[3] Formed in the early 1960s, the MLN-T sought to create a revolutionary state through armed struggle, taking inspiration from the 1953-59 Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro.

[5] The organization gained notoriety for its violent acts of sabotage, bank and armory robberies, assassinations of military and police officers, bombings, and kidnappings of judges, businessmen, diplomats and politicians.

[8] Since then, the country has maintained a robust welfare state, progressive social and labor laws, and a high quality of life, earning it the nickname 'The Switzerland of the Americas'.

[11] However, from the mid-1950s onward, as global demand for agricultural products declined and Europe underwent reconstruction, exports fell, leading to a severe economic crisis.

[13] Unlike other guerrilla groups formed during the Cold War, the MLN-T was primarily composed revolutionary leftist individuals from the upper-middle and upper classes.

[14] According to one of its top members, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, the formal founding of the MLN-T took place in 1965; however, the organization's first action was the theft of weapons and ammunition from the Tiro Suizo, a shooting range in Nueva Helvecia, in 1963.

[15] A year earlier, nursing student Dora Isabel López de Oricchio was shot dead during an assault on the headquarters of a union association, carried out by a group led by Raúl Sendic Antonaccio.

[20] The movement began by staging the robbing of banks, gun clubs and other businesses in the early 1960s, then distributing stolen food and money among the poor in Montevideo.

During this period they made liberal use of their Cárcel del Pueblo (or People's Prison) where they held those that they kidnapped and interrogated them, before making the results of these interviews public.

Nine Tupamaros were specially chosen to remain in squalid conditions, including Sendic, Fernández Huidobro, José Mujica, Henry Engler, and Mauricio Rosencof.

[25] In 1984, a set of several 24-hour Uruguayan general strikes, eventually forced the military to accept civilian rule, with democratic elections held that year.