Nearly 50 years after her death, Uruguay lays to rest a woman disappeared by its dictatorship

By MATILDE CAMPODONICO
Associated Press

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Nearly five decades after Uruguayan security forces seized Amelia Sanjurjo from the street, disappearing the newly pregnant woman into the maw of the military’s prison system, she received a proper burial in her hometown of Montevideo. The bone fragments of Sanjurjo were exhumed exactly a year ago from a military base in a small southern town in Uruguay. She was finally identified last week. In downtown Montevideo on Thursday, somber crowds thronged the small wooden box that held Sanjurjo’s remains. The identification of victims is part of a broader effort to deliver justice and accountability 40 years after the end of the dictatorship in Uruguay.