Carlos Liscano

Montevideo, May 26 (RHC)-- Uruguayan writer, political ex-president and former director of the National Library of Uruguay (BNU), Carlos Liscano, died at the age of 74, it was reported Friday.

Lizcano directed the BNC during the government of President José Mujica (2010-2015).

In his lifetime, he wrote more than 40 books, the last one published a few weeks ago under the title Esperando a los tártaros: utilidad de las Fuerzas Armadas (Waiting for the Tartars: Usefulness of the Armed Forces).

Other highlights include La mansión del tirano (1992), El camino a Ítaca (1994), El furgón de los locos (2001), El escritor y lo otro (2007), Oficio de ventriloquia. Relatos 1981-2011, Escritor indolente (2014), Vida del cuervo blanco (2015) and Los orígenes (2019).

He was a playwright, poet, journalist and storyteller. In his youth, he was also a Tupamaro militant, an activity that led him to be imprisoned during the civil-military dictatorship. In total, he was imprisoned for 13 years, between 1972 and 1985. After his release, he went into exile in Sweden until 1996.

As a writer he was awarded several prizes, among them the National Literature Prize of the Ministry of Education and Culture in the theater, narrative and poetry categories, as well as the Bartolomé Hidalgo, granted by the Municipality of Montevideo.