Argentina: Banned Songs List Declassified

Argentina's Federal Broadcasting Committee (COMFER) has declassified a list of 223 songs and artists which were banned for public dissemination between 1969 and 1982. Among the Argentine names that one might expect - such as Charly Garcia - Queen and John Lennon also make the blacklist.

COMFER issues songs list censured[sic] by the last dictatorship (Telam)

Argentina/Paraguay: Military Dr to be Extradited

Former captain Norberto Atilio Bianco is to be extradited from Paraguay, where he fled last year, back to Argentina to face charges of crimes against humanity during the dictatorship. He has already been convicted of appropriating two children, who were registered as his own while in fact they were the offspring of disappeared persons. He is also accused of running a clandestine maternity ward in the military hospital of the Campo de Mayo in the late 1970s, where more than 35 women may have given birth before having their babies stolen.

Bianco, who is currently under house arrest, won't be sent back to Argentina immediately as he is likely to appeal the extradition order.

Extraditaran desde Paraguay a un medico represor (Critica Digital)

News Round-Up 4/08/2009

Argentina
Paying homage to the founder of the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (APDH; Permanent Assembly for Human Rights), Pablo Pimentel, on the 25th anniversary of his death.
La memoria de un luchador (Pagina/12)

Paraguay
Mengele's Undisclosed Location (The Atlantic)

Peru
Fujimori on Trial reports on the continuing, and unacceptable, delays to reparations:
Council asks for victims' reparations to be a priority (Fujimori on Trial)

Peru: Museum of Memory 'Must Emphasise Work of Armed Forces'

This article had me seeing red today:

"The Work of the Armed Forces Must be Emphasised in the Museum of Memory"

Chief of the Armed Forces, Francisco Contreras, has insisted that the sacrifice of the military must be given a 'dominant' role in the future Museum of Memory in Peru.

"We want reconciliation to be fair and to emphasise the work of the Armed Forces and to give the ones who defend the Nation a dominant place in this museum (...) We hope and request that the Museum of Memory gives us the place we deserve".

Contreras further said that the process of selecting photographs to present to the museum was continuing. This is a reference to the armed forces' belief that the Yuyanapaq exhibition is 'biased'. In fact, it shows all aspects of political violence, including members of the military murdered by Shining Path, and their relatives.

State agencies were responsible for around 45% of deaths in the civil conflict - that's over 30,000 people (total number of deaths estimated by CVR at 69,280) [stats here, p. 4-6]. The great majority of these were Quechua-speaking, indigenous citizens from Ayacucho and other rural regions. National institutions have a responsibility to protect civilians; instead they slaughtered them with impunity.

But now it's all unfair and they are not going to come off well in the museum so they go whining to the media that people need to be grateful? I find this incredibly infuriating, and the persecution complex ("oh, the human rights organisations are out to get me!") is just sickening. Please, let's take them at their word and cover the work of the armed forces during the 1980s and 1990s - the extrajudicial executions, the torture, the unfounded arrests, the disappearances, the total disregard for democracy and decency.

And, in case anyone misunderstand, let me spell this out (again): I am no fan of Sendero. I fully accept and agree that individual members of the armed forces, who were real people with families, were murdered by the two guerrilla groups, Shining Path and the MRTA. I fully condemn these crimes. And who cares what I think? The CVR condemned and condemns them too [here, note 53]. This should have its place in the museum. If only we could leave it at that. Sadly, these personal tragedies are overshadowed by the institutional failings which led to mass crimes against humanity committed by the military - and that, we must not forget.

"Se debe resaltar la labor de las Fuerzas Armadas en el Museo de la Memoria" (El Comercio)

Peru: Terrorist Attack on Base

Three policemen and two civilians are dead after an attack in the VRAE, presumably by Shining Path remnants. According to witnesses, around 60 terrorists attacked the police base.

The victims have been named as Carloto Soto Giuseppi, Javier Fernández Guevara, Prudencio Laurico Mamani, Meylin Tineo Acero and Milagros Acero. The two women who died were apparently relatives of Soto Giuseppi who happened to be in the station at the time. Minister Octavio Salazar has called on Peruvians to "close ranks" against terrorism.

Narco-terrorist group attacks police base in Peru causing 5 deaths (Living in Peru)
Peruvian rebels suspected in attach that kills 5 (AP)
Octavio Salazar pidio a todos los peruanos a "cerrar filas" contra el narcoterrorismo (La Republica)
"Si no los haciamos retroceder, moriamos (La Republica)
El enfrentamiento entre terroristas y policias habria durado una hora (El Comercio)
Atentado narcoterrorista deja cinco muertes en Ayacucho (La Republica)
Por lo menos 50 terroristas atacaron sede policial del poblado de San Jose de Secce (El Comercio)

Colombia: 'False Positives' Convictions

A Colombian judge has sentenced 15 soldiers to up to 30 years in prison for killing civilians and presenting them as rebels.
[...]
Among those sentenced on Saturday were an officer, three subordinates and six ordinary soldiers who were found to have taken part in the killing of the two restaurant workers and were sentenced to 30 years. Five others were sentenced to four years in jail for covering up details about the case.

Judge Jails 15 Colombian Soldiers (BBC)

News Round-Up 1/08/2009

Impunity is the key theme of today's news round-up.

Argentina
1)

Laura Taffetani, the lawyer for the Movimiento de los Chicos del Pueblo network, told IPS that "the prosecution service knows the group (of aggressors) come from a state security or paramilitary force because of the vehicles, weapons and technology they use."

She also complained that "the state should act, but isn't doing anything."

Kidnappings, Threats Target Child Rights Campaign (IPS)

2) This is a really interesting post by Lucas at Collective Memory Project on the memory of terrorist attacks carried out by the extreme left in Argentina. Such attacks did indeed take place, principally just before the military regime took over. Armed groups such as the Montoneros were quickly wiped out by the junta, which then went on to murder thousands more innocent civilians in the name of 'counterinsurgency'. Those who attempt to present this as a 'war' with two equally matched sides are quite frankly lying. Nevertheless, yes, there were victims of leftist political violence in the 1970s, and they are often forgotten.

Memory, truth and justice? (Collective Memory Project)


Colombia
IAPA denounces "scandalous impunity" in the killings of 16 Colombian journalists (Journalism in the Americas)

Guatemala
A great post sketching the legal position of disappearance as an ongoing crime:
Great news in a case of forced disappearance (Guatemala Solidarity Network)