Introduction

The profession of social work developed in Latin America through crises and upheaval from the beginning of the 20th century. A wave of dictatorships affecting Latin American countries in the 1970s and 1980s severely impacted on social work education and practice, having consequences in professional and political terms that can still be observed (Sepúlveda, 2016). In this chapter we aim to contextualise and revisit the period of dictatorships in the Southern Cone, the geographic and cultural region composed of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay – the southernmost area of South America.1 These three countries experienced dictatorships in overlapping years (Chile 1973– 90, Uruguay 1973– 85 and Argentina 1976– 83), and their dictators had close reciprocal links, as Operation Condor and the exile of so many people have demonstrated over the decades. Despite the fact that these countries have diverse experiences regarding the politics of memory and reparation, a public agenda for recognition of the recent past and its atrocities has already been established. It is precisely that agenda which has also permitted the observation of practices of resistance, abandoning the idea of victims of dictatorship and recognising the capacity of many people, some of them social workers, to contest, subvert and resist the hegemonic order imposed under conditions of political violence. For our colleagues who were detained and disappeared while fighting for a free and equal society, remembrance it is an act of justice. In particular, it is crucial to remember what happened in the heart of social work during those dark years and ask ourselves why attempts were made to erase our history and our voices were silenced by the military forces.

The chapter is based on an extensive dialogue between the two authors and engagement with primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews with Uruguayan colleagues. The scarcity of written material about the impacts of the dictatorship on the development of social work in Uruguay caught our attention, so their testimonies were invaluable. We are confident that this chapter will contribute to a better understanding of the political and cultural effects of political violence on social work and the critical perspectives that some colleagues were able to uncover in the complex context of dictatorship in this region.