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4 August 2009 | Interviews | Human rights
A past with future
Annuling the impunity law is eliminating a precedent that the State can create different kinds of citizens.
1:39 minutes
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The Impunity Law granted impunity to those who committed human rights abuses during the latest Uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1985). This law has begun to be broken through a process that seeks to annul it, which will end with a referendum to be held next October, together with the national elections.
Writer and activist Ignacio Martinez – who has been an active campaigner in this process towards the referendum – explained that the annulment of the law was essential to eliminate the precedent that the state may create different kinds of citizens, as the law gives impunity to those who committed crimes during the dictatorship-
“I feel I have the moral obligation of working for the ones who were my friends, my brothers, my sisters who died, who disappeared, who suffered, but also, and most importantly, for my children and for my grandchildren, and for my great-grandchildren, and those who will come after that. I would feel terribly sorry if 30 or 40 years from now someone said the Uruguayan people in this first decade of the 21st century was unable to repeal a law that will damage the future generations so much. And why is it so damaging? Because it sets a precedent that the State can finally create laws that create different kinds of citizen”, said Martinez, who did not hesitate to call the law in force immoral.
