Debbie Sharnak

Nov 27, 2024 | nacla.org | Debbie Sharnak

In November of 1984, when open elections were held in Uruguay for the first time after more than a decade of dictatorship, Yamandú Orsi was 17 years old. He remembers the democratic exercise as “a breath of fresh air” that “flooded through me, and there it has remained.” Orsi proceeded to get involved in local politics, and went on to become a high school history teacher in his hometown of Canelones, about an hour outside of Montevideo, before entering local politics in 2015.

Jul 30, 2024 | time.com | Debbie Sharnak

By Debbie Sharnak & Yannick Kluge / Made by HistoryJuly 30, 2024 9:00 AM EDTIn February, when Nadir Yusuf crossed the finish line at the Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando, he placed 25th, missing the chance to qualify for the Games and go to Paris to compete. What was most notable about his race, however, was the last half mile. Yusuf was one of four runners who took a Palestinian flag from a spectator, holding it up as they finished the grueling race.

May 9, 2023 | revista.drclas.harvard.edu | Debbie Sharnak

In March 2023, I returned to Uruguay for the first time since the Covid pandemic began. While much of the visit was filled with a frenzy combination of archival appointments, oral history interviews and meetings with colleagues, I carved out time on a Saturday to visit the Central Cultural y Museo de la Memoria (the Cultural Center and Museum of Memory [MUME]) before my flight home later that day.

Mar 15, 2023 | fpri.org | Debbie Sharnak

Home / Articles / Jimmy Carter and the ‘Torture Chamber of Latin America’: Examining a Human Rights LegacyBottom LinePresident Jimmy Carter was the first president to integrate human rights into US foreign policy, but his efforts received a mixed reception from the foreign policy establishment. The Carter administration focused its policies toward Uruguay—a dictatorship that was known as the “torture chamber of Latin America”—around a human rights strategy.