Argentina round-up

Here's a bit of a round-up from Argentina over the past few days.

See here for the text of the press conference at the Abuelas offices.

IPS examines the response to the discovery of Guido Montoya Carlotto (Ignacio Hurban). Interesting stuff as always, although I have to say "speechless" doesn't seem that appropriate given the rate my Twitter feed has been moving the past week ;-)

The BBC looks at the "Guido effect", with a jump in calls to the Grandmothers - in Spanish or English. 

English-speakers can read about the press conference with Guido and Estela here, and check out the piece by Uki Goñi in Time; I like his description of Argentina as "exploding with joy".

...And wait, there's a non-Guido story! Bolivia has extradited an Argentine ex-officer, Jorge Horacio Paez Senestrari, accused of crimes against humanity.

Bolivia: Military Agrees Archive Access

This story is from a couple of weeks ago now, but I haven't seen much about it so I thought it was worth mentioning. Apparently the Bolivian military has declared that it is ready to comply with an order to open its dictatorship-era files - let's hope they see it through.

Bolivian military agrees to open dictatorship-era files (Journalism in the Americas)

News/Blogging Round-Up

Bolivia

"Inspectors discovered that former Gen. Luis Garcia Meza had installed a sauna, gymnasium, ping pong table, dining room and even a barbecue grill in his quarters at the Chonchocoro prison."
Bolivia Jailer Ousted over Favors for Ex-dictator (NY Times)

According to someone who REALLY knows, this is why Evo Morales should win the Nobel Peace Prize (IKN)

Brazil

Brazilian former political prisoners call for creation of Truth Commission (Mercopress)

Uruguay

Here's an update to my post on the Graf Spee which has got quite a lot of hits recently. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has been expressing the opinion of his nation about the appropriate use of the wreckage:
Germany wants "Graf Spee" Nazi eagle displayed in a museum (Mercopress)

Bolivia: Military Refuses Full Disclosure

Via Argentina's Pagina/12 comes a report on Bolivia's armed forces, which had been ordered to submit some of their archives to a court.

The documents relate to three cases of forced disappearance which occurred in 1980-81 during the dictatorship of Luis García Meza.

The armed forces have produced a list of military personnel for the judge, but this does not go far enough, since the order was for more detailed information.

"We are going to continue fighting until the armed forces comply with the law, and don't just produce the 1980 archives, but the ones they have from 1964 onwards, when they started to disappear 170 people," added Urquieta [president of Asofamd, an association of relatives of the disappeared].
The family members of the disappeared are demanding that president Evo Morales intervene to force the military to reveal the dictatorship archives. "We have received declarations of support and interest from the government, but when it comes down to it there is no political will. This doesn't explain why, as president Evo Morales is head of the armed forces, he doesn't instruct them to proceed with opening up the documents," said Erbol María Soledad Quiroga, daughter of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz [a disappeared journalist and writer]. [trans mine]

Archivos escondidos (Pagina/12)

Bolivia: Arce Gomez Deported

Ex-colonel Luis Arce Gomez has been deported to his native Bolivia after serving a fifteen year sentence for drug trafficking in the US.

Arce Gomez was formerly Minister of the Interior in Bolivia's 1980-81 dictatorship. The military perpetrator, who counted Nazi Klaus Barbie among his acquaintances and once issued a notorious warning that opponents should "walk around with their wills under their arms", is now a shadow of his former self as he embarks on a thirty year prison sentence.

Bolivian President Evo Morales welcomed the development and thanked the United States for their cooperation.

Luis Arce-Gomez Deported to Bolivia (Guardian)

U.S. Deports Ex-Bolivian Cabinet Minister Convicted of Drug Trafficking (Miami Herald)

Dictatorship-Era Repressor Arrives in Bolivia after Deportation (Latin American Herald Tribune)

News Round-Up

Just two links this evening:

The Fading Shadow of Brazil's Dictatorship (Countries at the Crossroads)

Genocide Trial Against Bolivia's Ex-President Gets Under Way (Impunity Watch)

News/Blog Round-Up

Spain Opens Probe of 1989 El Salvador Jesuit Killings (Expatica)

Classic Latin American Film Studies in Honour of Mario Benedetti (Film Studies for Free)

Bolivia Ex-Leader's Trial Opens (BBC)

There's a new photography exhibition in Lima:


And finally, Peruvian blog utero de marita is pointing out that the Unique Register of Victims is underfunded and desperately short of cash. This is important since without being entered in the register, Peruvians who were themselves tortured or injured during the conflict, or who lost close relatives, cannot be compensated. Right now, only around half the total number of victims are entered in the register, so clearly the government needs to keep supporting it.

Latin America: Truth Commission Resources

Argentina:
Comision Nacional sobre la Desparicion de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persions, CONADEP, 1983)
Report entitled "Nunca Mas" (Never Again)

Bolivia: Comision Nacional de Investigacion de Desaparecidos (National Commission of Enquiry into Disappearances, 1982)
Commission dissolved early without producing a report, see here

Chile: Comision Nacional de Verdad y Reconciliacion (National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, known as the Rettig commission, 1990)
Report here in English, here in Spanish
Comision Nacional sobre Prision Politica y Tortura (National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture, known as the Valech commission, 2003)
Report here in Spanish

Ecuador: Comision "Verdad y Justicia" (Truth and Justice Commission, 1996)
More information here
Comision de la Verdad (Truth Commission, 2007)
Official site here

El Salvador: Comision de la Verdad para El Salvador (Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, 1992)
Report: De la locura a la esperanza: la guerra de 12 años en El Salvador
From Madness to Hope: the 12 year War in El Salvador

Guatemala: Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Histórico (Commission for Historical Clarification, 1997)
Report: Memoria del Silencio
Memory of Silence

Panama: Comision de la Verdad (Truth Commission, 2001)
More information here

Paraguay: Comision de Verdad y Justicia (Truth and Justice Commission, 2003)
Conclusion and recommendations of report in Spanish here

Peru: Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2001)
Final report here in Spanish, here summarised in English

Uruguay: Comisión Investigadora sobre la Situación de Personas Desaparecidas y Hechos que la Motivaron (Investigative Commission on the Situation of Disappeared People and its Causes, 1985)
More information here
Comision para la Paz (Peace Commission, 2000)
Scroll down to the bottom of the entry here to download a Word document of the final report in Spanish

Other sources of information

Brandon Hamber
David Gairdner, The Role of Truth Commissions in Political Transition in Chile and El Salvador (pdf)
Institutional Center for Transitional Justice
Strategic Choices in the Design of Truth Commissions
United States Institute of Peace

News Round-Up

It's been a hell of a week, work-wise, hence my online absence. I have a few days off now so should get quite a few posts in.

Here's a brief round-up of the week's memory-related news:

Chile sues Miami bank branches over Pinochet funds (Yahoo)

Colombia's Victims' Rights Act (Plan Colombia and Beyond)

Groundbreaking Arrest Made in Guatemalan Disappearance Case (Upside Down World)

Oh, and a slightly tangential but interesting article:

Evo Morales' op-ed in the New York Times:
Let Me Chew My Coca Leaves (NY Times, h/t Latin American Musings)

Bolivia: Torture Cells

I posted previously on Bolivia's discovery of cells under a government building which were apparently used for torture. A reader (and blogger) pointed me to a video of the underground rooms as they were visited by President Evo Morales. It's short but interesting to get a glimpse into the place,

Bolivia descubre los sotanos de la muerte (El Pais)

Bolivia/Argentina Testimonies

I was just browsing the Guardian Weekly online and found two pieces that may be of interest. In both cases, you don't often get to read such detailed first-person accounts (the result of interviews) in English.

The first is the story of Rufo Yanarico, a member of indigenous group the Red Ponchos in Bolivia.

The second is the testimony of Victoria Donda, the daughter of disappeared parents who only discovered her true identity as an adult.

Bolivia: Torture Cells Found

I learnt from Impunity Watch that evidence of torture during military dicatorships has been found in the basement of the Ministry of Government in Bolivia. The secret cells may contain human remains.

Clearly these rooms have been there under the ministry for decades and were not completely secret; it's always interesting to wonder who knew about them and how the decision was made to do something about them now. Apparently some human rights organisations have been lobbying for action. But the reaction of the Bolivian government now is exemplary, I think:
- They have brought in victims' organisations to help clarify exactly what was where
- They have asked for help from bodies from other countries experienced in this work, including the Madres de Plaza de Mayo
- They have announced plans to commemorate the victims with a memorial

Torture Rooms Discovered in the Minstry of Government (Impunity Watch)

Descruben sotanos de tortura en el ministerio de Bolivia (El Universal)

Sospechan que victimas de la dictatura estan enterrados en el sotano del Ministerio del Gobierno (Erbol)

Blog Round-Up

Duderino on the people's movement in Bolivia: Presente!

More on the recent activity of the Shining Path from Inca Kola news: This year's APEC meeting might get pretty explosive

Refugees in Ecuador: Organizing for Human Rights (Upside Down World)

Blog Round-Up

Other stuff worth reading today...

Richard Grabman recalls the iconic image of black power: The other fortieth anniversary in Mexico (The Mex Files)

Tim blogs on poverty for Blog Action Day (Tim's El Salvador Blog)

Otto is trying on his 007 suit (well... kind of): Spooks After Bolivian Peace Corps Mutineers (Inca Kola News)

And there's a sombre piece from Stuart Schussler at Upside Down World on the struggles of Colombian refugees in Ecuador: Refugees in Ecuador: Putting Neo-Liberalism to the Test

Cultural Sunday

The Navy Mechanics' School [ESMA] is no longer a school for marines nor a clandestine centre for torture and death. Yet each corner of the neutral military edifice, even the fragrance of the flowering magnolias, is impregnated with its history.

Musician Liliana Felipe is an Argentine who moved to Mexico in 1976 (Mexico was a popular destination for exiles, people who fled the military dictatorship. It was far enough away to be relatively safe but had the obvious advantages of a shared language, etc). She has returned to Buenos Aires to perform a concert in the ESMA, the former clandestine detention centre now turned "place of memory".

Ganarle a la ESMA a fuerza de memoria (Pagina/12)

An academic symposium and exhibition are commemorating 80 years since the publication of Seven Essays on the Interpretation of Peruvian Reality, Jose Mariategui's classic text (which, i hang my head in shame and admit I have never done more than flick through, but I should try to remedy that). Mariategui was a key inspiration for Abimael Guzman and the Shining Path - whose name is derived from a quote of his about following the shining path to revolution - but I suspect he would have utterly horrified at the interpretation of his works that led to the slaugher of tens of thousands of indigenous Peruvians.

Anyway, the symposium is taking place on the 2 and 3 October at the Universidad Ricardo Palma in Lima, and the exihibition is being run by the Universidad de San Marcos and is in their cultural centre, the Casona de San Marcos, from 2 to 23 October, with free entrance.

Siete ensayos, 80 años después (La Republica)

Finally, there is an application underway to have the Qapaq Ñan, the network of Inca roads which cover the Andean region, declared a UNESCO world heritage site. It would be the only such site to encompass six different countries - Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

Qapaq Ñan, patrimonio de la humanidad (La Republica)

Bolivia: Comparisons with Chile's 9/11

As illustrated by the front page of Argentina's Pagina/12 today, comparisons are being drawn between the situation in Bolivia and that of Chile in 1973, with some calling the violence in the Andean nation an attempted coup. See also Abiding in Bolivia.

News: Bolivia and Chile

At least twenty-five people are dead as the result of political violence. It is unclear if the nation will be able to steer clear of open civil war. The Bolivian and U.S. governments have taken turns kicking one another's ambassadors out of the country. The Presidents of virtually every nation in South America are convening in an emergency summit in Chile on Monday morning, with one of them calling this moment the biggest threat to a democracy on the continent since the bloody coup that installed Augusto Pinochet in power there in 1973.

For updates on the situation in Bolivia, check out Abiding in Bolivia, Machetera, Inca Kola news, and the Democracy Center (where the citation above comes from).

Aside from that, the New York Times has an article on Chile's sexual revolution. It's a slightly odd article that seems to be attempt to be morally disapproving and also faintly titillating. OK, that in itself is quite a common feature of the press, but considering that teens making out is not in itself really newsworthy... Anyway, there are a few interesting points made:

“We are not the children of the dictatorship; we are the children of democracy,” said Michele Bravo, 17, at a recent afternoon party. “There is much more of a rebellious spirit among young people today. There is much more freedom to explore everything.”

The parents and grandparents of today’s teenagers fought hard to give them such freedoms and to escape the book-burning times of Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. But in a country that legalized divorce only in 2004 and still has a strict ban on abortion, the feverish sexual exploration of the younger generation is posing new challenges for parents and educators.

In tangle of young lips, a sex rebellion in Chile (seriously, what is that headline?! NY Times)

Bolivia: News

Although Bolivia is principally in the news today for expelling the US ambassador, two other stories caught my eye:

Nazi-era photos surface in Bolivia (BBC)

On September 9th a group of approximately 50 vandals entered by force, completely sacked and set on fire the offices of the Center for Juridical Studies and Social Investigation (CEJIS) in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Eastern Bolivia.
Bolivia: Violent groups take over human rights organisation (Upside Down World)

News Round-Up

So tell me, was I the last person to find out about Google Reader? I've only been using for a few weeks, but it's such a convenient way of keeping track of all your favourite blogs. Since most of the sites I'm interested in are based in the Americas, and I'm in Europe, a lot of updating goes on while I'm already in bed, so I wake up to a load of interesting new posts. This morning my Reader gave me the following gems:

- A slideshow of Pisco a year on from the devastating earthquake, from Peru21

- the prospect of Ecuador enshrining the rights of the natural world in its new constitution, from Ecuador Rising

- concerning articles and links about human rights abuses in Colombia, from IPS and Plan Colombia and Beyond

- and, (via The Mex Files) Aymara hiphop from Abiding in Bolivia (who knew?)

Latin America: Forced Disappearances

The Inter-American Court on Human Rights is dealing with cases of forced disappearance from Honduras, Colombia, Bolivia, Panama and Argentina.

"In the history of human rights abuses, disappearances are not new. But the systematic and reiterated manner in which they have been used as a weapon designed to bring about not only the actual disappearance of certain persons but to generate a generalised state of anxiety and insecurity is a relatively recent development," said Ventura.

In Latin America, forced disappearance has been used with "exceptional intensity" in recent decades, he added, clearly referring to the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s.

This is the key to the practice of forced disappearance: it controls the whole of society by making people afraid to agitate, afraid to protest, afraid to gather even for peaceful reasons, to mention anything controversial, to walk the streets at night... in short, it creates fear of public life and tears apart the social fabric. Although the figures for disappearances are nothing like they were in the horror years of the late 1970s, any number is clearly too high, and this is a practice which, as this article proves, persists across the continent.

Inter-American Court Focuses on Forced Disappearances (IPS)