There was once a man so evil that he put the future president of Uruguay in a well just outside the capital of Uruguay for 2 years! That evil man was Juan Maria Bordaberry. Originally a cattle rancher, Bordaberry entered politics when economic turmoil tarnished the beef industry. Initially part of the National (Blanco) party which was conservative, Bordaberry then switched to his party’s rival the liberal Colorado Party in the late 1960s which was ousted from power previously in the late 1950s when Bordaberry was part of the Blanco Party. In the lead up to his presidential years, Juan Maria Bordaberry headed the agricultural boards and supported in the 1960s for landowners who enter politics to replace the nine-man executive council.

Bordaberry was elected Uruguay’s president in 1971 and one of the first things he did was suspend the constitution, allowing him to go on his 5 yearlong tangent! He clamped down on civil liberties by having opposition leaders murdered or imprisoned. This was one of his many dastardly ways of eliminating opposition. As for the future president in the well, he made it happen to José Mujica (who you know as the world’s poorest president) who was forced into a well for over 2 years thanks to Bordaberry encouraging creativity among the security forces! Like most dictators, Bordaberry also censored the press and acquiesced political repression and it wouldn’t be a dictatorship without a broken economy.

However in 1976, his tyranny came to a screeching halt thanks to the Uruguayan army who apparently found Bordaberry’s dedication to military fascism even more disturbing than democratic rule! However this story isn’t done yet as Bordaberry went back to cattle ranching only for 2006 to roll around it was in that year when he was arrested and charged with his involvement in human rights violations. The year he was convicted of these charges and given a 30 year house arrest sentence was also when José Mujica started his tenure as Uruguay’s president. Juan Maria Bordaberry died in 2011, a year after his sentencing began and he was buried in a private cemetery in Uruguay.