Susana Pintos
Born
Susana Pintos Lepra

(1939-09-25)25 September 1939
Montevideo, Uruguay
Died21 September 1968(1968-09-21) (aged 28)
Montevideo, Uruguay
Cause of deathGunshot
Occupation(s)Student, functionary, activist

Susana Pintos Lepra (25 September 1939 – 21 September 1968[1][2]) was one of the thirteen student martyrs who were killed in Uruguay between 1968 and 1985. She was a student at the School of Construction of the Work University of Uruguay and a militant of the Uruguay Federation of University Students (FEUU), the ANCAP Federation (FANCAP), and the Union of Communist Youth (UJC). Her death occurred on 21 September 1968, after she was shot by police during the suppression of a student demonstration.[1]

Biography

Born in 1939, Susana grew up in the Curva de Maroñas neighborhood, along with her parents and four siblings: Wilson, Olga, Elsa, and Nelson. She attended primary school at School No. 55, secondary at Liceo No. 8 and the Alfredo Vásquez Acevedo Institute (IAVA). When she was 20 years old, she joined ANCAP as a functionary.[3] She also began studies at the School of Construction, joining the FEUU.

Killing

In 1968, Jorge Pacheco Areco of the Colorado Party ruled in Uruguay. He governed under the constant approval of a constitutional expedient, the Swift Security Measures, which allowed for the suspension of individual rights. In this context, on 14 August, the dentistry student Líber Arce died. He had been shot two days earlier, when the government ordered that a demonstration demanding free transportation for Uruguayan students be put down. Arce, in this way, became Uruguay's first student martyr.[4]

One month after his death, the FEUU decided to call a protest demonstration against the government's repressive attacks. This took place on 20 September, at the auditorium of the University of the Republic. The government again responded with force; police had recently received a shipment of riot shotguns ordered from the United States, and they opened fire with these on demonstrators in the university's esplanade.[5] Hugo de los Santos, a student of the Faculty of Economics, was shot and wounded. Pintos ran to assist him, holding a white shirt as a sign of peace, and was also wounded by police forces.[6][7] She died the next day at the Hospital de Clínicas in Montevideo.[1]

Tributes

Monument to Susana Pintos, tribute by the ANCAP Federation

Every 14 August, the name of Susana Pintos is one of those remembered as part of Student Martyrs Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the killing of Líber Arce.[8]

On 9 October 2008, a Montevideo plaza located in front of ANCAP headquarters was named "Student Martyrs of ANCAP Susana Pintos and Santiago Rodríguez Muela".[9] Her name was also given to the street formerly known as Carlo Magno, near the place where she lived.[2][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Susana Pintos Lepra" (in Spanish). Communist Party of Uruguay. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 Pérez Santarcieri, María Emilia (2000). Nombres femeninos en el nomenclátor de Montevideo [Women's Names in the Nomenclature of Montevideo] (in Spanish). Departmental Board of Montevideo. p. 73. Retrieved 28 December 2017 – via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 Maseda, Luis (September 2013). "Entrevista a Olga Pintos" [Interview with Olga Pintos] (PDF). La Antorcha (in Spanish). Vol. 5, no. 11. p. 2. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "Los estudiantes recuerdan a sus mártires y muerte de Líber Arce" [Students Remember Their Martyrs and the Death of Líber Arce]. LaRed21 (in Spanish). 14 August 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Markarian, Vania (15 November 2016). "Mobilizations". Uruguay, 1968: Student Activism from Global Counterculture to Molotov Cocktails. University of California Press. p. 57. ISBN 9780520964358. Retrieved 28 December 2017 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ Marchesi, Aldo (2004). El presente de la dictadura [The Memento of the Dictatorship] (in Spanish). Ediciones Trilce. p. 36. ISBN 9789974323667. Retrieved 28 December 2017 – via Google Books.
  7. ↑ Markarian, Vania (15 November 2016). "Mobilizations". Uruguay, 1968: Student Activism from Global Counterculture to Molotov Cocktails. University of California Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9780520964358. Retrieved 28 December 2017 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ "Estudiantes se movilizan hoy en el día de los mártires estudiantiles" [Students are Mobilized Today on Student Martyrs Day] (in Spanish). Montevideo Portal. 14 August 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Homenaje a dos mártires" [Tribute to Two Martyrs]. LaRed21 (in Spanish). 10 October 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
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