The compass of memory: Uruguayan belated transitional justice and the social struggle between the right of victims to ‘truth and justice' vs. policies of oblivion (1985-2011)

This article looks at the future-oriented process of social mobilization for the memory, ‘truth-seeking’ and ‘never again’ in cases of ‘crimes against humanity’ recognition and accountability in Uruguay’s twenty five years of transition. It seeks to analyze the successive “waves of memory” in the particularly unfavorable context of Uruguay’s transitional Politics of Oblivion (Politicas de Olvido), political silencing and institutionalized impunity (1985-2011), leading up to the most recent successful developments since 2005, ad particularly focusing on developments in 2011.

Uruguay’s legacy of trauma and amnesia/latency under post-authoritarian transitional is used as a lens to analyze some of the complex cultural and psycho-social processes of the social dimension of traumatic remembering and healing in their intersection with state policy after state political violence. In this context, how were the silenced experiences and categories of human rights crimes under the civic-military regime (1973-1984) categorized, remembered and represented? How were they transmitted and contested in the public realm, by what means and agents, and how did they relate to the possibility of personal and social healing and repair?

What official political memory excluded for decades was paradoxically sustained by civic “communities of memory” who carried out a “memory work” and pushed for a cultural processes for decades after the initial transition, which made ‘silenced memories’ of human right abuse readily available for their re-emergence and inclusion into the public and social culture in recent years. I conclude with a reflection of memory’s forward-capacity for healing –personally and collectively-- as dependent on a supportive community, and consider the iatrogenic effects of an adverse socio-political public framing for transitional memory, reconciliation and redress.