In 1973, Bordaberry dissolved the General Assembly and was widely regarded as ruling by decree as a military-sponsored dictator until disagreements with the military led to his being overthrown before his original term of office had expired.

Her aunts were Matilde and Amalia de Arocena Artagaveytía, the latter of which was the mother of foreign minister Eduardo Rodríguez Larreta and paternal grandmother of politician Alberto Zumarán.

In 1964, however, he assumed the leadership of Liga Nacional de Accion Ruralista (Spanish for "National Rural Action League"), and in 1969 joined the Colorado Party.

That year he was appointed to the Cabinet, where he sat from 1969 to 1971 as minister of agriculture in the government of President Jorge Pacheco, having had a long association with rural affairs.

In personal terms, one of Bordaberry's actions which proved in hindsight to have been disadvantageous was his appointment of Jorge Sapelli as Vice President of Uruguay, given the latter's resignation and public repudiation of him in 1973.

On June 27, 1973, Bordaberry dissolved Congress, suspended the Constitution and gave the military and police the power to take whatever measures it deemed necessary to restore order.

During the first year under democratic rule, he assigned roles to the likes of José Antonio Mora, Luis Barrios Tassano, and future-president Julio María Sanguinetti.

The assassinations took place in Buenos Aires but the prosecution argued they had been part of Operation Condor, in which the military regimes of Uruguay and Argentina coordinated actions against dissidents.

Bordaberry's arrest was generally met with satisfaction and regarded as the end of impunity in Uruguay, a country considered by some to have lagged behind other Latin American nations in this matter.

[9] However, former President Julio Sanguinetti has been critical of the one-sided prosecution of individuals involved in the conflict, and there has been lively media debate regarding issues surrounding Bordaberry's arrest.

One of his sons, Pedro Bordaberry, himself presidential candidate and a former minister, has been vocal in public support for his father[citation needed] and, by strong implication, for a measure of justification for the role of the civilian-military government of 1973–1985.