Vacuum

In December 1985, the Uruguayan citizens voted for the validity of the State's Impunity Law, protecting the military of any civil justice in connection with the dictatorship between 1973-84. The majority of the people living in the country did never confront themselves with the past, while the torturers and murderers were enjoying generous pensions for servicios a la patria and were never accused for what they did during the dictatorship. In Uruguay, there are still a lot of desaparecidos - people who vanished during the dictatorship between 1973-84 and were never found again. María Emilia Islas is one of them and still missing. She disappeared at the age of 22 with her husband and her 18-months-old child. María Esther Gatti - her mother and school teacher spent searching 16 years to find her granddaughter - finally finding her living with a family of an Argentinean military officer in Buenos Aires. After learning the truth about her origin, the 18-year old granddaughter chose to continue living with the parents who adopted her by force. In October 2004 the recent presidential elections took place, which ended with an unexpected change of political power: 30 years after its foundation the left-wing alliance Frente Amplio and it's candidate, Tabaré Vazquez, won. The new government started seeking for the victims…

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