When the military staged a coup in 1973 in the small country by the Río de la Plata, Uruguay had the highest percentage of political prisoners in the world. To stifle any resistance, the military abducted nine leading members of the defeated urban guerrilla group Tupamaros from prisons and threatened to execute them if further actions were taken. As hostages of the dictatorship, they were literally buried alive in dungeons of the barracks in groups of three for twelve years, until a resurgent social movement freed them with the end of the dictatorship. The autobiographical account by the two authors is an outstanding document of prison literature and has entered the literary world heritage.