Impunity Watch: South America

Venezuela’s Chavez Uses Ally’s Crisis As Stage

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – The Venezuelan-led ALBA bloc, which includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela, recalled their ambassadors from Honduras until President Mel Zelaya, who was forced out by a military coup over the weekend, is reinstated.

Chavez has been exerting oil-fueled influence on behalf of Zelaya since he was ousted into exile by the military earlier this week. Chavez is spreading his vision of Latin America and calling for Hondurans to rise up against those who deposed Zelaya.

Human rights organizations groups have expressed concern over human rights after the coup in Honduras and have called for suspension of U.S. aid as the situation seems to be getting increasingly violent.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America, an organization that promotes human rights, democracy and social and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean, there are reports of people being injured, illegally detained and transferred to military bases, and of people whose whereabouts are unknown. They also report that some social leaders, fearing arrest, are in hiding. 

The crisis could not be better for Chavez, according to Luis Vicente León, a pollster and political analyst in Caracas.

Chavez has taken to characterize Zelaya as a leftist fighting for the poor and said those who overthrew him hail from an oligarchy intent on maintaining the status quo. Chavez has even taken to mockingly calling Roberto Micheletti, the lawmaker who has replaced Zelaya as president, a "gorilla."

"I swear as president: We are going to make your life impossible," Chávez said in one speech, directing his anger at Micheletti.

According to Milos Alcalay, Venezuela's former ambassador to the United Nations until falling out with the Venezuelan leader in 2004, Chavez has quickly taken advantage of the crisis to cast himself as the leader of progressive countries battling the dark forces of Latin America's establishment. Chavez has been Zelaya's most forceful advocate and could win international accolades if the Honduran eventually succeeds in regaining power.

Some political analysts say that with the United States, Europe and big regional players such as Brazil and Mexico condemning the coup, Chavez’s role in propelling Zelaya's possible comeback may be marginal.

Carlos Sosa, Zelaya's ambassador at the Organization of American States, said the demands made on Micheletti by other Latin American leaders have been vital.

Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group, a Washington-based policy organization that studies countries in crisis, said: "Chavez is clearly taking advantage of the opportunity, but he is not calling the shots."

Chavez has gone as far as placing his military on alert over an apparent affront to the Venezuelan ambassador in Honduras, a step that drew a measured response from the Obama administration.

The Honduran Congress has justified Zelaya’s removal from office on the grounds that he threatened the constitutional order by trying to go ahead and hold a non-binding referendum that Congress and the Supreme Court had both declared as illegal.

The referendum included a proposal that, among other things, would have allowed Zelaya to run for the presidency again, something the current constitution forbids.

For more information, please see:
 
Washington Post – Ally's Ouster Gives Venezuela's Chávez a Stage, an Opportunity – 02 July 2009

Washington Office on Latin America -  WOLA Strongly Condemns Suspension of Civil Liberties in Honduras – 02 July 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune - Venezuela & Allies Pull Envoys from Honduras to Protest Coup – 30 June 2009

The New York Times – Rare Hemisphere Unity in Assailing Honduran Coup - 28 June 2009

English Parliament to Stop Colombian Military Aid

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – Amid allegations of murders and human rights abuses in Colombia, English parliament members are calling for an end to all UK military aid to Colombia.  Thousands of trade unionists and human rights activists have disappeared, killed, or jailed in Colombia.

UK Parliament discusses Colombian military aid.  Photo by Colombia Reports. 

“We do not believe that isolating Colombia will help solve its problems,” the UK Foreign Office commented. “Quite the opposite, we believe that we have a strong interest in helping Colombia address its problems of violence and exclusion, human rights abuses and illegal drugs. We cannot turn our back on these problems.”

In March, the British government ended its support to Colombia’s Ministry of Defense department, but never revealed how much money it spends in Colombian for counter-narcotics operations.

A large amount of English members of parliament and England’s largest labor union will launch an organization called Friends of Colombia in order to protest the murder and arbitrary imprisonment of human rights workers and trade unionists.  A Justice For Colombia study focusing on military aid found that the Colombian military made “no distinction between counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations,” and used both as a pretext for targeting civilians, trade unionists and human rights activists.

General Secretary of the United Kingdom’s National Union of Journalists, and chairman of Justice For Colombia, Jeremy Dear commented it was “unacceptable” for any foreign country to provide aid to the military.

“Colombia does need foreign assistance, but for things such as employment, housing, health and education projects - things that will really benefit the people,” Dear remarked.

Recently, the Colombian senate to delayed a vote on a referendum to allow President Alvaro Uribe to enable him to run for an unprecedented third term in office.  This week, Uribe has met US president Barack Obama as part of an effort to seal a controversial free trade deal with the USA.  After talks with Uribe, Obama commented that progress on a free trade accord was being made, while emphasizing there is still a long way to go before an agreement can be reached. 

For more information, please see: 

BBC – MPs attack Colombia military aid - 30 June 2009

Colombia Reports – British MPs call for complete suspension of military aid to Colombia - 30 June 2009

Al Jazeera – Uribe keen to cement pact with US - 30 June 2009

There Is No Peace in Colombia, Says President Uribe

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – President Uribe said that there are four or five generations that have not lived one single day in peace in Colombia, or [in] prosperity.

The remark came as Uribe visited Washington, D.C. to meet with Obama. The two presidents met on Monday for more than an hour in the Oval Office, first alone and later joined by their teams of advisors.

 Uribe and Obama after meeting in the Oval Office

They discussed a range of issues, including the coup in Honduras, human rights, drug trafficking, security for labor leaders and the stalled U.S.- Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Congress is refusing to ratify the trade agreement and is demanding more guarantees for the protection of human rights and union members in Colombia, the world’s most dangerous country for labor activists.

Labor unions and many Democratic lawmakers say there is a history of unpunished violence against trade-union organizers in Colombia.

Uribe said there are 2,000 labor organizers under individualized protection and that he just signed a new law extending the statute of limitations for crimes against trade unionists and human rights workers.

"There are obvious difficulties involved in the process, and there remains work to do," Obama said of the stalled treaty. "But I'm confident that ultimately we can strike a deal that is good for the people of Colombia and good for the people of the United States."

Uribe had given him guarantees, Obama said, that he wants to resolve the questions revolving around the respect for human rights. He added that it is important that Colombia pursue a path of rule of law and transparency.

The Administration is also concerned about the wiretapping and surveillance of Uribe's critics by an intelligence agency controlled by the presidency and reports that as many as 1,700 civilians have been killed by Colombian army units. A preliminary United Nations investigation has characterized the killings as "cold-blooded, premeditated murder." 

“We are very receptive to receive any advice, any suggestions, on how we are going to fulfill our goal of violations of human rights in Colombia,” said Uribe. He added that the government is in the process of restructuring the state agencies that carry out surveillance.

Colombia has received nearly $6 billion in mostly military aid since Uribe took office in 2002.

For more information, please see:
 
Washington Post – President Obama and President Alvaro Uribe Velez of Colombia speak about the relationship between the US and Colombia - 30 June 2009

Washington Post – Trade With Colombia: Obama Encourages Progress on Accord - 30 June 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune - Coup in Honduras Dominates Meeting Between Obama and Uribe – 29 June 2009

Washington Post – Obama to Pursue Different Path With Colombia's Uribe - 29 June 2009

Former Argentine Conscripts allege Torture at the hands of Officers

By Don Anque

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America 

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - An Argentine federal appellate court has ruled that the Argentine army officers who allegedly tortured their own soldiers during the 1982 Falklands War are eligible for criminal charges on Sunday. Judge Herraez presided over a lawsuit that combined 80 allegations of human rights violations against the Argentine government.  She found the cases constituted crimes against humanity.

Photo by AFP.

23 former conscripts from the Falklands War have sued the Argentine government for various acts. The Falkland Islands are a British territory located approximately 670 miles from the coast of Argentina. The Argentine government has claimed sovereignty over the islands since they were occupied by the British in 1833.  During the Falklands War, an estimated 9,000 to 30,000 people “disappeared” under the Argentine military dictatorship.

Argentina’s loss in the Falklands War is credited in part with creating the movement that ended military rule.  Even after the Falklands War, a contentious point of the national Argentine debate is whether to prosecute former military officers.  A long-standing Argentine law providing amnesty to former officers was repealed in 2001. 

“We have been fighting for 27 years for this to become known, we are really satisfied,” commented Eduardo Alonso, president of the Centre for Falkland Islands Veterans at La Plata.  “Next week, more soldiers will report about abuses they have suffered.”

Alonso cited several types of alleged torture techniques, including simulated executions and death by starvation.  Prosecutors are investigating the deaths of soldiers Rito Portillo, in an alleged execution, and Remigio Fernandez, who was abandoned on the islands as punishment.

Since the Falklands War more than 400 former combatants have taken their own lives.

For more information, please see:

Times Online - Falklands conscripts recall torture and death at hands of officers – 18 June 2009

ABC News - Argentine soldiers face Falklands torture charges – 28 June 2009

CNN - Argentine soldiers sue officers, alleging torture – 9 June 2009

BBC - Argentine army in torture ruling – 28 June 2009

Former Head Of Colombian Intelligence Charged In Presidential Candidate’s Assassination

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – The Attorney General’s office recently confirmed that it has subpoenaed the man who was heading the DAS, Colombia’s intelligence agency, in 1989, retired Gen. Miguel Maza Marquez, for questioning in the murder of Luis Carlos Galan.

Galan was a journalist and liberal politician who was running for the presidency as a reformist when he was gunned down during a rally near Bogota in 1989. At the time, he was comfortably leading the polls for the forthcoming 1990 Presidential election.

 Luis Carlos Galan 

Galan had declared himself enemy of the Colombian drug cartels, whom he accused of corrupting the Colombian society at all levels. He was especially vocal in his attacks against the dangerous and influential Medellin Cartel led by Pablo Escobar.

Citing the “proven” complicity of government intelligence officers, Colombian prosecutors are asking the Attorney General’s office to declare the 1989 assassination of Galan a “state crime.”

According to Colombian law, a state crime is a crime against humanity and, as such, not subject to the statute of limitations. Once that twenty-year period expires next month, the probe into Galan’s killing is set to end absent such a designation, prosecutor Gabriel Jaimes said earlier this week.

“We have been arguing ... that the murder of Luis Carlos Galan was a state crime, by virtue (of the fact) that it has been fully demonstrated that agents of state actively and systematically participated in the assassination,” the prosecutor said.

But Jaimes was at a loss to explain why no warrant for Maza Marquez has been issued and instead, he has only been subpoenaed for questioning when in fact, the former intelligence chief has already been charged with aggravated homicide.

While pledging to comply with the subpoena, Maza Marquez has repeatedly said that he was victimized by the same people who killed Galan. He said he felt sad about being accused and stated that his main goal as head of the DAS was to combat these types of crimes.

Mario Iguaran, Prosecutor General, also confirmed that he is interested in clearing up with Maza Marquez some key discrepancies that have emerged since the murder near Bogotá.

Prosecutors are suspicious because it was Maza Marquez who ordered that several of Galan’s regular bodyguards be replaced just days before the assassination.

According to Carlos Hernando Galan, son of the murdered presidential candidate, the DAS will have to explain the actions of the bodyguards assigned to his father as well as the security agency’s role in sabotaging the original investigation.

Besides Maza Marquez, the Attorney General plans to subpoena Virginia Vallejo, former mistress of late drug lord Pablo Escobar, said to have ordered the assassination.

Prosecutors first learned that the killing involved a conspiracy between military officers, the DAS and drug kingpins from a leader of Colombia’s demobilized right-wing militias.

"Now that we are about to commemorate twenty years of the assassination of Luis Carlos Galan, the best tribute to him is to put an end to impunity,” Jaimes said.

For more information, please see:
 
El País - No hay motivos para capturar a Maza Márquez, dice la Fiscalía - 27 June 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune - Galan Slaying a “State Crime,” Colombian Prosecutors Say – 24 June 2009

Semana.com - Former head of intelligence agency could be involved in historical assassination – 19 June 2009

"Apartheid" Wall Constructed in Rio de Janeiro

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

RIO DE JANERIO, Brazil - Beginning in March 2009, the government of Rio de Janeiro built concrete walls to prevent Rio’s sprawling slums from spreading farther into the hills of the surrounding area.  Construction began in two favelas or shantytowns. One of the two is on Morro Dona Marta, which police occupied in November 2008 to control crime and violence caused mostly by rival drug gangs.

Photo by Reuters. 

Government officials claim the wall is to protect the remaining native forest as an ecobarrier, but many critics fear the wall is discriminatory and will become a symbol of Brazil’s vast division between the rich and the poor. 

“There is no discrimination.  On the contrary, we are building houses for them elsewhere and improving their lives,” Tania Lazzoli, spokeswoman for the secretary of public works at the state government, claimed.  The objective is to contain the spread of the communities and protect the forest. There are many houses in high risk areas.”

Opponents of the wall see a darker purpose behind the wall.  The aim is to imprison Rio’s poorest residents.  The debate over the walls has quickly become larger than the walls themselves.  In May 2009, United Nations human-rights officials question Brazil over the supposed “geographic discrimination.”  Rio's Union of Civil Engineers called environmental worries a pretext for a “tremendous attack on people's right to come and go.” Other critics have used the word apartheid.

Photo by the Guardian. 

The walls are all part of a wider plan by Rio officials claim that will clean up the famously freewheeling city. Under Rio’s Governor Sérgio Cabral Filho, the state intends to hire 22,000 police officers in part to occupy favelas now under control of drug gangs.  Money will also go to building more apartment complex that will address Rio’s housing shortage.

Under the government's flagship infrastructure program, known by the Portuguese acronym PAC, the federal authorities plan to build some 3,616 homes in four different Rio’s slums, according to Rio’ss secretary of public works.

“We haven't had a housing policy in Rio for decades,” commented Ignacio Cano, a sociologist and professor at University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. “Social inclusion needs a level of economic, social and political investment that doesn't exist nowadays. We also have unfortunately a ... political system where these slums have no political representation.”

For more information, please see:

Reuters - Slum walls raise suspicion in Rio – 24 June 2009

Wall Street Journal - Walls Around Rio's Slums Protect Trees But Don't Inspire Much Hugging – 15 June 2009

The Guardian - Rio to build walls around slums in attempt to halt deforestation in Brazil – 1 April 2009

After 12 Years On The Run, Former Minister In Prison For Crimes Against Humanity

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

ASUNCION, Paraguay - Paraguay's former interior minister Sabino Montanaro, 86, was transferred earlier this week from a police hospital to prison. He is to remain in prison pursuant to a warrant for his arrest issued in 1997.

Montanaro is charged with torture and other crimes against humanity committed during the twenty-two years he was part of the thirty-five year dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner. 

Montanaro left Paraguay after a coup in 1989 overthrew Stroessner. The former minister sought asylum in Honduras and had remained there as political refugee for twenty years until last month, when he returned unexpectedly to Paraguay.

Montanaro’s attorneys are challenging the arrest based on the fact that Paraguay allows defendants over 70 years-old to be in home detention during criminal prosecution. Defense counsel also question whether Montanaro can be prosecuted due his frail physical and mental condition.

Montanaro was transferred from the police hospital amid a strong show of security measures in the face of heated demonstrations by the relatives of those who went missing during the dictatorship.

"This is an historic moment. He is the last link in our fight against impunity", said Guillermina Kanonikoff, the widow of Mario Schaerer Prono. Schaerer Prono was a member of a clandestine student organization that opposed Stroessner. He was captured, tortured and killed. Kanonikoff added that the former minister was part of a regime that decided "who lived, who died and who disappeared."

Stroessner himself died at the age of 93 in 2006 while in exile in Brazil. Paraguayans remain divided over his regime. Although stable, Paraguay became a haven for Nazi war criminals, deposed dictators and smugglers under Stroessner.

During Stroessner’s exile in Brazil, Paraguay requested his extradition pursuant to homicide charges but Brazil refused to hand him over lacking an extradition treaty.

Stroessner’s regime is considered the second longest dictatorship of the 20th century, exceeded only by that of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

Stroessner aligned himself with the repressive Condor Plan promoted by the U.S. as an antiterrorist organization, and which included other totalitarian governments of South America.

The plan was a military agreement created by Chile’s Pinochet created to fight back those who opposed his politics. The military governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay joined the Condor Plan, which resulted in thousands of victims, especially in the 70s and 80s.

Montanaro faces several lawsuits for ordering the torture and death of hundreds of Paraguayans, as part of the repressive Condor Plan.

In 2004, Paraguay created a Truth and Justice Commission to investigate human rights violations during the Stroessner dictatorship. In the report, released in August 2008, the Commission puts the number of direct and indirect victims of the dictatorship at 128,076. The figure includes victims of forced disappearance, extrajudicial execution, detention, torture, rape and political exile.  Of this total, 59 were the victims of extrajudicial execution, and 337 were "disappeared."

For more information, please see:
 
El Pais - Encarcelado un ex ministro del dictador Stroessner en Paraguay - 25 June 2009

El Mercurio - Presidente paraguayo pide conocer paradero de DD.DD. durante dictadura de Stroessner – 05 May 2009

Ultima Hora - Sabino Augusto Montanaro regresa al Paraguay luego de 20 años – 01 May 2009

Inter Press Service News Agency - Rights-Paraguay: President Apologizes to Victims of Dictatorship – 28 August 2008

U.S. Department of State – 2002 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Paraguay

Windows between Two Worlds - The Condor Plan and Dictatorship in Paraguay

Venezuela and USA Move to Reinstate Ambassadors

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – Over the past week, diplomatic ties between Venezuela and the United States of America have improved.  The United States and Venezuela will soon reinstate each respective ambassador since the ambassadors were expelled during a diplomatic quarrel last year.

In September 2008, the Bush administration ordered the expulsion of Bolivia’s ambassador to the United States after Bolivia expelled a United States diplomatic envoy in Bolivia. In solidarity with Bolivia, Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, responded by expelling the US ambassador in Caracas, Venezuela. President Chavez additionally claimed that the US was trying to depose him.

“In response to unwarranted actions and in accordance with the Vienna Convention (on diplomatic protocol), we have officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack commented in September 2008.

Since Barack Obama’s administration has taken power, President Chavez has toned down his strident criticism of US foreign policy, partly because the US president is popular in Latin America in contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush.  President Obama, in turn, has pledged to enter diplomatic talks with countries considered problematic by the United States in the past.

President Hugo Chavez pictured here. Photo by AP. 

“We have a very clear position regarding this subject and we are prepared to move forward,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in a statement confirming the return of the ambassadors.

The announcement about the reinstatement of ambassadors came as leaders from Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua, who are all critical of the US influence in Latin America, congregated in Venezuela for a summit of an alternative trade alliance held by President Chavez. 

Despite positive attitudes and a handshake with President Obama at a summit of countries in the Americas in April, President Chavez is still committed to counter acting the United States’ global influence. President Chavez has also recently accused US spies of plotting to kill him without Obama’s knowledge. 

For more information, please see: 

Reuters - U.S. and Venezuela to restore expelled ambassadors - 24 June 2009

Associated Press - U.S. expels Bolivian ambassador; Chavez joins fray - 11 September 2008

BBC News - Chavez 'to restore US ambassador' - 19 April 2008

Colombia Remains Leader In Unionist Murders

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) recently released its annual report on union rights violations.

Colombia in 2008 continued to be the most dangerous country in the world to carry out activities in defense of workers, says the report.

ITUC’s annual survey details abuses of workers rights in 143 countries. According to the report, of the seventy six union members killed throughout the world last year, forty nine were Colombians. 

It seems that the number of labor activists slain around the world in 2008 decreased compared to 2007, when the figure swelled to ninety one deaths.

But although the number of labor-related murders is decreasing throughout the world, the number of such killings in Colombia during 2008 amounted to ten more than in 2007. This is "despite assurances by President Uribe’s administration that the situation was improving," says ITUC.

According to the secretary general of Colombia’s central trade union, Domingo Tovar, the numbers show that Colombia is still the most dangerous country in the world for labor activists.

As if to highlight the report’s conclusions, another Colombian union leader was murdered less than two weeks after the results were made public.

The victim, Rafael Sepulveda, 41, was one of the leaders of the National Association of Hospital Workers of Colombia. He worked as a pharmacy manager in the northeastern city of Cucuta’s mental health hospital.

According to witnesses, a hit man shot Sepulveda several times in front of his house before fleeing in a vehicle driven by accomplices.

The ITUC report maintains that despite the high number of Colombian union members’ deaths, the perpetrators of the violence against workers organizations and its members are not being punished adequately. The report denounces the “negligible court sentences” imposed on those found guilty.

Stanley Gacek, representative of the AFL-CIO federation of labor organizations, says that despite the increase in murders of trade unionists, ninety five percent of such murders have gone unsolved and unpunished in the last twenty three years in Colombia.  

"I submit that there has not been, that there is not and that there never will be real progress in this case unless and until the impunity crisis is directly, authentically and honestly resolved," Gacek said.

For more information, please see:
 
El Tiempo - Asesinan a dirigente sindical de Anthoc en la puerta de su casa en Cúcuta - 22 June 2009

Latin America Herald Tribune - Union Leader Murdered in Northeastern Colombia - 21 June 2009

Inter Press Service News Agency - LABOUR: Colombia Still Undisputed Leader in Trade Unionist Murders – 10 June 2009

Troops Killed as the Colombian Army faces UN Investigation

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

TIMBA, Colombia – Earlier this evening, seven police officers and 25 Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas were killed after an intense gun battle in Valle de Cauca. The police officers were part of a special mobile task force and were attacked while passing through the village of Timba. 

Police claim a local FARC commander known as “El Enano” or “The Midget” appeared to be among the guerrillas during the gun fight near the town of Buenos Aires, in the province of Cauca, Colombia.

In a recent UN fact finding mission, Philip Alston, a UN official, found that 19 men and boys were killed by Colombian soldiers last year and their deaths were passed off as rebels killed in combat.  Colombian soldiers who killed FARC guerrillas were routinely given promotions and bonuses. 

Photo by AFP.  

According to the fact finding results, some innocents were killed and then dressed to look like FARC guerrillas.

“Evidence showing victims dressed in camouflage outfits which are neatly pressed, or wearing clean jungle boots four sizes too big for them, or left-handers holding guns in their right hands, or men with a single shot through the back of their necks, undermines the suggestion that these were guerrillas killed in combat,” Alston commented.

The Colombian government, which invited the UN to conduct the fact finding mission, has kept fairly low numbers of prosecutions of Colombian soldiers manufacturing disingenuous FARC soldiers.  Despite the results of the UN fact finding mission, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has weakened FARC since he took office in 2002. 

President Uribe has poured billions of dollars in US aid to intensify the fight against cocaine-funded FARC guerrillas. However, FARC still maintains a dominant presence in some rural parts of Colombia. 

For more information, please see: 

BBC - Colombia police killed in ambush - 22 June 2009 

Associated Press - 7 Colombian police killed in rebel ambush - 22 June 2009

Colombia Reports - Seven police and 25 guerrillas killed in combat - 22 June 2009 

Reuters - U.N. says Colombian army killed civilians - 19 June 2009