Former guerrilla leader Henry Engler (left) talks to Uruguayan President José Mujica at the launch of CUDIM in Montevideo last year.IVAN FRANCO / EPA / CORBIS
In August 1972, Uruguayan medical student Henry Engler’s education was interrupted. He was shot in the shoulder, arrested for being a Tupamaro antigovernment urban guerrilla, and imprisoned for 13 years—11 in solitary confinement.
Engler says he joined the Tupamaros because government corruption was affecting health conditions in the country. “As medical students, we were not able to help patients,” he says. “When we tried to get more resources, the police shot and killed students.” In 1985, a new democratic government gave amnesty to political prisoners, including Engler, then close to 40. “I was in bad condition after 13 years in prison,” he says. “My brother was living in Sweden, and I was invited by the Swedish government to move there to improve my health.”
Engler ...
