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Three days after the break, the Tupamaros distributed a bulletin in Montevideo. "A year ago, we started a battle for political prisoners," it read. Since then, there had been the mid-July escape of 38 Tupamaro women, and now the bigger break by the men. "It is due to these circumstances that we have decided to offer an amnesty to Mr. Geoffrey Jackson," the bulletin went on. "Keeping him in the People's Jail has no reason now." The next day, eight months and one day after being kidnaped as a hostage for the release of Tupamaro prisoners, Jackson, the British Ambassador to Uruguay, was released unharmed and apparently in good health on the outskirts of Montevideo. A day later, he was flown home to Great Britain. (The Tupamaros, however, still hold five Uruguayan businessmen as hostages.)
Broad Front. The daring escape and Jackson's release should go a long way toward refurbishing the guerrillas' reputation, which suffered severely last year when they brutally murdered U.S. Police Adviser Dan Mitrione. But the affair was acutely embarrassing to President Jorge Pacheco Areco, who has staked his campaign for November's national election on get-tough tactics, including press censorship and search and seizure without warrants.
Inflation (21% last year) and ineffective wage controls increasingly disenchanted the Uruguayan electorate. The Tupamaros' escape-is expected to increase the popularity of a new coalition of leftist forces called the Frente Amplio (Broad Front), whose platform calls for land reform and nationalization of the banks. The Front is given only a slim chance of coming to power at this time, but its strength is growing steadily.