Murder, Tupamaros-Style

Unlike other Latin American terrorists, Uruguay's leftist guerrillas have cultivated a romantic image. Styling themselves the Tupamaros, after an 18th century Inca chief who led a revolt against Spain, they confined their activities mostly to robbing banks and tried to avoid bloodshed. That benign image was shattered earlier this month when they emulated the tactics of other Latin American insurrectionists by kidnaping three foreign officials. In return for the hostages' lives, the terrorists demanded the release of 160

Tupamaros held in Uruguayan prisons. When the government refused, the Tupamaros murdered one of their victims, Daniel Mitrione, 50, an AID official who had gone to Montevideo to assist the police in security measures. His body was found in a stolen car; there were two bullets in his back, two in the back of his head. Last week he was buried in his home town of Richmond, Ind., where he had served for four years as police chief.

The fate of the other two victims --Claude Fly, an AID agronomist from Colorado, and Aloysio Mares Dias Go-mide, the Brazilian consul general in Montevideo--still remains in doubt. The Tupamaros have threatened to kill them also if Uruguayan police discover their whereabouts. Despite these threats, Uruguay's President Jorge Pacheco Areco refuses to bargain with the rebels. The U.S. State Department, though deploring the vulnerability of its diplomats, backs him up on the well-proven theory that if the guerrillas get away with these kidnapings, they will be encouraged to try more.

Shaky Foundation. Rather than negotiate, President Pacheco has cracked down on the guerrillas. With no protests from the opposition Blanco Party, he received authorization from Congress to suspend civil rights for 20 days, thus permitting police to make searches without a warrant and to hold suspects without charge or an appearance before a judge. More than 12,000 police and military men are on the case. In their house-to-house search of Montevideo, they have already made 1,500 arrests and detained 75 suspects.

The kidnapings and the killing are a climax to the troubles that have been plaguing Uruguay, which once was the paradise of Latin America. While its neighbors suffered from coups and economic chaos, Uruguay remained a sort of Latin Switzerland. It had an unbroken record of freely elected Presidents, and no dictator has ever been able to shoulder his way to power. It also established the most complete and extravagant welfare system of any country in the Americas. Uruguay's wealth, however, was based almost exclusively on continued world demand for meat and wool. When that demand slackened in the earlier '60s because of competition elsewhere, Uruguay began piling up a trade deficit that reached $12.6 million in 1967, a huge amount by Uruguayan standards. The country's swollen bureaucracy, which employs 21% of the nation's 1,000,000-man work force, became an intolerable burden. To offset the high cost of the welfare state, Uruguay began printing more pesos. In the decade from 1959 to 1969, Uruguay's inflation soared 500%, a runaway rate exceeded only by Sukarno's Indonesia.

Threatened by Reform. In that atmosphere of shattered illusions, the Tupamaros were born. Raul Sendic, the movement's leader, who was arrested last week in Montevideo, started off by leading cane field workers on a march to the capital. Then he turned to more clandestine methods of harassing the government. The movement, now composed of perhaps 3,000 full-time activists, consists largely of youthful leftists from Uruguay's middle class, but it has also attracted murderous ideologues and common criminals.

Nonetheless, the Tupamaros remained rather moderate revolutionaries until President Pacheco began earnestly attacking Uruguay's economic problems. By freezing wages and prices, he managed to cut inflation to 14.5% in 1969; in the first half of this year, Uruguay had a favorable trade balance of $15 million. Since the Tupamaros thrive on continued chaos, they felt threatened. As a result, they toughened their tactics.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.