Former President-turned-dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, whose self-coup launched more than a decade of military rule in Uruguay, died Sunday in his home where he was serving a sentence for leading efforts to eliminate leftist dissent in the 1970s.
Bordaberry had been suffering from breathing problems and other illnesses that kept him from serving the 30-year sentence in prison. His death on his 83rd birthday was confirmed to The Associated Press by his son, Sen. Pedro Bordaberry.
A wealthy conservative landowner, Bordaberry was elected president in 1971 during a chaotic time in Uruguay, when wealthy elites and leftist Tupamaro guerrillas both saw armed revolution as a real path to power. The Tupamaros were already crushed when Uruguayans awoke to tanks surrounding the legislative palace on the cold winter day of June 27, 1973.
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