistic investigation L & # 39; Observer It will highlight the statements of the convicted soldier, José Gavazzo, who admitted to the military court that it was he who had thrown at the river Negro (center of the country) the body of which he was considered the first political disappeared from Uruguay in 1973.

Gonzalez, head of the army since March 13, was part of the military court of honor in which Gavazzo, torturer recognized during the last military dictatorship (1973-1985) and convicted of 28 homicides, admitted the Last year that he got rid of Roberto Gomensoro's body, activist of the guerrilla National Liberation Movement (MLN-Tupamaros), who integrated into his youth the former president José Mujica (2010-2015).

With information from AFP and EFE