Argentina and Brazil have agreed to exchange information about human rights abuses committed under Operation Condor. A similar agreement already exists between Argentina and Uruguay.
There were many cases in which repression was coordinated between the dictatorships of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile under Plan Condor, and so what we are doing with this exchange is seeing if we can resolve a lot of cases where we still don't know what happened to the citizens of those countries, said Argentine foreign minister Héctor Timerman.
One of the prominent cases from Brazil in which more information is needed is that of former president Joao Goulart, who may have been poisoned in Argentina in 1976.
Brazil, Argentina agree to share Plan Condor details (Buenos Aires Herald)
ARGENTINA Y BRASIL FIRMAN CONVENIO DE INTERCAMBIO DE ARCHIVOS (Terra)
Friday, 31 January 2014
Monday, 20 January 2014
Argentina: Concern over future of Parque de la memoria
Worrying news from Argentina as question marks hang over the future of the Parque de la memoria (memory park) in Buenos Aires.Staff there were recently told they would not receive a pay rise this year, which, given Argentina's inflation rate, is the equivalent of a substantial pay cut. In a blunt ultimatum, the staff were invited to resign if they had a problem with the decision. The employees of the park seem to have been singled out for this measure, which is not affecting other municipal employees.
This has given rise to fears that the move is a precursor to winding down the park. It is a symbol of the lack of commitment to the site by the BA government and the park's director herself has expressed concern that the park will end up "devoid of content".
This would be unfortunate; when I was there almost exactly 10 years ago, I observed that the park was a long way out of the city centre, rather bare and not well-used. However, in the intervening period, various new pieces of art have been added and activities have taken place. The Parque de la memoria seems to have become an established part of the capital's memory landscape (perhaps helped by the fact that the nearby ex-ESMA site is also an active place of memory). According to Pagina/12, the site was visited by over half a million people last year, so it is obviously being used. It would be a retrograde step to close it down.
Cara Levey and Francesca Lessa have written an excellent article for Al Jazeera on this issue, see below, and rightly call for the long-term securing of memorial sites.
Acusan a Macri de querer “convertir el Parque de la Memoria en una plaza vacía de contenido” (Telam)
Denuncian peligro de cierre de Parque de la Memoria de víctimas de dictadura argentina (El nuevo Herald)
Landscapes of Memory: Argentina's persistent struggles over the past (Al Jazeera)
Open letter by academics protesting against the possible closure of the park (Facebook)
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Peru: Route of peace and reconciliation
As we approach the 31st anniversary of the killings of journalists and their guide in Uchuraccay, the victims' families, journalists' organisations and some legislators want the way the men took to be named "Route of peace and reconciliation". The culture ministry is examining the proposal.
Relatives of four of the victims attended a press conference on the matter.
Each year, families and others walk the route to Uchuraccay and lay flowers at a memorial for the men who became one of the symbols of Peru's conflict.
Uchuraccay: piden nombrar ruta recorrida como “de la Paz y Reconciliación" (La Republica)
Relatives of four of the victims attended a press conference on the matter.
Each year, families and others walk the route to Uchuraccay and lay flowers at a memorial for the men who became one of the symbols of Peru's conflict.
Uchuraccay: piden nombrar ruta recorrida como “de la Paz y Reconciliación" (La Republica)
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
RIP Juan Gelman
I was sorry to hear of the death of renowned Argentine poet, Juan Gelman (3 May 1930 – 14 January 2014).
Gelman had a deeply personal connection to the Argentine "dirty war": like many other intellectuals, he was forced into exile. Moreover, his son and pregnant daughter-in-law were disappeared by the military regime. Much later, Gelman was able to be reunited with his granddaughter. You can read previous posts on the Gelman family here.
A beautiful tribute using his own words on the front of Pagina/12 here:
Argentinian poet Juan Gelman, fierce critic of the 'dirty war', dies aged 83 (Guardian)
Renowned Argentine poet Juan Gelman, 83, dies in Mexico (BBC)
Cinco poemas de Juan Gelman (Ñ)
El hombre que hizo hablar a las palabras más allá de la muerte (Pagina/12)
Gelman had a deeply personal connection to the Argentine "dirty war": like many other intellectuals, he was forced into exile. Moreover, his son and pregnant daughter-in-law were disappeared by the military regime. Much later, Gelman was able to be reunited with his granddaughter. You can read previous posts on the Gelman family here.
A beautiful tribute using his own words on the front of Pagina/12 here:
Argentinian poet Juan Gelman, fierce critic of the 'dirty war', dies aged 83 (Guardian)
Renowned Argentine poet Juan Gelman, 83, dies in Mexico (BBC)
Cinco poemas de Juan Gelman (Ñ)
El hombre que hizo hablar a las palabras más allá de la muerte (Pagina/12)
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Argentina: 10 years of activities in ex-ESMA
The Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos (Space for memory and human rights) in the former ESMA clandestine detention centre in Buenos Aires is calling for those who have participated in memory-related activities over the past decade there to contribute material to commemorate the anniversary. Photographs, poetry, short texts, personal impressions, etc may be sent to prensa@espaciomemoria.ar or submitted at www.facebook.com/espaciomemoria until 15 February.
How amazing that the ESMA - Argentina's largest detention and torture centre - has been dedicated to education, human rights and the arts for ten years now. I took the image above in February 2004.
Suma tu memora (espaciomemoria.ar)
Suma tu memora (espaciomemoria.ar)
Peru: Drawing our memory
The Peruvian forensic anthropology institute EPAF and Vicente Cueto have
initiated a projected called "Pintemos nuestra memoria" (Drawing our
Memory), in which relatives of the disappeared in Peru are given the
diagrams of the human body used by forensic anthropologists in their
work and encourage to draw on them. Rather than using them for their
original purpose of indicating wound sites, they can become a simple,
portable form of commemoration for the missing person.
You can hear one of the participants in the project discussing his grandfather and his drawing in this video in Spanish with English subtitles:
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Peru: The Quipu Project
The New Internationalist has an article on Peru's Quipu Project, which brings together new technology and an old idea (the Inca mnemonic device of knotted strings known as the quipu).
Cellphone justice for sterilized women (New Internationalist)
Quipu Project
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
It involves using mobile and internet technology to record the testimony of victims of forced sterilization, who are largely women from isolated areas. What a great idea to allow their voices to be heard.
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
Cellphone justice for sterilized women (New Internationalist)
Quipu Project
Cellphone justice for sterilized women
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
Combining
low-tech (mobile) phone and high-tech (VOIP) internet technology,
survivors are able to record and listen to themselves and each other,
and to connect with the rest of the world. - See more at:
http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/12/01/peru-women-cellphone-justice/#sthash.pKOe2oTt.dpuf
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