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The "Tupamaros" - "Movimiento de Liberación Nacional" was the main subversive leftist group that flourished in the 60s and 70s in Uruguay. They never operated a clandestine radio station. But on May 15, 1969, when CX8, Radio Sarandí, Montevideo, operating on 690 (they also were using parallel SW frqeuencies), was carrying a soccer match between "Nacional," Montevideo and "Estudiantes" (La Plata, Argentina), from the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, a group of subversive elements intervened at the transmitter site and connected a tape recorder to the studio-transmitter link. A manifesto was broadcast against the government. Proclama MLN por CX8 Sarandi, 15 Mayo 1969 [1:13]
In 1999, Radio Sarandí's authorities released two recordings
of that historic moment, one with the manifesto, and another
one, very interesting, with all the simultaneous turmoil that
began in the announcing booth. This dramatic moment starts when
the journalists report that the normal broadcast has been interrupted.
I am also enclosing this second, longer audio file named "booth."
This recording begins with an ongoing, quiet, normal commentary
on the match after ending its first period. Then, interrupting,
is the bassy, angry, voice of the late Don Carlos Solé,
the lead voice of soccer trasmissions at this station, now a
legend of Uruguayan radio. Then shouts are heard from the personnel:
"Los tupamaros cortaron! Movimiento de Liberación."
Subsequently there follows a series of coments, trying to explain
the situation, how it could all begin, and where the intruders
were. Some I have translated from Spanish: "No, THIS [not
another] radio station." "And where did they enter?"
"Advise the police! . . . They have taken the trasmitter!"
"Which transmitter!?" "This [must be] a recording."
"They are in the transmitter." "The plant operator
must be muzzled." "Maybe they are interposed in our
line . . ." Solé shouts blame against the intruders,
saying, "I guarantee you that if I catch a Tupamaro I will
convert it in . . . a duck," and a final, "I don't
understand why they don't cut the the power." Copamiento
MLN R Sarandi, Cabina Estadio, 15 Mayo 1969 [2:45] A jewel for me in my collection. More enjoyable to those who
understand Spanish, but a real document of those years. - Horacio Nigro, Montevideo, Uruguay
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