Peru: RIP Carlos Ivan Degregori

I'm saddened to hear of the death of Carlos Ivan Degregori, one of the most important writers on the Peruvian conflict and one of the members of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. This is a great loss to Peruvian academia and human rights - as well, of course, to his family and friends. I had the honour of meeting him at a conference in Newcastle several years ago and was impressed both by his presentation and his friendly manner.

Leading anthropologist Carlos Ivan Degregori dies after long illness (Peruvian Times)
Falleció Carlos Iván Degregori, uno de los artífices del informe de la CVR (El Comercio)
Falleció Carlos Iván Degregori (La Republica)

Argentina: Pacto de Silencio

A short film on illegal adoption from Argentina (Spanish only):

Fujimori nunca mas

Argentina: Witness disappears, reappears

Last week, an important witness in an ongoing trial was kidnapped in Argentina. Víctor Martínez was a witness to the death of Bishop Carlos Horacio Ponce de León in a supposed car accident in 1977. Martínez disappeared on Monday and was found on Wednesday in a confused state, having apparently been drugged. According to his lawyer,

"He was taken by people we don't know. From what he was able to tell his wife, he was kept in a room. They didn't use force on him. He was told what to say. They gave him drugs, anti-anxiety pills, to keep him semiconscious."

This case is obviously concerning; I think there can be little doubt that Martínez was taken both as an attempt to disrupt this specific case and also as a threat to other witnesses, but it is heartening to see that the government acted swiftly, demanding his release and ordering security forces to search for him. This may have provoked his release. In another notorious case of recent years, the victim has not been so fortunate.

Argentine witness to bishop's killing freed by kidnappers (NY Times)
Argentine Dirty War witness kidnapped and released (NY Times)

Colombia: Impunity

A trailer for the film Impunity (Juan Jose Lozano and Hollman Morris).



Thanks to Narco News for drawing my attention to this.

News Round-Up

Argentina

President of the Grandmothers, Estela de Carlotta, has had a crucial day in court testifying about the disappearance and murder of her daughter. She has not yet found her disappeared grandchild.
Argentine rights leader testifies about daughter (AP)

Juan Peron is a lasting icon in his home country.
Argentina's Peron follows Che, goes commercial (AFP)

Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, has been sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity (he was already jailed for other crimes).
Argentina's last dictator gets life in prison (AFP)
Argentine de facto president following Falklands’ war defeat sentenced to life imprisonment (Mercopress)

Brazil

Relatives of former Brazilian president Joao Goulart have taken heart from the example of Chile, where the authorities are to reinvestigate the death of president Salvador Allende. Goular died in 1976 in Argentina, and his family suspect that he may have been poisoned by agents working as part of Operation Condor.
Investigation on Allende's death gives hope to relatives of former Brazilian leader (Mercopress)

Chile

Chile is to exhume the body of Salvador Allende again. His family still tend to believe that he did commit suicide, but they are going along with the renewed investigation.
Aiming to end a mystery, Chile will exhume Allende (AFP)

Colombia

A detailed article about the "false positives" scandal in Colombia, and the Mothers of Soacha group which is fighting for justice.

"The government say human rights lawyers pay us to say this, that we are liars, that we collaborate. But they are the liars. We respect the state, but we reject their criminal actions. I swear to you that this is true."

The devastation of Colombia's civil war (The Guardian)

El Salvador

A former defense minister of El Salvador, Eugenio Vides Casanova, is undergoing trial to decide if he will be deported from the US to El Salvador to face charges of torture
Torture trial starts for ex-El Saldavor official (AP)

Peru

A former Peruvian prime minister, Juan Carlos Hurtado, has given himself up after spending the last decade in hiding. Hurtado went into hiding in 2000 over corruption allegations during the Fujimori administration.
Wanted ex-prime minister turns himself in after 10 years in hiding (Peruvian Times)

United States

The US denies entry to a German journalist, Gabriele Weber, who specialises in South American human rights issues.
US denies visa to German investigative journalist (AP)
Children thefts in Argentina: German investigative journalist barred from the US (Mercopress)

Peru: Fujimori anniversaries

Several anniversaries collide this week. On 5 April 1992, Alberto Fujimori dissolved parliament in the so-called "self-coup" (auto-golpe), giving himself extraordinary powers and ushering in a new era of human rights abuses in Peru.
On 7 April 1999, he was convicted for some of the crimes committed during this period and sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Some people have been commemorating these events in Peru this week.

On Sunday, Alberto's daughter Keiko is standing in the presidential elections.

Daughter of disgraced president seeks to run Peru (AP)