Uruguay navy chief who resisted rebels is buried
January 6, 2012
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MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay—A former Uruguayan navy chief who took a stand for democracy during a 1973 military uprising has been buried with full military honors.
Juan Jose Zorrilla was buried Friday, one day after he died at age 91.
Zorrilla refused to go along when Uruguay's other armed forces staged a rebellion in February 1973. He ordered his sailors to seal off the port and offered refuge to President Jose Maria Bordaberry.
But the president turned him down and agreed to the rebels' demands. Several months later, Bordaberry gave up entirely, handing over power in a self-coup to a dictatorship that ruled until 1985.
After democracy returned, Zorrilla was elected a senator in 1985, and was Uruguay's ambassador to the Vatican in 1987-1990.
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