Prisoner's tale

Uruguayan author, journalist and literary critic Hiber Conteris was imprisoned by his nation's military rulers from 1976 to 1985, suffering weeks of torture, months of hard labor and years of isolation. Curt Pawlisch's cover feature notes that Conteris persevered to write four novels, two plays and two collections of short stories during this period. Adopted by Madison's Amnesty International chapter, Conteris came here to visit his sister and stayed to teach Latin American literature at the UW. He is an outspoken critic of the Reagan administration's support for Nicaragua's contras, Pawlisch reports. "I have to say, in spite of what I think of the foreign policy of the United States, especially vis-a-vis Latin America, one important thing that I have to recognize is the real democracy you have in this country,  the possibility to express your ideas no matter what those ideas are." Now a professor at the Universidad de la Republica in Montevideo, Uruguay, Conteris returned to the UW-Madison campus in September to lecture on The Revolutionary 60s in Latin America: State Terrorism, Human Rights and Guerrilla Warfare.