Juan María Bordaberry | |
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President of Uruguay De facto |
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In office June 27, 1973 – June 12, 1976 |
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Preceded by | Coup d'état |
Succeeded by | Alberto Demicheli |
34th President of Uruguay | |
In office March 1, 1972 – June 27, 1973 |
|
Vice President | Jorge Sapelli |
Preceded by | Jorge Pacheco |
Succeeded by | Coup d'état |
In office October 14, 1969 – February 1, 1972 |
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President | Jorge Pacheco |
Preceded by | Jaime Montaner |
Succeeded by | Héctor Viana Martorell |
Personal details | |
Born |
Montevideo, Uruguay |
17 June 1928
Died | 17 July 2011 Montevideo, Uruguay |
(aged 83)
Resting place | Cemetery Park Martinelli de Carrasco, Montevideo |
Political party | Colorado Party |
Spouse(s) | Josefina Herrán Puig |
Children | María Juan Martín Pedro Santiago Pablo Javier Andrés Ana |
Parents |
Domingo Bordaberry Elisa Arocena |
Occupation |
Politician Stockgrower |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Juan María Bordaberry Arocena (17 June 1928 – 17 July 2011) was a Uruguayan dictator, politician and cattle rancher, who first served as a constitutional President from 1972 until 1973, and then ruled as the head of a civilian-military dictatorship up to 1976.
He came to office following the Presidential elections of late 1971. In 1973, Bordaberry dissolved the General Assembly and was widely regarded as ruling by decree as a military-sponsored dictator until disagreements with the military led to his being overthrown before his original term of office had expired. On November 17, 2006 he was arrested in a case involving four deaths, including two of members of the General Assembly during the period of civilian-military rule in the 1970s.
Bordaberry was born in 1928 in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital. Juan María Bordaberry's father was Domingo Bordaberry, who served in the Senate and in Ruralist leadership, and he was the heir to one of the largest ranches in the country. Initially, Juan María Bordaberry belonged to the National Party, popularly known as the Blancos, and was elected to the Senate on the Blanco ticket. In 1964, however, he assumed the leadership of Liga Nacional de Accion Ruralista (Spanish for "National Rural Action League"), and in 1969 joined the Colorado Party.
That year he was appointed to the Cabinet, where he sat from 1969 to 1971 as agriculture minister in the government of President Jorge Pacheco, having had a long association with rural affairs (see Domingo Bordaberry).
Bordaberry was elected president as the Colorado candidate in 1971. He took office in 1972 in the midst of an institutional crisis caused by the authoritarian rule of Pacheco and the terrorist threat. Bordaberry, at the time, had been a minor political figure; he exercised little independent standing as a successor to Pacheco other than being Pacheco's handpicked successor. He continued Pacheco's authoritarian methods, suspending civil liberties, banning labor unions, and imprisoning and killing opposition figures. He appointed military officers to most leading government positions.