Background
Juan María Bordaberry was born on 17 June 1928 in Montevideo.
government official politician president
Juan María Bordaberry was born on 17 June 1928 in Montevideo.
A rancher from the interior, Bordaberry began his political career as a member of the Blanco Party. He was a Blanco senator between 1963 and 1965. In 1964 he became leader of the Federal League for Rural Action, the major grass-roots organization supporting the Blanco regime of 1958-1966, upon the death of its founder, Benito Nardone.
After Vice President Jorge Pacheco Areco, a Colorado party leader, succeeded to the presidency upon the death of President Oscar Gestido in 1967, Bordaberry became Pacheco’s minister of agriculture and livestock.
In the November 1971 election, the ballot included a constitutional amendment permitting reelection of the incumbent president, as well as candidates for president and vice president. President Pacheco Areco ran for the presidency, with Bordaberry as his vice presidential candidate. Although Pacheco and Bordaberry won, the constitutional amendment was not adopted, as a result of which Bordaberry become president.
President Bordaberry gave wide powers to the military to suppress the left-wing guerrilla group, the Tupamaros. By the end of 1972 the military had effectively suppressed the Tupamaros. However, in June 1973 the president acceded to the demands of the armed forces to dissolve Congress, when it refused to remove parliamentary immunity from Senator Enrique Erro, whom the military accused of having connections with the Tupamaros.
From then until June 1976, President Bordaberry presided over a thinly disguised military dictatorship. However, disagreements betwen the president and leaders of the armed forces led the military leaders to depose Bordaberry and impose old Blanco Party leaders Aparicio Mendez Montrelini as his successor.