Uruguay
Marina Arismendi Dubinsky (1949- )
Marina Arismendi Dubinsky was born in Montevideo, the daughter of communist leader Rodney Arismendi and journalist Rosa Dubinsky. In her early teens she joined the Unión de la Juventud Comunista and the Camilo Cienfuegos Committee in Support of the Cuban Revolution. After high school, she studied to become a primary school teacher, and worked in that capacity until she was fired following the military coup. At the beginning of the dictatorship she went into exile in East Germany where she received a degree in Social Sciences at the Karl Marx school in Berlin. While in Germany she worked as a teacher and translator. She returned to Uruguay after democracy was restored. In 1990 she became a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uruguay, of the Collective General Secretariat in 1992 and was Secretary General from 1992 to 2006. From 2005 to 2010 she was Minister of Social development of Uruguay.
Jaime Gerschuni Perez (1928-2005)
Jaime Perez was a Uruguayan communist of Eastern European Jewish heritage. A leather worker and labor organizer, he served in the municipal government of Montevideo as a Communist Party representative. In 1971 he was elected deputy until the military coup of 1973. The parliament was dissolved and workers and students occupied factories and schools, declaring a general strike. When the strike failed to reverse the coup, Jaime and other leaders went underground. He was imprisoned and tortured from 1974 to 1984. In 1988, he served as Secretary General of the Communist Party of Uruguay, and was elected senator in 1989. In 1992, following the fall of the Soviet Union, the CPU suffered a major internal split, and Perez left his position and the party.
Jorge & Ricardo Zabalza Waksman (1943- ) and (1949-1969)
Jorge and Ricardo Zabalza Waksman were both members of the Tupamaros guerrilla movement. Ricardo Zabalza was killed in the Tupamaro attempt to take the city of Pando on October 8, 1969. Wounded in a shootout with police, he surrendered, was forced to walk a block to a Metropolitan Guard truck, thrown to the ground and shot in the head. In an interview about his brother, Jorge Zabalza remembers their first student protest, in response to the 1967 budget, where they pulled a law student from the grasp of two police officers, and "the dreams we wove together" on Jorge's return from a trip to Cuba.
Jorge Zabalza was a basketball player, but abandoned sports to study law and join the student movement of the 1960s. He then became a leader of the Tupamaros and served on the Municipal Council of Montevideo. He was a political prisoner for eleven years. On his release he edited the weekly journal Mate Amargo. He is the author of El tejano y otras insurrecciones and Raul Sendic el tupamaro, su pensamiento revolucionario.
http://elpolvorin.over-blog.es/article-uruguay-jorge-zabalza-waksman-no-hay-que-tenerle-miedo-a-la-historia-60516963.html
Jorge Zabalza was a basketball player, but abandoned sports to study law and join the student movement of the 1960s. He then became a leader of the Tupamaros and served on the Municipal Council of Montevideo. He was a political prisoner for eleven years. On his release he edited the weekly journal Mate Amargo. He is the author of El tejano y otras insurrecciones and Raul Sendic el tupamaro, su pensamiento revolucionario.
http://elpolvorin.over-blog.es/article-uruguay-jorge-zabalza-waksman-no-hay-que-tenerle-miedo-a-la-historia-60516963.html
Mauricio Rosencof (1933- )
Mauricio Rosencof was born in Uruguay of Polish Jewish parents. A well-known playwright, poet and journalist, he was a founder of the Unión de la Juventud Comunista, and became one of the leaders of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional -Tupamaros. In 1972 he was arrested and tortured, sentenced to thirteen years of solitary confinement under the military regime He was released in 1985. He is the author of numerous plays and novels. Since 2005 he has been Director of Culture of the Municipality of Montevideo.