Murder of Pascasio Báez
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Murder of Pascasio Báez
| location = Maldonado Department, Uruguay
| date = {{Start date|1971|12|21|df=y}}
| partof = the turmoil of the 1960s-70s
| alt =
| time =
| timezone =
| type = {{hlist|Kidnapping|Murder}}
| fatalities =
| perpetrators = MLT–Tupamaros
| susperps =
}}Pascasio Ramón Báez Mena (22 February 1925 – 21 December 1971) was a Uruguayan rural laborer who was murdered by the National Liberation Movement – Tupamaros, a far-left urban guerrilla group.{{Cite web |date=2021-08-19 |title=Piden que escuela de Pan de Azúcar se llame Pascasio Báez |url=https://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/educacion/piden-que-escuela-de-pan-de-azucar-se-llame-pascasio-baez |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=EL PAIS |language=en}} His killing shocked Uruguayan society and became a symbol of the turmoil and insurgent violence that the country experienced in the 1960s and 1970s.{{Cite web |date=2015-05-02 |title=Pascasio Báez, peón |url=https://www.elpais.com.uy/opinion/columnistas/pascasio-baez-peon |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=EL PAIS |language=en}}
Background
Baéz was born in the rural area of the Department of Maldonado, the second of three children and only son of Dagoberto Báez and Margarita Pascasia Mena.{{Cite web |title=La redención de Pascacio Báez - Fragmento |url=https://www.penguinlibros.com/uy/literatura-contemporanea/272237-ebook-la-redencion-de-pascacio-baez-9789915664323/fragmento?srsltid=AfmBOoqvOcEdgdWso7Brstcs3aUTL6ksBViaoYodj5m9OOma_z9tPG5U |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Penguin Libros}} By 1971, he lived in the city of Pan de Azúcar with his wife Alejandrina Garrido and their children, and made a living working in the fields as a laborer and as a bricklayer.{{Cite web |title=Vierci: “Pascasio es la condición humana más pura violentada por una idea mesiánica” |url=https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Noticias/Vierci--Pascasio-es-la-condicion-humana-mas-pura-violentada-por-una-idea-mesianica--uc803852 |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Montevideo Portal |language=es}} Garrido died on December 23, 1971, a week after her husband's kidnapping.{{Cite web |title=Pablo Vierci y La Redención de Pascasio Báez |url=https://fmgente.uy/noticias/pablo-vierci-redenci%C3%B3n-pascasio-b%C3%A1ez-60016.html |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=fmgente.uy |language=es}}
Kidnapping and murder
On the morning of December 11, 1971, Baéz went to the countryside to retrieve a mare that had escaped.{{Cite web |title=“La redención de Pascasio Báez”: radiografía de un libro polémico |url=https://www.telenoche.com.uy/nacionales/la-redencion-de-pascasio-baez-un-libro-polemico |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Telenoche |language=es-PA}} The animal was owned by two neighbors, who had hired him to herd it in a neighboring field. Due to a storm the night before, the fence that separated the large Espartacus ranch, located at kilometer 112.550 of Route 9, had been blown down, allowing the mare to enter the property.{{Cite web |date=2021-12-30 |title=Homenaje a Pascasio Báez con llamados a la “reconciliación nacional” y a “valorar la democracia” {{!}} La Mañana |url=https://www.xn--lamaana-7za.uy/politica/homenaje-a-pascasio-baez-con-llamados-a-la-reconciliacion-nacional-y-a-valorar-la-democracia/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |language=es}}
While Báez was walking through the ranch, he inadvertently encountered a "{{Lang|es|tatucera}}"{{efn-ua|The term 'tatucera' derives from 'tatú,' the name used in Uruguay for the armadillo species Dasypodidae, which burrows underground.{{Cite web |title=Glosario para entender las cartas de Amodio |url=https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/glosario-para-entender-las-cartas-de-amodio-201352221200 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010045228/https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/glosario-para-entender-las-cartas-de-amodio-201352221200 |archive-date=2021-10-10 |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=El Observador |language=es-UY}}}} — a underground hideout used by members of the MLN–Tupamaros.{{Cite web |title=Pascasio Báez, la memoria de un drama que se convirtió en comedia |url=https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/pascasio-baez-la-memoria-de-un-drama-que-se-convirtio-en-comedia-20211229152337 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229183549/https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/pascasio-baez-la-memoria-de-un-drama-que-se-convirtio-en-comedia-20211229152337 |archive-date=2021-12-29 |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=El Observador |language=es-UY}} Upon being observed by the revolutionaries, he was coerced into descending into the hideout, which functioned as a weapons depot, out of concern that he might alert the authorities to their presence.{{Cite web |title=“La redención de Pascasio Báez”: radiografía de un libro polémico |url=https://www.telenoche.com.uy/nacionales/la-redencion-de-pascasio-baez-un-libro-polemico |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Telenoche |language=es-PA}} There, he was detained and subjected to interrogation, before being kept in a sedated state.{{Cite book |last=González Bermejo |first=Ernesto |url=https://sitiosdememoria.uy/sites/default/files/2021-01/gonzalez-bermejo-campora-1998-las-manos-en-el-fuego.pdf |title=Las manos en el fuego |publisher=Ediciones de la Banda Oriental}}
Tupamaro militant Jorge Zabalza later stated that, following Báez’s kidnapping, the movement deliberated on several options regarding his fate.{{Cite web |title=Zabalza: crímenes de Pascasio Báez y Roque Arteche son de “lesa humanidad” |url=https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nota/zabalza-crimenes-de-pascasio-baez-y-roque-arteche-son-de-lesa-humanidad--20135249370 |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=El Observador |language=es-UY}} These included transferring him to the {{Language with name/for|es|Cárcel del Pueblo|People's Prison}} —an informal detention center that the insurgents clandestinely set up in Montevideo to imprison their hostages— covertly relocating him to Cuba, or eliminating him.{{Cite book |last=Vierci |first=Pablo |author-link=Pablo Vierci |title=La redención de Pascasio Báez |publisher=Sudamericana |year=2021 |isbn=9789915664217 |location=Montevideo}} After holding him hostage for over a week, the revolutionaries decided to execute Baéz, injecting him with an overdose of pentothal, on December 21.{{Cite web |date=2021-08-19 |title=Presentan proyecto de ley para nombrar “Pascasio Báez” a escuela de Pan de Azúcar |url=https://www.subrayado.com.uy/presentan-proyecto-ley-nombrar-pascasio-baez-escuela-pan-azucar-n786502 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=subrayado.com.uy |language=es-UY}}{{Cite web |date=2021-12-15 |title=Manini en el Senado recordó a Pascasio Báez a 50 años de su asesinato y apuntó contra los 'eternos mercaderes del odio' |url=https://www.teledoce.com/telemundo/nacionales/manini-en-el-senado-recordo-a-pascacio-baez-a-50-anos-de-su-asesinato-y-apunto-contra-los-eternos-mercaderes-del-odio/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Teledoce.com |language=es-UY}}
In May 2025, former Tupamaro militant Henry Engler stated that one of the options considered was to send Báez to Chile and relocate him there.{{Cite web |date=2025-05-16 |title=Henry Engler habló del asesinato del peón rural Pascasio Báez: "No puedo sacarme la responsabilidad" |url=https://www.elpais.com.uy/informacion/politica/henry-engler-hablo-del-asesinato-del-peon-rural-pascasio-baez-no-puedo-sacarme-la-responsabilidad |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=EL PAIS |language=es-UY}} However, the person who was supposed to carry out that task refused, and for that reason, they opted for his elimination.{{Cite web |title=¿Pudo evitarse la muerte de Pascasio? Engler recordó las alternativas que se manejaron |url=https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Noticias/-Pudo-evitarse-la-muerte-de-Pascasio-Engler-recordo-las-alternativas-que-se-manejaron-uc923940 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Montevideo Portal |language=es}}
Discovery of body
On May 22, 1972, officers of the National Army discovered the hideout and arrested the nine Tupamaro militants who were hiding there, also seizing an arsenal.{{Cite web |title="Caraguatá", de Leonardo Haberkorn |url=https://mediospublicos.uy/caraguata-de-leonardo-haberkorn/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Portal Medios Públicos |language=es-UY}} According to statements made by those arrested, Ismael Fernando Bassini Campiglia, an advanced medical student, was the one who administered the injection.{{Cite web |title=Engler admitió su responsabilidad en la ejecución de Pascasio Báez |url=https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nacional/engler-admitio-su-responsabilidad-la-ejecucion-pascasio-baez-n5999618 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250515225754/https://www.elobservador.com.uy/nacional/engler-admitio-su-responsabilidad-la-ejecucion-pascasio-baez-n5999618 |archive-date=2025-05-15 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=El Observador |language=es-UY}}
On June 21, the body was exhumed.{{Cite web |title=Presentan “La Redención de Pascasio Báez” {{!}} Maldonado |url=https://www.maldonado.gub.uy/noticias/presentan-redencion-pascasio-baez |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220729150908/https://www.maldonado.gub.uy/noticias/presentan-redencion-pascasio-baez |archive-date=2022-07-29 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=www.maldonado.gub.uy |language=es}} It had been buried in a pasture near the site where the hideout had been discovered.{{Cite web |title=Vierci: “Pascasio es la condición humana más pura violentada por una idea mesiánica” |url=https://www.montevideo.com.uy/Noticias/Vierci--Pascasio-es-la-condicion-humana-mas-pura-violentada-por-una-idea-mesianica--uc803852 |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Montevideo Portal |language=es}}