Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me, Ben

Henderson.

It's March 1970 and we're in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital, Jose Mujica is 34 years old and

hellbent on violent insurrection against what he sees as the country's brutal authoritarian

government. Mujica is a leader of the country's most notorious left-wing militant group, the

Tupa Maros.

I was in a cafe with a bunch of other rebels in the midst of a planning and operation and

a police patrol arrive. There was a shootout, I tried to resist and I got several bullets

in the stomach. I remember lying there on the floor, I lost my splint and my pancreas, I

was transported to the nearest hospital, with was a military hospital and I had surgery

down there, and incredibly, the session there was known to me, a member of the Tupa Maros,

so I was extremely lucky.

In the early 20th century Uruguay was one of the richest and most liberal countries in Latin

America, with a relatively stable democratic system of government. But an economic crisis

after the Second World War was disastrous for the country's poor, breeding huge social

unrest, out of which grew the Tupa Maros in the 1960s.

The government put in place strict security measures, freedom and democratic rights were

on the line. The government was becoming more repressive, it became clear that a military

group was coming. Groups like the one I belong to believed that if a military group took

place, we needed an armed revolt and insurrection.

The Tupa Maros viewed themselves as robin hoods, stealing from the rich to give to the

poor in an attempt to unite the country behind their egalitarian ideals. This is a BBC

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