Sendic Antonaccio, Raúl

(c. 1925–1989)

   Founder of the Tupamaros, a leftist guerrilla movement in Uruguay. Sendic Antonaccio dropped out of law school in the late 1950s to become an activist among sugar workers in the northern province of Artigas. In 1963 he founded the Tupamaros, who made their public appearance in 1967 and began a campaign of bombings, robberies, and kidnappings against the military and police. First captured in 1970, he led a prison breakout a year later, freeing himself and 105 other guerrillas. He was captured again in September 1972. After his release in 1985 under an amnesty announced by the civilian government of President Julio María Sanguinetti, Sendic Antonaccio remade the Tupamaros into a legal political party. His health declined rapidly, however, from the torture and other harsh treatment he suffered during his 14 years as a political prisoner. He died on 27 April 1989.