Seregni, Líber (1917–2004)

Líber Seregni (b. 3 December 1917; d. July 2004), Uruguayan military leader and politician. The son of an anarchist father, Seregni opted paradoxically for a military career and achieved the rank of general. Toward the end of his military career, he was known to be sympathetic to progressive elements in the Colorado Party. By 1971 he had distanced himself from this position to become a founding member and presidential candidate of the Frente Amplio, receiving 18 percent of the national vote. With the coup d'état of 1973, the leftist coalition and its political leaders were outlawed. Seregni was imprisoned until 1984.

Both in freedom and from prison, Seregni was a central proponent of democratization. He defended the blank ballot in the internal elections of 1982, which left the Frente outlawed. He later promoted and supported the strategy of negotiation that led to the legalization of many of the Frente's political forces and from which came the final formula for the democratic movement. Prevented from running for president in the November 1984 elections, Seregni assumed the presidency of the Frente Amplio. He did run for president of Uruguay again in 1989 and received 21 percent of the vote. In February 1996 he resigned his presidency of the Frente Amplio in the wake of a controversy over party reforms. He also founded the Center for Strategic Studies in 1815. The center, which he dissolved in 2004, was meant to study government activities and programs. He died in Montevideo in July 2004.

See alsoUruguay, Political Parties: Colorado Party .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aguirre, Miguel. El Frente Amplio (1985).

Barros Lemes, Alvaro. Seregni (1989).

Butazzoni, Fernando. Seregni-Rosencof: Mano a mano. Montevideo, Uruguay: Aguilar, 2002.

Caetano, Gerardo. Colección Líber Seregni. 2 Vols. Montevideo, Uruguay: Taurus, 2005–2006.

Seregni, Liber, and Blanca Rodríguez. El correo del General: Correspondencia de Gral. Líber Seregni a su esposa, Lily Lerena, escrita en su primera prisión (9/7/73 a 2/11/74). Montevideo, Uruguay: Aguilar, 2004.

                                      Fernando Filgueira