The Uruguayan ‘68: Student Unrest and Breakdown of Democracy

Abstract

In 1968 in Uruguay, as in many countries all over the world, a student movement broke up, impulsed by the high school students and joined by university students. It began in April as a claim against an increase in the price of the bus ticket and for a better budget dedicated to education. In a context of deep economic and social crisis, these demonstrations of unrest were common. But the increasing violence of the demonstrators, the radicalization of the student collective actions and the systematization of armed repression changed its nature during the austral winter. The proclamation of the state of emergency restraining the individual liberties and several student’s deaths by the police are maybe the strongest symbols of this violence, which kept increasing until the coup d’état in 1973. In order to propose a general overview of the Uruguayan ’68, this paper will expose the global and national contexts as well as the research field on the subject. Afterward, it will focus on the local scale to present a brief account of the events. It will finally consider some opening reflections about the relation between the students and media. Based on some of our own research, we intend to propose the idea of an informational field as an object of study, as a way to consider the encounter and struggle of multiple protagonists for the construction of representations of the students’ protest. Particularly in 1968, this also implies contemplate transnational circulations of information that articulate local and global scales.