Tupamaros

Tupamaros - National Liberation Movement Movimiento de Liberación Nacional - Tupamaros
Tupamaros - National Liberation Movement Flag
Leader(s)	Raúl Sendic Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro Héctor Amodio Pérez Henry Engler Mauricio Rosencof
Dates of operation	1967–1972
Active region(s)	Uruguay
Ideology	Communism
Status	Inactive

Tupamaros, also known as the MLN-T (Movimiento de Liberación Nacional-Tupamaros or Tupamaros National Liberation Movement), was a left-wing urban guerrilla group in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. The MLN-T is inextricably linked to its most important leader, Raúl Sendic, and his brand of social politics. José Mujica, who later became president of Uruguay, was also a member.

The Tupamaro movement was named after the revolutionary Túpac Amaru II, who in 1780 led a major indigenous revolt against the Viceroyalty of Peru. Its origins lie in the union between the Movimiento de Apoyo al Campesino (Peasant Support Movement), members of trade unions founded by Sendic in poverty-stricken rural zones, and radicalized cells of the Socialist Party of Uruguay.

The movement began by staging the robbing of banks, gun clubs and other businesses in the early 1960s, then distributing stolen food and money among the poor in Montevideo. It took as its slogan, "Words divide us; action unites us."

At the beginning, it abstained from armed actions and violence, acting not as a guerrilla group but a political movement. In June 1968, President Jorge Pacheco, trying to suppress labour unrest, enforced a state of emergency and repealed all constitutional safeguards. The government imprisoned political dissidents, used torture during interrogations, and brutally repressed demonstrations. The Tupamaro movement engaged then in political kidnappings, "armed propaganda" and assassinations. Of particular note are the kidnapping of powerful bank manager Ulysses Pereira Reverbel () and of the British ambassador to Uruguay, Geoffrey Jackson, as well as the assassination of Dan Mitrione, an American Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who the Tupamaros learned was advising the Uruguayan police in torture and other security work.