Two retired military officers in Uruguay have been sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the last dictatorship in the country, which took place between 1973 and 1985. Rubens Francia and Francisco Macaluso were declared co-perpetrators of repeated crimes of deprivation of liberty and torture by criminal judge MarÃa Elbia Merlo.
The sentence establishes that both will serve their sentences with a discount for the time spent in preventive detention. Since mid-2022, both have been under house arrest.
The complaint against Francia and Macaluso was filed by a group of former political prisoners who were held between 1975 and 1978 in the Mechanized Infantry Battalion N°6, located near the city of San José, some 95 km west of Montevideo. During the oral trial that took place in early May, eight victims presented testimonies of beatings, submersion in water tanks, electric shocks, sexual abuse, and psychological torture, among other acts of torture.
Judge Merlo concluded that Francia and Macaluso were involved in these practices. The defense of the two retired military officers, who deny the participation of their clients, will appeal the sentence.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against Humanity, headed by Ricardo Perciballe, has jurisdiction over all criminal cases related to human rights violations committed during the dictatorship in Uruguay.
In March 2012, the Uruguayan State formally assumed responsibility for crimes committed during the last civil-military dictatorship, in compliance with the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of the disappearance of the granddaughter of Argentine poet Juan Gelman.