Argentina & Brazil agree on archive exchange

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)

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)

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2014/01/04/1649024/denuncian-peligro-de-cierre-de.html#storylink=cpy

Open letter by academics protesting against the possible closure of the park (Facebook)

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)

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)

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)

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. 

Pintemos nuestra memoria

You can hear one of the participants in the project discussing his grandfather and his drawing in this video in Spanish with English subtitles:

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).

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

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. 

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

Argentina judges civilians involved in dictatorship

Spanish daily El País has a very good article on the prosecution of civilians involved with the military dictatorship in Argentina - or, as it is sometimes known nowadays, the civil-military dictatorship.

In 2013, 16 non-uniformed people were convicted of crimes from the "dirty war" period, up from nine in 2012. 142 people, including those 16, were convicted last year.

Of those 16, eight of them were involved in the abduction and illegal adoption of stolen babies, six were intelligence officials, one was a doctor involved in the treatment of pregnant detainees, and one was a lawyer.

Of the 2,335 people involved in current cases, 272 of them are civilians. Around 53 of those worked in the judicial system. 32 were judges, but only one of those - Víctor Brusa - has been sentenced to date. Brusa was found guilty in 2009 because he visited the clandestine detention centres. Other are being investigated or about to be tried for dismissing the petitions for information from the families of disappeared people, collaborating in the concealment of bodies, giving false causes of death on death certificates, complicity in the stealing of babies, and so on.

Argentina juzga a los civiles involucrados en delitos de la dictadura militar (El País)

A look ahead to human rights trials in Argentina this year

Pagina/12 provides us with an overview of upcoming human rights trials in 2014.

At least 105 alleged perpetrators will stand in the dock this year in cases involving a total of 663 victims. 11 trials already have a confirmed start date.

Among them, a trial in Buenos Aires starting in February will look at the atrocities committed in the detention centre El Vesubio (see here).

The biggest trial planned for this year will open on 17 February in Mendoza with 41 accused, including five members of the judiciary. One of them is Otilio Romano, who attempted to flee justice and was extradited from Chile.

At least four trials are set to begin in March, including in Rosario and Santa Fe.

Full details:
Once juicios en gateras (Pagina/12)

"Escrache" is word of the year for Fundéu BBVA

The foundation Fundéu BBVA has chosen escrache as its word of 2013. Escrache refers to demonstrations held in front of the homes of public figures - in particular, in the Argentine context, it refers to the public shaming of dictatorship-era human rights abusers. There is a corresponding verb, escrachar, which has twin meanings of break/destroy and photograph. This fits in well with the public nature of escraches, which are centred on making visible the presence of perpetrators in civil society. HIJ@S, the organization of children of the disappeared, use the motto "Si no hay justicia, hay escrache" (If there's no justice, there is escrache). The Fundéu BBVA notes that the term has migrated from Argentina and Uruguay to Spain. In Chile, an escrache is known as a funa, and in Brazil, it's an esculacho.

Incidentally, I've never seen the word translated into English, it is usually retained in Spain and explained, but if anyone has suggestions for a good translation, please leave a comment.

Escrache, palabra del año para la Fundéu BBVA (Fundéu BBVA)
La política y la lingüística (Pagina/12)