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Show The Great Escape • 8 She talks about Arturo's first arrest, after the Tupamaros occupied the city of Pando to commemorate Che's death, when she knew that he was in this for good. She talks about visiting Arturo after another arrest at the police battalion with Arturo's father. They brought him out, so bloodied and beaten that Rosario shuddered in horror, and then shuddered again when she recognized him by his voice saying, "What are you doing here?" She talks about the times she was taken by police and questioned, sometimes tortured, beaten, blindfolded and led in circles and up stans and hung over a high ledge, threatened. She never left Uruguay, and she visited Arturo every chance she got. O Conditions in Punta Carretas were more relaxed than what I usually imagine when I think of a prison. The Tupamaros, who were for the most part educated and highly organized, quickly established their order inside the prison and exercised pressure on the prison guards and warden. Because of the country's struggling economy, and because of corruption among the guards, who once even stole the sausages a politician had sent the inmates for a holiday meal, prison food was terribly inadequate. Thus were prisoners allowed to receive food from then families, which they could cook inside then cells over kerosene stoves. Most food was shared communally, even with non-Tupamaros, and was dispensed from a commissary cell. Family members also brought books, which were collected and distobuted m a library cell. Those Tupamaros with medical tiaining attended to sick mmates in an mfirmary/pharmacy cell using medicines and supplies brought by families and sympathizers from the outside. Although soldiers patrolled the outer wall, the guards on the inside were contracted non-military men with families to feed who had chosen their profession for its good pay and job security. They allowed prisoners to bet on horse races and purchase lottery tickets. For the right price, they would bring in newspapers or alcohol. Prisoners had classes in woodwork and other crafts, and they played daily soccer games in the field behind the cell block. |