Argentina/UK: Malvinas Memorial Service

For the past two Saturdays, the families of Argentine soldiers killed during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict have travelled to the Islands to witness the inauguration of a memorial there.

This weekend, the group brought with it a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, Argentina's patron saint, to form part of the memorial.

[The statue] completed the assembling of the cenotaph that stands as two stretched out arms made of blocks, embracing the 237 graves and crosses, and with engraved plaques with just the names (alphabetic order and no service or rank) of all 649 Argentines that went down during the South Atlantic conflict.

“Our Lady of Lujan, Mother of God will watch over the eternal repose of our brothers who fought the good fight for independence and national sovereignty” reads the inscription at the foot of the statue.

Memorial inauguration marks positive chapter in Falklands-Argentina relations (Mercopress)

Malvinas Families with statue of Virgin of Lujan leave for the Falklands (Mercopress)*

Malvinas victims' families hold ceremony in Darwin (Buenos Aires Herald)

* The image above is from this article and shows an exhibition of Malvinas crosses in the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires.

News Round-Up

Argentina

Jail ruling for 'dirty war' pilot (BBC)

Two Argentine "death flights" pilots face long-standing charges (MercoPress)

Malvinas Families grieve their beloved at Darwin Argentine cemetery (MercoPress)

Chile

Chile officers jailed for murder (BBC)

Colombia

Talking About Peace in the Middle of War (IPS)

Peru

Public Prosecutor Jose Pelaez: Fujimori's guilty plea a political strategy (Fujimori on Trial)

Apologies for lack of posting this week. It's unlikely to improve until after the weekend.

Brazil: Too Much Focus on Dictatorship Legacy?

Those who died and "disappeared" during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship in Brazil represent a mere "one percent of the agenda" of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights (SEDH), but captivate "99 percent of the attention of the press," complained Human Rights Secretary Paulo Vannuchi.

The Secretariat also seeks to ensure the rights of young people, gays, indigenous citizens, and others - but the newspapers only want to hear about disappearances and torturers.

This is an interesting point which I have considered before. Implicit in it seems to be the idea that these 'past' crimes distract from (more pressing?) current human rights issues. To this I would say that to posit torture and disappearances as 'past' and other forms of discrimination - against the indigenous, say - as 'present' is a false dichotomy. For one thing, disappearance is a continuous crime; a person is not disappeared and then the crime is over. As long as the whereabouts of the victim, dead or alive, is not resolved and the family has no answers, the crime continues and thus is continually in the present. That's why there is no statute of limitations for disappearances. That's not just my opinion - it's Article III of the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons.

For another, these 'other' forms of discrimination were often ALSO present during periods of state terrorism. It's known that Jews were disproportionately victimised during the Argentine dictatorship and that their torturers expressed specifically anti-Semitic sentiment. Racism against the indigenous population was a huge part of political violence in Peru and also allowed the mestizo middle classes to turn a blind eye to it for so long. So it is really impossible to separate the two.

Finally, although Brazil is hardly my specialist subject, I was under the impression that it not one of the best examples of a country that has thoroughly examined its past and rooted out impunity, so it's not as if the topic has been completely exhausted and it's time to move on.

I can understand Vannuchi's frustration at only a certain aspect of his work being publicised, however. Obviously there are many worthy causes out there. Perhaps he is right to call for more balance from the media, but I personally see it as a hopeful sign that these 'historical' abuses continue to receive attention. The country that forgets its past is condemned to repeat it, as the cliche goes...

Brazil: The Long Shadow of the Dictatorship (IPS)

Argentina: What Did All Those Security Guys Do During the Dictatorship?

Well, they need to earn a living, right? Many former soldiers who were involved in human rights abuses during the 'dirty war' are now working for private security firms, according to civil rights groups in Argentina. In general, there are dubious links between state security systems and private enterprise. Here is just one example of a criminal getting back into the security business:

[Lawyer María del Carmen] Verdú mentioned a case that highlighted the lack of oversight and enforcement of the laws prohibiting the hiring of private security agents with a dubious past: the case of Buenos Aires assistant police chief Jorge Ramón Fernández, found guilty of torturing to death 17-year-old Sergio Durán in 1992.
The legal ruling against Fernández, handed down in 1995, was the first to prove that the police continued to use the "picana" or electric shock device - a favourite torture technique used on political prisoners during the dictatorship.
Fernández was released from prison in 2003, just eight years after he was sentenced to life in prison. Four years later, CORREPI discovered that he was working for the Segur Part security firm, whose headquarters is located 100 metres from the police station where Durán was tortured to death and 200 metres from the courthouse in the Buenos Aires district of Morón. "The most amazing thing was that the Parole Board and Criminal Court of Morón knew he was working there," said Verdú.

Laws against such practices exist, but are poorly enforced - another aspect to impunity in Argentina.

Dubious Past? No Problem for Private Security Firms (IPS)

Argentina: Menem Charged in AMIA Cover-up

Former Argentine President Carlos Menem has been charged with covering up and destroying evidence related to the so-called 'Syrian connection' in the 1994 AMIA bombing. Specifically, he is said to have ordered the destruction of 54 cassettes containing evidence regarding the terrorist attack.

Also charged are his brother, Munir Menem, who was presidential chief of staff at the time, former federal judge Juan José Galeano, two intelligence chiefs and two police officers. Yes, one of the latter is Jorge "Fino" Palacios, who recently almost became head of the Buenos Aires police, until forced to withdraw due to this very controversy.

Procesan a Menem y otros ex funcionarios por irregularidades en la causa AMIA (Clarin)
Menem charged over bomb inquiry (BBC)
Former Argentine president Menem indicted for alleged "terrorist cover-up" (Mercopress)

Peru: Salomon Lerner Responds

Salomon Lerner, former head of the Peruvian truth commission (CVR) and current vice president of the commission on the museum of memory, is interviewed in the current issue of Caretas about the death threats he has been receiving. The whole thing is worth reading, but here is my translation of some key parts on recent events and Lerner's view of the importance of memory for Peru:

- Was there any prior warning of what happened last week? [the poisoning of
Lerner's dogs and death threats against him]
- There were prior incidents of harm. At the beginning of the year, my Wikipedia entry was changed to present me as one of the principal allies of the terrorists. I tried to change it and it was changed back. This is people who are linked to the fascist right, among whom many are young people. [...] I understand that it was a very right-wing youth who attacked my page, he has a blog and claims to be a follower of Karl Schmidt.
[...]
What happens is that sometimes, without meaning to, one becomes a symbol for something. To my misfortune, I have become a symbol for what they call 'caviares' and what were previously called 'civicos'.* [...] But it's not just that. It's a collection of manifestations against me and the CVR which some newspapers, which are not very democratically oriented, have been making for some time.
- You are referring to Expreso and La Razón?
- And Correo. I've gone public about the matter with the dogs so that these situations do not happen with impunity. They accuse me of playing the victim because of the situation with the book by Abimael Guzmán. I shouldn't buy those papers but I do. A bit of it is masochism and also to know where they are coming from.
- But anyone who has read Guzmán's book knows that it is directed against the CVR.
- I was talking to a friend and he said that I should write a book called The Misfortune of Not Being Loved. But it's not true, I have received solidarity, even from people who I don't know. Ollanto Humala, Alejandro Toledo, prime minister Velásquez Quesquén. The Minister of the Interior has been in touch. Even [defence minister] Rafael Rey had some kind words. I am grateful to all of them. There are other people who want to deceive some people and they use a phrase which is no more than ten words long: I'm really sorry about what is happening to Lerner. But I disagree with him that... And they give eleven reasons why I'm not much more than a criminal. This is hypocrisy, manipulation. I don't accept that sort of solidarity.
[...]
- Don't you think that the members of the CVR placed an emphasis on work surrounding Memory? Doesn't this just perpetuate the pain?
- I don't say that one should continually recreate the pain, but that one should process it. This is the only way to free oneself from it. Understanding what happened, mourning and then looking ahead. If we don't do that, we are going to leave a little stone in our shoe which won't leave us in peace. Memory prevents the threat of fanaticism and intolerance. The grand masters of intolerance were the senderistas and Guzmán is the king of intolerance. Those who say that the wounds are closed, what is it that they said when Guzmán wrote his book?: Remember what he did! [...]
- What did you think of the book?
- I haven't read it, I don't intend to read it, I'm free to not read it. I've spoken with Guzmán. Knowing the author, I really doubt the quality of his ideas.
[emphasis mine, trans mine]

'Es la Derecha Fascistoide' (Caretas)

*'Caviar' - a derogatory word for a left-winger, particularly an intellectual, urban left-winger who doesn't understand 'the real world'. Wikpedia suggests 'champagne socialist' as a translation.

Peru: Review of 'Tarata'

Rodrigo Bedoya has reviewed the new Peruvian film Tarata for El Comercio: read the full piece in Spanish here. He has reservations about the movie, which he sees as being better conceived then executed.

Por momentos la cinta busca ser una especie de “Greatest Hits” del terrorismo: arrestos extrajudiciales, intervención del ejército en universidades, coches bomba, desapariciones, toque de queda, entre otros. Al querer abarcarlos todos, la película se queda solo en la ilustración: ninguno de esos temas están tratados con la pausa o la tensión narrativa necesaria para que podamos sentirlos como reales. Una mayor concentración le hubiera servido al filme para que pueda trabajar mejor su propuesta.

Sometimes the film is trying to be a sort of "Greatest Hits" of terrorism: extrajudicial arrests, the intervention of the army in universities, car bombs, disappearances, curfews, among others. In trying to cover all of these, the film only remains an illustration: none of the themes is treated with the depth or narrative tension required for us to feel that it is real. A better focus would have allowed the film to deal with its premise in a better way. [trans mine]

"Tarata" y el cine peruano (Mil ojos)