- Title: URUGUAY: THIRTY-EIGHT WOMEN GUERRILLAS ESCAPE FROM PRISON THROUGH SEWER TUNNEL
- Date: 2nd August 1971
- Summary: 1. GV PAN..Prison Exterior 0.13 2. SV INTERIOR..hole from where prisoners escaped - PAN to tunnel 0.27 3. SV Hole under bed 0.34 4. GV PAN..INTERIOR..damage in prison 0.42 5. SV DITTO PAN.. (3 shots) 0.51 6. GV Posters on cell wall 0.53 7. SV Book in cell 0.58 8. SV Angela Davis poster on wall 1.01 9. GV Tunnel
- Embargoed: 17th August 1971 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY
- Country: Uruguay
- Reuters ID: LVA5P34CMEGM68BIZ371KSV71XP0
- Story Text: Thirty-eight women guerrillas from the left-wing lupamaros movement escaped from a Montevideo prison on Friday (30th July) morning.
The women got away through a tunnel dug in the city's sewers and were presumably carried away in a fleet of cars as they emerged from sewer exits in various parts of the city centre, police said.
In a radio interview that night, Uruguayan President Jorge Pacheco said his country was facing "the hour of truth" in a struggle to control the audacious urban guerrillas.
Without mentioning the name "Tupamaros" - banned from the media as part of security measures - the President said Uruguay faced an enemy out to destroy its independence and submit it to "foreign tyranny".
SYNOPSIS: Montevideo women's prison - scene of a Friday morning's daring escape by 38 women members of the left-wing Tupamaros guerrilla movement.
The women apparently slid down this hole into a tunnel which led into the city's sewer network. Police said fellow Tupamaros not only dug the 20 yard (17 metres) tunnel - but equipped it with improvised air conditioning equipment. The women fooled their overnight guards by leaving dummies in their beds. The military-style operations of the Tupamaros seriously embarrassed the government of Conservative President Jorge Pacheco Areco. Their system of three-man cells, largely unaware of each other's identities, has made them almost impossible to infiltrate or break up.
Police believe the Tupamaros carried the women away in a fleet of cars as they emerged from sewer exits in various parts of the city centre. Two years ago 13 jailed women guerrillas escaped from their warders during Sunday mass at a church near their prison.
The Government has banned the "name "Tupamaros" as part of a security clampdown on the clandestine organisation - but the papers now call them the nameless ones. The Tupamaros, who have carried out a dozen kidnappings in the last three years, currently hold British Ambassador Geoffrey Jackson and four prominent industrialists.
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