Peru: State of Fear in Quechua

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2011: Spanish-language version of State of Fear/Estado de Miedo can now be viewed online here

What fantastic news (thanks to Andrea Naranjo at Luna Antagonica via Gran Combo Club for drawing it to my attention). State of Fear, a documentary which I recommend highly, is now available in Quechua.

On their website, filmmaker Paco de Onis explains,

The Peruvian Truth & Reconciliation Commission (PTRC), whose work State of Fear is based on, found that 70% of the conflict’s more than 69,000 victims, mostly innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, were Quechua speakers – so we felt it was imperative to make a version of the film dubbed into Quechua, to make the findings of the PTRC available to the audience most affected by Peru’s war on terror

Too true. Screenings of the Quechua language version have been held in Peru. Moreover,

In order to make sure that the EDMQ version has as wide a reach as possible, we are promoting the copyleft concept and encouraging people to make as many copies of the film as they need, and download the screening workshop guide from the project web hub. Human rights organization COMISEDH, our key collaborator in the Ayacucho area, told audience members that if they brought a blank DVD to their offices they would burn them a copy, and they’ve been going like hotcakes.

I can only applaud de Onis, and director Pamela Yates, for this important move. Now, if only it were so easy to get hold of an English language copy of the film. The rest of us will just have to keep looking out for screenings at human rights film events and on public broadcasters.

Argentina: 25 Years of Democracy

For the Spanish speakers among you, Pagina/12 has a whole special supplement to commemorate the return to democracy.

Clarin has some great photos of the election results here.

Pablo at the blog D for Disorientation has a personal view of democracy in Argentina.

And in the midst of all this backpatting, it seems appropriate that the Guardian brings us back down to earth with an analysis of what it calls Christina Kirchner's "disastrous" first year as President.

Colombia: Military Killings

Julián Oviedo, a 19-year-old construction worker in this gritty patchwork of slums, told his mother on March 2 that he was going to talk to a man about a job offer. A day later, Mr. Oviedo was shot dead by army troops some 350 miles to the north. He was classified as a subversive and registered as a combat kill.

Colombia Lists Civilian Killings in Guerrilla Toll (NY Times)

The dismissal of Colombian army members over the killing of innocent civilians then dressed up as guerrillas has received a lot of media attention:

Colombia fires 20 army officers over civilian deaths (LA Times)

Colombia fires 27 army officers in probe of civilian deaths (Miami Herald)

Yes, the precise number of officers fired seems uncertain - or perhaps it's rising, I'm not sure.

Apparently, these deaths are euphemistically known as "false positives". BoRev calls it like it is: state terrorism.

It is a positive that this is coming out into the open though and being acknowledged by President Uribe - somewhat of a blow to impunity. Let's see how the investigation progresses.

Argentina: Obtaining DNA of Disappeared Children

The DNA results of samples taken from sheets, clothes, and toothbrushes will now be confirmed, according to Pagina/12. The Supreme Court judges have now reached a majority on the subject, although not all of them have yet given their decision. This is with respect to the ongoing attempts to identify children of the disappeared who were brought up in ignorance of their identity. Not all of them have agreed to undergo blood tests, so the Grandmothers and their legal advisors have explored different methods of confirming their identity.

At stake is the issue of whether

"on the one hand, the State may oblige a person to find out their true identity; if obtaining genetic material (whether from hair or saliva) without consent is a violation of privacy, and if, moreover, if this material may be used in a court case which could involve the adopted parents."

In June this year, the attorney general Esteban Righi maintained that it is an obligation of the State "to investigate and clarify the historical truth about the crimes against humanity of the forced disappearance of persons" and that, with this aim, it is necessary to adopt "all means" possible even though this implies "the intrusion of state institutions charged with the investigation into the freedom, the privacy, the private life and the integrity of persons, including those who are not accused."[...] Guillermo Prieto had claimed that "no biological material which is capable of confirming identity (...) may be used without the consent of the person to which it belongs". Righi responded that with this criterium it would be impossible to judge cases of murder and rape.

(Translation mine)

Para obtener el ADN por otros medios (Pagina/12)

Blog Round-Up

Public Prosecutor's Office presents declassified documents from the US embassy in Lima (Fujimori on Trial)

Greg Weeks reviews another book which might find its way onto my Christmas list, this time dealing with Chilean dictator Pinochet: Heraldo Munoz's The Dictator's Shadow (Two Weeks Notice)

In Colombia, The FARC answers a letter (Plan Colombia and Beyond), and

Flor Díaz is a great dancer, mother of four children, health promoter, devout Catholic, and is serving six-and-a-half years in prison for “rebellion.”

Dancing in Prison (Community Action for Justice in the Americas)

Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón Garrido

I’m afraid that far from resolving the problem, Plan VRAE is going to provoke greater problems and distrust in the region. In circumstances in which the remnants of the Peruvian Communist Party – Shining Path (PCP-SL) are a completely different entity than the entity we knew before, under the leadership of Abimael Guzmán (today in prison). It’s an entity very joined to economic activities, with capacity of territorial manipulation and control, and therefore strongly linked to the organized trafficking rings, who charge quotas on legal and illegal activities like hydrocarbons, forest industry and contraband. And it allows them to take the advantage of all of the shortcomings and omissions that the Peruvian State incurs at the moment of creating a presence in the VRAE.

Upside Down World interviews the Peruvian lawyer on topics covering the Shining Path, the 'war on drugs' and the presence of American troops in Ayacucho.

Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón

Argentina: Road to Democracy

Clarin has started a special section on its website to commemorate the return to democracy in 1983, twenty-five years ago. I particularly like the images of the front pages from the time, it looks like they'll be updating them daily. Here it is (in Spanish):

1983: El camino hacia la democracia