Argentina: Human rights achievements of 2014

Infojus Noticias provides us with a look back at Argentina's year in human rights, so here's a translation of the main points.

Found grandchildren:
The recovery of the identity of Ignacio Guido Montoya Carlotto on August 5 was the biggest media event of the year, but he was not the first grandchild to be found. On February 6, a young woman was confirmed as the daughter of Oscar Rómulo Gutiérrez and Liliana Isabel Acuña. Later, the forensic anthropology team found the remains of three pregnant woman who had been murdered before giving birth. In August, Ana Libertad Baratti de la Cuadra was found, and at the end of the this year grandchild number 116, the child of Ana Rubel and Hugo Castro, regained his true identity.

Trials for appropriations:
There were four trials linked to found grandchildren. On September 9, the appropriators (i.e. the illegal adopters) of Pablo Gaona Miranda (found grandchild no. 106), plus the person accused of handing over the child to them, were sentenced to between six and eight years in jail. Medical personnel linked to the births of disappeared children and the falsification of their documentations also received prison sentences.

Trials for state terrorism:
14 trials relating to clandestine detention centres drew to a close. In October, the trial over crimes in La Cacha concluded. Six human rights abusers were convicted of the murder of Osvaldo Tordo Sigfrido de Benedetti, six more for the Metán case, and ten for crimes in Rosario. 

The number of perpetrators convicted since the return to democracy is, therefore, 559.

Ongoing trials
There are currently 17 oral trials ongoing, 11 of which started this year. In these, 279 people are accused of over 2,220 crimes. These include the mega-trials for the detention centres of La Perla and ESMA, people accused of crimes under Plan Condor, and of the systematic stealing of babies.

Legal investigations
62 new legal investigations were initiated up to October.

Fugitives
49 alleged human rights abusers are currently on the run; this is down from 73 at the end of last year. Three were caught in early December.

Identifications
Finally, the EAAF managed to identify ten disappeared people this year, in addition to the three pregnant woman mentioned above. This brings the total it has identified in Argentina to 651.

2014: 4 nietos, 17 juicios en marcha y otros 40 represores condenados (Infojus Noticias)

Less democracy makes for an easier World Cup

This story is not new; the article is from April but I was just sent it by Erik Jennische and I couldn't let it pass. I don't recall it being picked up on too much at the time, but apologies if it was.

Too much democracy can be a hindrance when organizing a World Cup, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said on Wednesday. ...
"When you have a very strong head of state who can decide, as maybe Putin can do in 2018...that is easier for us organizers than a country such as Germany....where you have to negotiate at different levels."
FIFA president Sepp Blatter then told the audience that he was relieved that hosts Argentina won the 1978 World Cup, which was held under an oppressive military government.
"I remember my first World Cup where I was directly involved was the one in Argentina and I would say I was happy Argentina won," he said.
"This was a kind of reconciliation of the public, of the people of Argentina, with the system, the political system, the military system at the time."

Well, I'm so happy for FIFA that they were able to organise the Argentina World Cup without the hassle of having to deal with all those people. How nice that a brutal authoritarian government smoothed the way for an international sporting event which took place while detainees were being held incognito and tortured just down the road.

By the way, see these two great posts from the Unredacted blog of the National Security Archive on Argentina '78. The first of them notes that human rights abuses did ease off during the time that the eyes of the world were on the country (which is not the same as saying that holding the tournament there was a good idea). The second details then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicting that Argentina will win the World Cup and giving his support to the military junta:

We have followed events in Argentina closely. We wish the new government well. We wish it will succeed. We will do what we can to help it succeed.
We are aware that you are in a difficult period. It is a curious time, when political, criminal and terrorist activities tend to merge without any clear separation. We understand you must establish authority. 

Soccer: Less democracy makes for an easier World Cup - Valcke (Reuters)

Also. What Otto said. 

Argentina: Question marks over new army chief

Updated post, see below.

Argentine president Christina Kirchner named Major-General César Milani as the new head of the army about a month ago. The appointment is causing controversy because of Milani's presence in the early stages of the "dirty war" in Tucumán in 1976. (For those who don't know, the last military coup in Argentina was of course March 1976. However, severe military repression had been going on in the province of Tucumán for a year prior to that - almost as a "practice exercise" for the nationwide abuses which were to follow).

Milani was just 22 21 [he says] at the time and there is no suggestion he played a leading role in the atrocities. In fact, there seems to be very little information about his involvement at all. However, given the circumstances and given the fact that the Kirchner government parades its human rights credentials, it's only natural that people are going to ask questions.

The major human rights organisations - Abuelas, CELS - seem to be taking a cautious approach. They are not denouncing Milani outright but merely asking for clarification.

Milani is claiming that there is a "smear campaign" against him designed to discredit the government. He has shown up in person to courts in Tucumán and La Rioja to deny involvement in human rights crimes. The Senate is due to discuss his appointment next week.

Milani human rights record questioned (Buenos Aires Herald)
Skeletons out of the closet (Buenos Aires Herald)
Milani denounces 'smearing campaign' against Government (Buenos Aires Herald)
César Milani denunció una "campaña de desprestigio en su contra" para "perjudicar al Gobierno" (La Nación)
Milani también fue al tribunal tucumano (Pagina/12)
Perez Esquivel: Bedenken gegen neuen Armeechef (KNA)

UPDATE

On Sunday, 21 July, an interview with Milani appears in Pagina/12 in which he states that he never saw [General Antonio Domingo] Bussi in Tucumán and that he did not know Alberto Ledo, a soldier who became the victim of forced disappearance. He also denies that he was involved in the detention of the father of Ramón Olivera in La Rioja. He expresses incredulity that the accusations are surfacing now, after all these years.


“No puedo creer las cosas que se dicen” (Pagina/12)

Argentina: El Silencio

As part of the ESMA trial, an official visit has been conducted to El Silencio, an island in the province of Buenos Aires where prisoners were temporarily moved during the visit of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) in 1979.

The site appears to have been largely untouched for the past 30 years:
"The place is like it was, the only difference is the vegetation has grown up," said survivor Carlos Lordkipanidse. "The buildings have really deteriorated because they haven't been maintained. What has gone is the landing stage, that's not there. Everything else is. The feeling is terrible, it's like going into the ESMA."

The island previously belonged to the diocese of Buenos Aires and was bought by the navy using fake identity documents of a detainee who had been released and gone into exile. The prisoners spent over a  month there while CIDH inspectors were shown the cleaned, spruced-up ESMA. They were held in two groups, one of which enjoyed comparatively acceptable conditions while the detainees of the other were kept permanently hooded and locked in. It should be noted that despite the deception by the junta, the CIDH's report is still highly critical of the Argentine government.

A number of survivors attended the visit, including Victor Basterra, whom I've written about before.

Los sonidos del Silencio (Pagina/12)


Further info:
For the CIDH report on the human rights situation in Argentina, dated 1980, see here.
For an excerpt in English from Horacio Verbitsky's book El Silencio, which details the relationship between the Catholic Church in Argentina and the military regime, see here.

News round-up

Argentina
The head of the Argentine-Jewish Community Centre (AMIA), Guillermo Borger, warned the government of President Cristina Fernandez that the organization’s members are concerned by the lack of information regarding ongoing negotiations with Iran over the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA headquarters, which killed 85 people.
Jewish community protests for being kept on the dark on Argentina/Iran negotiations (Mercopress)

Colombia
A US court has sentenced General Mauricio Santoyo, who was President Alvaro Uribe's security chief, to 13 years in jail for links with paramilitaries.
Colombia general sentenced in US for paramilitary links (BBC)
Colombia will be removed from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “blacklist” next year, but “the fact that a country report is being drawn up, rather than a country being included or not in Chapter IV, does not imply an improvement in human rights,” IACHR commissioner Felipe González said.
Off the Blacklist Doesn’t Imply Improvement in Human Rights in Colombia (IPS)
On Colombian refugees in Ecuador:
Cocaine's Forgotten Victims (COHA)


El Salvador 
On the 31st anniversary of the El Mozote massacre, the Inter-American Court for Human Rights ruled against El Salvador and ruled that the country's amnesty law, enacted after the close of the civil war, should not impede investigations of the responsible parties.
International court condemns El Salvador for El Mozote Massacre (Tim's El Salvador Blog)
El Salvador: Court Orders Investigation of 1981 Massacre (NY Times)

Guatemala

World Bank must pay for Guatemala ‘terror loans’ (Guatemala Solidarity Network)

Argentina: New human rights secretary

Juan Martín Fresneda has been appointed the new Argentine Secretary of Human Rights, taking over from Eduardo Luis Duhalde,  who recently died.

Fresneda is just 36, a lawyer and a child of the disappeared. His parents were abducted in 1977 during the so-called Night of the Ties (Noche de la corbatas), during which the regime went after a group of lawyers who had themselves been investigating forced disappearances. Fresneda is a founding member of HIJOS, the organisation of children of the disappeared. These factors are bound to make him a popular choice for the post among Argentina's human rights community.

You can read more about La noche de las corbatas (in Spanish) here and here. 

Juan Martín Fresneda appointed Human Rights Secretary (Telam)
La agrupación H.I.J.O.S. de Córdoba expresó su satisfacción por la designación de Fresneda (Telam)

Latin American women who shake the world

Newsweek has published a list of 150 women who shake the world for International Women's Day. Here are the Latin Americans, along with some memory-related notes from me:

• Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. In her youth she resisted the dictatorship, was captured and tortured - read more about her experiences here.
• Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. A rather ambiguous figure from our point of view, what with disputes with the media and some strong-arm tactics, but on the whole, progress on the human rights front has been made during the administrations of CFK and her late husband Nestor. I'm thinking mainly of the major trials of the ESMA perpetrators and so on, and the memorial projects such as the museum in the former ESMA.
• Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The Abuelas are of course a constant presence on this blog and if you ask me, Estela de Carlotto should be one of everyone's role models. Their struggle for justice for their grandchildren is awe-inspiring.
• Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, now head of UN Women. Another formidable woman with a dictatorship history who is not consumed by bitterness but instead works for progress.
• Chilean student activist Camila Vallejo.
• Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez.
• Brazilian graffiti artist Panmela Castro.
• Guatemalan attorney general Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey. She leads the effort to prosecute human rights abusers under tough conditions.
• Mexican attorney general Marisela Morales. Another one where you just want to go "Well, that's not going to be an easy job...".
• Mexican journalist Adela Navaro Bello. Fighting the cause of press freedom in one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist.
• Mexican congresswoman Rosi Orozco. Particularly active against human trafficking.
• Mexican supreme court minister Olga Sanchez Cordero.

Take your pick of inspiration.

Further coverage on the Madres scandal

With the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo well known internationally, it's hardly surprising that media outside Argentina has picked up on the whiff of scandal. I think the distraction is a shame though, considering that there are still pressing human rights issues to deal with in the country. Coverage has focused both on how close links with the now-tainted group could be damaging to Cristina Kirchner in the run-up to an election, and conversely, on how close involvement with politics has been damaging for the group in recent years.

53% of those questioned in a recent poll believe that the scandal will have far-reaching consequences for politics. Political scientist Carla Carrizo argues that the structure and working methods of Argentina's ruling Justicialista Party end up placing significant power in the hands of non-state actors.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo scandal "toxic" for president (IPS)

The story is obviously a gift for anti-government papers La Nacion and Clarin, but the polarised state of Argentine journalism is not exactly beneficial for the reader.
Coverage of human rights group scandal sparks debate on role of Argentine journalism (Journalism in the Americas)

This is the example of the kind of headline that can undo years of hard work by the Madres
Argentina human rights group money spend on Ferraris, yachts and villas (Mercopress)

This is also a very critical article. Look at how it sets the scene for the foreign reader:

The group’s reputation in Argentina has soured, owing to the leftist activism of its leader, Hebe de Bonafini, who has praised the authors of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001.

The image is also captioned "No longer a lily-white reputation". I mean, it is correct that Bonafini has long been a controversial figure and she does make blatantly anti-US remarks. She is arguably a poor figurehead for the Argentine human rights "scene". Still, snide coverage like this ends up leaving a nasty taste in my mouth because ultimately, the Madres are not Bonafini. Let's not forget the disappeared in all this.
The mother of all scandals? (The Economist)

Argentina: Madres face new storm

The Madres de Plaza de Mayo are no strangers to media attention, but this week they have hit the headlines again for all the wrong reasons. The case surrounds the group's legal adviser Sergio Schoklender, who has been accused of fraud connected to government-funded housing projects. Schoklender has apparently massed huge personal wealth while officially earning a modest income. The Mothers themselves are not officially accused of wrongdoing, but are clearly tainted by the apparent corruption from someone in their inner circle. They have hurriedly distanced themselves from Schoklender and, it is now being reported, wish to appear as plaintiffs in a case against him.

There's quite a lot going on here, I would say, and the shadow of the dictatorship is apparent in it all. On a general level, people worldwide often seem to have a desire to unmask others perceived as "too good to be true" - you seem to see the same kind of glee when a squeaky-clean family man, a Tiger Woods or a Ryan Giggs, say, is revealed as hiding some grubby secrets. The Mothers have been one of the key moral spokepersons in Argentina for decades. Strident, uncompromising, tough: their leader, Hebe de Bonafini, is seen as a heroine by many and an embarassment by some. She has been closely linked with the Kirchner regimes for several years and her unabashed politicism has not increased her popularity in some circles.

The scandal was apparently revealed by Clarin newspaper. Yes, that is the same Clarin newspaper which is rabidly anti-Kirchner and whose owner is fighting a court case seeking to prove that her adopted children were stolen from disappeared people. The Madres, other human rights groups, and the government have all unequivocally viewed this story as an attempt to attack human rights and memory activism in Argentina. The president of the Abuelas (Grandmothers), Estela de Carlotto, was quoted in Clarin and the right-wing La Nacion as accusing Bonafini of being compromised by the Schoklender case. She later told Pagina/12, the paper most sympathetic to the human rights groups, that her words had been "twisted" in an attempt to split the human rights movement. The Abuelas together with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora (a breakaway group of the Madres), HIJOS (the children of the disappeared) and Familiares (family members of the disappeared) issued a joint statement condemning attempts to tarnish their struggle.

The one thing that does really astonish me is why Bonafini was close to Sergio Schoklender and his brother Pablo in the first place. I had never heard of them before yesterday, but it turns out that they were involved in a notorious crime of the early 1980s, when both were jailed for the murder of their parents. I find it hard to understand why people convicted of such a serious crime would end up so closely connected with a human rights group whose entire purpose is justice for murder, after all - but clearly I'm missing something there.

I think the takeaway point for me would be the importance of the human rights struggle in Argentina and how crucial it is for that to continue. You can see from little turns of phrase like that in the Guardian article, "the headscarf has slipped", how people seize on such cases to invalidate an entire project, and as the groups say in their statement, that can't be allowed to happen.

Denuncian sobreprecios en los planes de viviendas sociales (Clarin)
Las Madres iran hoy a la Justicia para denunciar a Schoklender (Clarin)
En defensa de una historia (Pagina/12)
Buscan la oportunidad para disolvernos (Pagina/12)
Scandal hits Argentina's mothers of the disappeared (Guardian)
Corruption scandal hits Argentina's Mothers group (AP)

Operacion Diablo

"Operacion Diablo", a documentary focusing on the struggle of Peruvian priest Marco Arana against the mining companies, has been honoured at the Berlin Film Festival.



Documentary on Peruvian priest Marco Arana wins in Berlin (Living in Peru)

Operacion Diablo (Memoriando)

Colombia: Uribe's Legacy

As Uribe's presidential term draws to a close this weekend, the media is starting to assess his legacy. The general conclusion seems to be "he got the country under control, but those human rights abuses weren't very nice". IPS claims,

his fiercest critics console themselves by drawing a parallel with former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), who ended up in prison on corruption and human rights charges.

But the Fujimori criticism seems to me more than fair, given 1) the long-running question of a possible third term, 2) the witch hunt against human rights activists and indeed, anyone who raised their voice against the administration and 3) the connections between the official state and paramilitaries.

At least it is practically impossible to sum up the Uribe regime without mentioning the 'false positive' scandal, and both of the articles considered here do so in some detail. However, both place more emphasis on the outgoing president's strong popularity ratings and purported success in improving the security situation.

Dismal Human Rights Record Has Not Dented Uribe's Popularity (IPS)
Uribe's Colombia: The dark side of a country transformed (Guardian)

Event in Ayacucho, Peru

The EPAF is holding a campaign in Putis, a name which long-term readers of the blog will remember (and others can click on the key word below to see related posts).

STOP OF HOPE
Opening for the development process in Putis

Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team- EPAF and non profit organization, Vecinos Peru, invite you to participate in our campaign “Paradero Esperanza” or (Stop of Hope). This campaign will begin on Sunday, August 8th in the Centro Poblado of Putis, Ayacucho. The mission of this campaign is to promote human development in the communities most affected by Peru’s internal conflict. It is intended to help break and overcome the victimization and stigmitization that has impacted those most affected. EPAF is aware of the potential that Putis has for growth and wants to strengthen this potential through sustainable development projects.

The first “Stop of Hope” will be in Putis. However, we aim to promote development projects in other communities also affected by the violence, and by doing so, will create a “route of hope” both containing visible and symbolic stops in each community where EPAF has done forensic work.

The “Stop for Hope” in Putis will open its doors on August 8th, with a symbolic ceremony that will begin with “El Pago a la Tierra” (or “Payment to the Earth”). This ceremony will pay homage to the earth in thanks for the discovery of the disappeared family members of Putis in 2008 and for the beginning of this new development stage. Later, the project will be ratified by the presence of local authorities, and finally the implementation of the first phase of the project through the establishment of a native potato seed bank. Native potatoes are highly desirable within both the national and international markets. The implementation of the native potato seed bank is extremely important in that it will improve the quality of the potatoes grown there which will increase their market value.

We hope that with your presence on Sunday, you may help us promote the circulation of this event and by doing so, also contribute to the recitizenship of the victims of Putis.

Sincerely,
Jesús Peña Romero
Proyectos Epaf
992229804
jesu_stereo@hotmail.com
pena@epafperu.org

Colombia: US Funding, Increased Civilian Murders

Several media sources have picked up on a study by the Fellowship on Reconciliation and the U.S. Office on Colombia which has found that Colombian army units which receive U.S. military funding have committed more extrajudicial executions of civilians.

The extrajudicial executions reviewed by the FOR/USOC report are mostly cases in which military units have killed civilians in order to inflate the body count of guerrillas they have supposedly killed in action. “The majority of cases we are analyzing are not misidentifications,” said John Lindsay-Poland of the FOR, but rather the deliberate targeting of civilians. “Success” in the anti-guerrilla fight is measured by kills, says Lindsay-Poland. “It is not about whether there is greater security for civilians or whether there is justice in the country.” [NACLA]

In other words, these are the so-called "false positive" cases.

This is a deeply concerning report which also raises questions about the legality of U.S. financial support in Colombia.

The report [...] studies the application in Colombia of the so-called Leahy Law, passed in 1996, which bans military assistance to a foreign security force unit if the U.S. State Department has credible evidence that the unit has committed gross human rights violations.

The Leahy Law is one of the main U.S. laws designed to protect against the use of U.S. foreign aid to commit human rights abuses.

"If the Leahy Law was fully implemented, assistance would have to be suspended to nearly all fixed army brigades and many mobile brigades in Colombia," Lindsay-Poland said. [IPS]

Report Suggests "Correlation" between U.S. Aid and Army Killings (IPS)
Plan Colombia Linked to Increased Military Abuses (NACLA)
Colombia: US Military Aid May Have Sparked Civilian Killings (truthout)

You can also read the full report here.

Argentina: Gay Marriage

- The Chilean Church wants an amnesty for the [military] human rights abusers.
- What odd people... you kill a load of people, they want to give you an amnesty... You marry someone of the same sex and they send you to hell.

(from today's Pagina/12)

Ecuador: Truth Commission Report Out

Ecuador was my first taste of South America and has a special place in my heart, but it features rarely on this blog. That is generally a good thing; it's basically because Ecuador has been spared the devastating internal conflicts and massive human rights that have afflicted some its neighours. But Ecuadorians have suffered their share of abuses, and President Correa set up a truth commission in 2007 to investigate some of them. Now the final report has been published.

There were just 4 commissioners, led by nun and human rights activist Else Monge Yoder, and supported by a variety of other specialists and interested parties. They have a very good website (in Spanish), where you can also download the entire final report.

Key findings:

• Between 1984 and 2008 there were 456 confirmed victims of human rights violations in Ecuador (clearly, there will have been more, but a TC always has budget and time limitations and is also only mandated to investigate particular crimes - in this case essentially murder, disappearance, and torture).
• Over half of these took place during the Presidency of León Febres Cordero in 1984-88.
• The Commission identified 32 instances of extrajudicial execution, 12 attempted homicides, 9 cases of forced disappearance, 214 illegal deprivations of liberty and 275 victims of torture.
• The report blamed police for 50 percent of human rights abuses, the military 28 percent, government officials 10 percent, court officials 6 percent and foreign agents 6 percent.
• The Commission found that the government consistently overstated threats from rebel groups and that the abuses were not isolated occurrences but part of a consistent counterinsurgency strategy.

The International Center for Transitional Justice has praised the publication of the report but called on the Ecuadorian government to implement the Commission's recommendations and to move forward with taking concrete steps for justice.

Ecuador: Use Truth Commission Report for Practical Action (ICTJ)
Ecuador: Informe de la Comision de la Verdad identifica a 456 victimas (CNDDHH)

I didn't find much about this in the English-language media, just this rather curious report from the Associated Press. What really struck me was the way it used the phrase "so-called truth commission". I'm baffled. Considering it's now over 25 years since the Argentine CONADEP commission, and that since then, over 20 such commissions have conducted investigations (depending on how you define the commissions, etc), is there really still doubt over the term?! Also, take the first sentence:

A commission named by Ecuador's left-leaning government to investigate human rights violations in the previous quarter century on Monday blamed late right-wing President Leon Febres Cordero for two-thirds of such cases.

This sentence may be purporting to merely fill in the political leanings of Ecuadorian regimes for the benefit of international readers who probably know little about the country, but it seems to me to contain a thinly-veiled suggestion that the report's findings are politically motivated. Anyway, here it is:

Ecuador panel blames 2/3 of abuses on '80s leader (AP)

Brazil: Dealing with the Dictatorship Past

The following post is based on the points made in the article 'Vom Umgang mit der Diktaturvergangenheit' by Klaus Hart, from the supplement Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 12/2010.

In the article mentioned, Hart posits that Brazil is far behind other countries in the hemisphere in the clarification of its dictatorship history.

In December 2009, President Lula signed a decree to create a truth commission to investigate the crimes of the military years. But, faced with threats of resignation from his Defense Minister and the heads of the armed forces, he partially backed down and softened the wording of the decree. This, despite the fact that the official figures for deaths during the dictatorship are suspiciously low - 376 killed by the armed forces, and 119 by the armed resistance movement.

Amnesty International representative Tim Cahill is cited as stating that, "Torture and extrajudicial executions carry on, conditions in jail are still terrible - and even death squads and slavery still exist. It just goes on like before - Brazil is the Latin American country to have made the least progress in the examination of its past. The biggest problem of the country today is that official discourse has nothing to do with political practice" [trans mine]. Officials active during the dictatorship also continue to enjoy political power.

The author also points to a generalised apathy in the population when it comes to looking back and to political commitment, which he attributes to a lack of education and widespread functional illiteracy.

Hart takes the case of Argentina as a contrast, noting the progress that this nation has made under the Kirchner administrations. This is true, although the situation is painted rather more rosily than it actually is; there is still a great deal of work to be done in Argentina, dangers remain for human rights activists, and the majority of the military perpetrators will probably die before they can be tried. Nevertheless, within the confines of the space afforded the article, the point stands that Argentina has made greater strides than Brazil in assessing its dictatorship legacy.

Photo credit: Blog Sao Paolo Urgente of the Memorial de Resistencia

And here's a group of people you don't see often...

...in contrast to their more famous female counterparts. They're padres - fathers -of the disappeared, and they're also the subject of a new documentary.

Peru: Pucará Trial On, Despite Govt Interference

I noted in June 2009 that a trial had opened concerning the 1989 Pucará massacre. I then lost track of the issue completely, until this article from IPS, which proves that 1) I can't keep up with the progress of all the news stories I mention, 2) the Peruvian justice system is lamentably slow and 3) you can't trust the Garcia regime, which has major human violations on its hands from its first term, not to obstruct the progress of human rights investigations at every turn.

A trial against 41 Peruvian soldiers and officers accused of murdering six men and two women in the highlands village of Pucará in 1989, during the first term of current President Alan García, has reopened.

[...]

The trial got underway again after the lawyers representing the victims' families successfully lobbied the court to order the return to Peru of a key defendant, noncommissioned officer Clodomiro Silva.

Silva and the rest of the members of the army accused in the Pucará murders are not allowed to leave the country without permission from the court, and must attend all court sessions when summonsed.

Nevertheless, President García named Silva as an assistant to Peru's military attaché in Washington.

As a result, the trial was held up when Silva did not show at the Dec. 12, 21 and 28 hearings.

[...]

Silva's appointment "was a way to put him out of reach of the justice system, and his failure to show up at the hearings hampered the trial," Antonio Salazar, a lawyer with the non-governmental Legal Defence Institute (IDL) who represents the victims' families, told IPS.

Sources at the courthouse where the trial is being held told IPS that the judiciary had notified the army command that Silva's appointment to a diplomatic mission abroad was a violation of due process.

Silva finally returned to Lima on Jan. 10, and reported in to the courts. (emphasis mine)

Generals in the Dock in Human Rights Trial (IPS)

Colombia: Shame on O'Grady

Ah, Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal: the columnist Latin Americanists love to hate. We only read her for a laugh, right? Every time she says anything particularly outrageous, a small flurry of blog posts delight in ripping it to shreds. I don't know what we'd do for entertainment without her, although admittedly, I'm not convinced that giving her more attention is really the best move.

In this instance, though, I can only reiterate the words of the infinitely better-informed Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond:

In today’s edition, columnist Mary O’Grady unquestioningly takes the testimony of a demobilized FARC fighter at face value. Her column not only fails to verify her source’s allegations: it gravely threatens the security of a community and the organizations working with it. This is shameful.

Among other things, she writes,

He also told me that the supposed peaceniks who ran the local NGO were his allies and an important FARC tool in the effort to discredit the military.

O'Grady bolsters the despicable behaviour of the Colombian government in smearing human rights activists at every turn, and every act like that only serves to further endanger those courageous, hard-working people. To put this into context,

Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, who visited Colombia in September, told the panel that she remained concerned over what she has called a "pattern of harassment and persecution against human rights defenders.''

Sekaggya challenged the government of President Alvaro Uribe to "genuinely address'' their concerns.

Rights activists and community organizers have long been among the primary targets of both right-wing paramilitary forces and leftist rebel armies in Colombia, with more than 60 murdered between 2002 and 2008. Violence has abated greatly with the demobilization of more than 30,000 paramilitary fighters and the routing of guerrillas from major urban areas.

But last year, 11 rights activists were murdered, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, and in the first nine months of this year, nine rights defenders have been reported killed. [emphasis mine]

Colombia rights defenders say they're under constant attack (Miami Herald)

Argentina: On Human Rights Day

As well as Human Rights Day, 10 December marks the anniversary of the return to democracy in Argentina. Many human rights groups were participating in today's Marcha de la resistencia.

Just a day before his trial is due to start, notorious Argentine human rights abuser Alfredo Astiz has asked for it to be suspended. He has been transferred to hospital, apparently with kidney problems.
Astiz pidio suspender el juicio en su contra (Critica Digital)
Thanks to News of the Restless for this story; Sabina has also provided a partial translation of the article.

For further information on the ESMA and other trials going on right now, see also a selection of blogs:
Causa ESMA
Juicio Campo de Mayo
Causa 1er. Cuerpo de ejercito