News Round-Up

Argentina

Just in case there was any possibility of forgetting Evita...
Giant portrait of Eva Perón unveiled in Argentina ministry (Guardian)

Guatemala

Guatemala massacre trial begins (AFP)
Ex-soldiers link troops to Guatemala massacre (AP)

Peru

This is an update of a previous post of mine; the actual number of missing books may not sound that large in the great scheme of things, but as it says, these were selected, valuable works
932 books stolen from the National Library of Peru (Living in Peru)

This is a very interesting look back on Garcia's presidency as he leaves office:
Peru's Garcia leaves conflicts unresolved (AP)

News Round-Up

*Post updated to correct error in Peru section*

Argentina
The anniversary of the AMIA bombing causes the annual reconsideration of the case, this time with Iran making cooperative noises and the victims' groups responding with suspicion.
Jews: Argentina and Iran both failed in bomb probe (AP)
Jewish community complains lack of progress in AMIA bombing investigation (Mercopress)
Argentina welcomes Iran's offer on Jewish centre bombing inquiry (Guardian)

Chile
The investigation into Salvador Allende has found that he did indeed commit suicide. I don't think that this has surprised many people, but it is a positive result.
Chile can finally begin the process of healing (Guardian)
End of story: family confirms Chile’s former leader Allende committed suicide in 1973 (Mercopress)
Allende’s Death Was a Suicide, an Autopsy Concludes (NY Times)
Chilean president Salvador Allende committed suicide, autopsy confirms (Guardian)

Peru
Shining Path remants have killed two soldiers in the VRAE
Attack on military base leaves two soldiers dead (Peruvian Times)

In a postscript to the events at Majaz which I blogged about fairly extensively in 2009, Monterrico Metals has paid compensation to 33 Peruvians who had alleged mistreatment during a 2005 protest. The company did not admit liability, however.
Mining firm pays compensation to Peruvian mine protesters (Guardian)

*Updated to correct error* Peruvian president-elect Ollanta Humala has picked Salomon Lerner as his new prime minister. This is Salomon Lerner Ghitis, not to be confused (as I previously did) with Salomon Lerner Febres, former head of Peru's truth commission. So now I understand why my previous blog posts have seen a spike in hits, but unfortunately it's the wrong guy.
Leftist Humala picks centrists for Peru Cabinet (Reuters)
Free market champions named in Peru’s cabinet (Financial Times)

Uruguay

Former dictator Juan María Bordaberry has died.
Juan María Bordaberry obituary (Guardian)
Bordaberry's death yields conflicting emotions (COHA)
Juan Bordaberry, Who Led Uruguay in Dark Era, Dies at 83 (NY Times)

Argentina: AMIA anniversary

It's a big memory anniversary in Argentina, that of the AMIA bombing.

Even as recently as when I started looking at memory issues, this site would not have been imaginable. "Tweet de luto" (tweet of mourning) is a use of social networking for commemorative purposes, simple yet highly effective.

Peru: Humala meets De Szyszlo on Memory Museum

Peru's president-elect Ollanta Humala met with the head of the commission in charge of the memory museum (Lugar de la Memoria), Fernando de Szyszlo, this week. Humala expressed his commitment to the project and de Szyszlo reported that the future president had made "a good impression" on him.

Humala y De Szyszlo se reunieron y hablaron del Lugar de la Memoria (El Comercio)
Humala, De Szyszlo meet to discuss Memory Museum (Peruvian Times)

Peru: Accomarca suspect extradited

A Peruvian former army officer, Telmo Hurtado, has been extradited from the US to face trial over the 1985 Accomarca massacre. Hurtado has served jail time in Peru before, but was let out in the amnesty. When the amnesty law was annulled, he went to the US.

Hurtado bears the nickname 'butcher of the Andes'. Believe me, if your behaviour during the Peruvian conflict was brutal enough to earn you that kind of nickname, it was really brutal.

'Butcher of the Andes' faces trial in Peru (AFP)
"Butcher of the Andes" returned to Peru by Interpol (Living in Peru)
US extradites Telmo Hurtado to Peru over 1985 massacre (BBC)

Argentina: NEGATIVE

The results are out, and they're negative.

Yes, this is a sentence I had hoped not to write. The DNA of Marcela and Felipe Noble, the adopted children of Ernestina Herrera de Noble, has been compared against the samples in the Argentine national genetic database set up in the aftermath of the dictatorship, and no match has been found.

Of course, this does not mean that the Nobles are NOT children of the disappeared, as not every family has general material in the bank. There are still "irregularities" in the manner of their adoption. But there is still no concrete evidence of their biological families.

This is undoubtedly a blow for the Grandmothers in their most high-profile case. They have been fighting for this for a very long time and they undoubtedly believed (as do I, incidentally) that they had strong ground for their suspicion. They have called for investigations to continue. Associated Press explains how this could happen:

So far, the DNA of Marcela and Felipe Noble has been compared only to samples from the families of people known to have been detained in 1975 and 1976. While their official identity documents say they were born in March and July 1976, respectively, rights groups allege their adoptions were irregular and the birth dates could have been invented to obscure their origin.

Also, the National Gene Bank is constantly being updated with new samples despite the military junta's efforts to remove any trace of their opponents. This year alone the Grandmothers group sought court orders to open 40 more graves to collect more DNA.

"The National Bank of Genetic Data communicated last night that, in three of the 55 families whose genetic profile was compared to that of Marcela, it can't be determined whether or not there's a biological link with the young woman, and that parentage also could not be determined with one of the 57 families compared to the profile of Felipe," the Grandmothers announced Saturday.

"The genetic information of these three families must be completed to determine whether or not Felipe and Marcela maintain parentage with them," the group said, adding that many families don't know if their daughters were pregnant when they disappeared.

No DNA match for Argentine publisher's children (AP)

This is also explained in greater detail in Pagina/12 in an interview with the Abuelas' lawyer, Alan Iud:

"Tenemos que esperar el resto de los resultados" (Pagina/12)

Clarin, Argentina's largest circulation newspaper which is owned by Herrera de Noble, is predictably reporting the results as a victory against government persecution.

In a piece headlined "Ten years, four samples and unprecedented persecution", the paper describes the attempts to discover the truth about the Nobles' origins as "harassment" and claims that the two offered their DNA willingly as far back as 2003. It tracks the judicial to-ing and fro-ing that led to the failed DNA samples of last year, and eventually to these ones.

Diez años, cuatro muestras y una persecución inédita (Clarin)

Clarin group heirs DNA-test negative to 1975/76 families, victims of dictatorship (Mercopress)

Right-leaning paper La Nacion takes the same tack, writing in an editorial that the negative result is "proof" that the case was politically motivated and claiming that the government has attracted criticism "from all sides" for its role in the case.

Caso Noble Herrera: ADN negativo (La Nacion)
Unánime crítica de la oposición al Gobierno por el caso Noble (La Nacion)

I think it's a shame that this case has become inextricably tied up with the political situation in Argentina. To an extent it's inevitable as the issues are political, but the Abuelas' struggle for justice pre-dates the Kirchner regime (Nestor, as well as Cristina).

So there we have it: it's not quite the end of the story, as undoubtedly some investigations will continue, but a huge milestone has been passed in the Noble case, and they have not been definitively identified as disappeared children.

Argentina: Verdict in Vesubio Case

As promised in my post on Elisabeth Kaesemann, the verdict is in in the El Vesubio case. Although the camp commander died during the trial, two other former officers, Hector Gamen and Hugo Pascarelli, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Five former prison guards also got custodial sentences.

Sebastian Soler's son, now 41, clearly remembers the day his father and mother were kidnapped.

"A group of men entered the house breaking windows and doors," he said.

"They dragged my mother out to the street by the hair. They left me and my two siblings, ages four and six, with a neighbour and the next day she took us to our grandmother. We never knew anything more about my parents."

Argentina dictatorship officers get life in prison (Telegraph)

Life sentences given in Argentine torture trial (AP)

Vesubio: perpetua para dos militares (La Nacion)

El general y el coronel, de la casa a la cárcel (Pagina/12)