Venezuela: 'Caracazo' Victims Exhumed

Authorities began opening tombs of victims of 1989 riots in Venezuela today. The so-called Caracazo has an official death toll of 300, but the true figure is believed to be far higher. Symbolically, it is a significant memory event for Chavez's Bolivarian republic.

Relatives of the disappeared generally welcome the investigation but are understandably concerned that the remains will be under the care of the armed forces - the institution which killed the victims in the first place.

Tombs opened in Venezuela to identify riot victims (AP)
La fiscalia de Venezuela busca los restos de las victimas del 'Caracazo' (AFP)

News Round-Up

I was rather unexpectedly out of internet range for the last few days, so here is a round-up of some of the things that landed in my reader during that time: as usual, nothing cheerful from Colombia, I'm afraid.

Victims of Terrorism Speak Out (Colombia Reports)

5,849 People Reported Missing in Bogota (Colombia Reports)

Prosecutor General's Office Exhumes More Than 2,000 Bodies (Colombia Reports)

Yungay 1970-2009: Remembering the Tragedy of The Earthquake (Peruvian Times)

Mexico: Indigenous Rape Victims Fight Military Impunity (IPS)

Interview: Fujimori's Government and Venezuela's Support (Fujimori on Trial)

On International Women's Day

It's International Women's Day.
Do you perhaps wonder whether we still need a 'day' for women? Then perhaps you should take 7 minutes out of your day to hear the testimonies of the women raped in Haiti, and how the high rate of sexual violence stems back to the political violence in the country.

Here's a small selection of news stories for IWD, all from IPS:

Latin America: Everyone Pays for Domestic Violence

Venezuela: No Shelter for Women

Chile: Progress for Women, but Still a Yawning Gap

I have another, more memory-related post for today lined up, but first I'll just leave you with this quote:

BECAUSE our work is never done & under or unpaid or boring or repetitious
and we’re the first to get the sack
and what we look like is more important than what we do
and if we get raped its our fault
and if we get bashed we must have provoked it
and if we raise our voices we’re nagging bitches
and if we enjoy sex we’re nymphos
and if we don't we're frigid
and if we love women its because we cant get a real man
and if we ask our doctor too many questions we’re neurotic and/or pushy
and if we expect community care for children we’re selfish
and if we stand up for our rights we’re aggressive and unfeminine
and if we don’t we’re typical weak females
and if we want to get married we’re out to trap a man
and if don’t we’re unnatural
and because we still cant get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon
and if we cant cope or don’t want a pregnancy
we’re made to feel guilty about abortion
and for lots and lots of other reasons
we are part of the women’s liberation movement

News Round-Up

Peru:

The Public Prosecutor’s Office finished presenting final arguments for [the Fujimori] trial, reiterating its request for 30 years of prison and a reparation of 100,600,000 Peruvian soles (just over US$32 million) to victims — 100 million soles ($32 million) for the victims of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, and 300,000 soles (nearly $96,000) each for kidnap victims Gustavo Gorriti and Samuel Dyer.

Public Prosecutor Reiterates Request for 30-year Prison Sentence (Fujimori on Trial)

Peru's Attorney General narrowly escaped a murder attempt last weekend.

Police initially believed the attack was a carjacking gone wrong. The events of the attack, however suggest that the attack was an assassination attempt. An inquiry has begun into the shooting.

Peruvian Attorney General Survives Assassination Attempt (Impunity Watch)

Paraguay:

Paraguayan society is marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of former dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) amid uncertainty surrounding the loss of power of the Colorado Party, which ruled the country for 61 years.[...]

The Truth and Justice Commission, created by law in 2003, recorded 128,076 direct and indirect victims of the dictatorship, of whom 19,682 were arbitrarily detained, 18,722 were subjected to different forms of torture, 59 were executed and 337 disappeared.

Twenty Years of Transition (IPS)

Colombia/Venezuela:

Any evenhanded comparison of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments’ human rights records would have to note that, though Venezuela’s record is far from perfect, that country is by every measure a safer place than Colombia to live, vote, organize unions and political groups, speak out against the government or practice journalism.

But a new survey by FAIR shows that, over the past 10 years, editors at four leading U.S. newspapers have focused more on purported human rights abuses in Venezuela than in Colombia, and their commentary would suggest that Venezuela’s government has a worse human rights record than Colombia’s. These papers, FAIR found, seem more interested in reinforcing official U.S. policy toward the region than in genuinely supporting the rights of Colombians and Venezuelans.

Human Rights Coverage Serving Washington's Needs (NACLA)

Cultural Sunday

Venezuela: How Children Show their Community through Photography (Global Voices Online)

Stuart Archer Cohen's new novel imagines the rise of an urban insurgency in the United States and looks to Argentina for inspiration:
Argentina: The Creation of an Urban Guerrilla (Upside Down World)

And a documentary looks at one of the founders of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Chicha Mariani (the mother and mother-in-law of Daniel and Diana in Laura Alcoba's The Rabbit House)
Dolor y esperanza (Pagina/12)

News Headlines

Peru: Anti-terrorism prosecutor Julio Galindo is demanding that the leaders of the MRTA pay 100 million soles in reparations to the Peruvian state. It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will accept his plea:

Procuraduria pide que MRTA pague 100 millones de soles de reparacion civil (La Republica)

George Ciccariello-Maher comments on Venezuela's murderous "model democracy":

The Yumare Massacre, 22 Years on (Counterpunch)

Claudio Fuentes, director of FLACSO in Chile, is interviewed on the country's human rights situation and the perception of the armed forces:

Q&A: The Public Image of Chile's Post-Pinochet Military (IPS)

And, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that Argentina must bring its libel laws into line with international human rights legislation. The case was brought by CELS (Centre for Legal and Social Studies) on behalf of Eduardo Kimel, a journalist who was convicted of libel after criticising the actions of a judge presiding over a case concerning 'dirty war' perpetrators and the killing of Roman Catholic priests during the dictatorship.

Pagina/12 has a number of stories on the issue:

Para que la ley no se usa como mordaza (Pagina/12)

Una obligacion (comment by Horacio Verbitsky, journalist and President of CELS, writing in Pagina/12)

Seis meses para cambiar (interview with Andrea Pochak, assistant director of CELS)

Requisitos y antecedentes (interview with media lawyer Damian Loreti)

Venezuela: Postales de Leningrado

Thanks to The Latin Americanist for drawing my attention to this 2007 Venezuelan film, directed by Mariana Rondon, which deals with the Venezuelan revolutionaries of the 1960s as seen through the eyes of a child.



Postales de Leningrado