Former Drug Lord Faces Prison For Murder

January 18, 2011

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Former drug lord Don Mario in police custody (Colombia Reports)

BOGOTA, Colombia – Former drug lord, Daniel Rendon Herrera, or “Don Mario,” was convicted Monday and sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder of an attorney. Don Mario was convicted for aggravated homicide, kidnapping and conspiracy.

According to a judge in the central Colombian city of Villavicencio, “Don Mario” ordered the kidnapping and murder of attorney Jose Absalom Achury Florez. This occurred while Mario was the paramilitary leader of the drug gang “Los Urabeños.”

The attorney was kidnapped by paramilitary officers from the town of Granada, Meta, in May of 2003. He was found dead 11 days later in his car 10 miles from where he was kidnapped.

Late last month, Colombian officers dismantled Mario’s drug operation, capturing seven of its members in two northwestern provinces. Alleged gang leader Luis Eduardo Vargas, alias “Pipon,” who is accused of committing hundreds of crimes in the region and of smuggling drugs to the United States via Central America is one of the members said to be detained.

Mario has been in custody since April, 2009 and the Colombian Supreme Court in March denied a request for his extradition from the United States, which accused him of providing material support to a terrorist organization and of conspiring to import, manufacture, possess and distribute cocaine in the United States. More than 3,000 homicides and other crimes, including forced displacement and disappearance, have been attributed to the Mario’s gang.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports – “Don Mario” Sentenced to 17 Years in Jail – 18 January 2011

Colombia Reports- Authorities Dismantle “Don Mario’s” Gang – 31 December 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Colombia Busts Gang Linked to Notorious Drug Lord – 31 December 2010

UK Court Finds Bread & Breakfast Owners Discriminated Against Gay Couple

January 18, 2011

By Ricardo Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

PENZANCE, England – A Bristol County Court has ruled against two bed and breakfast owners for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a bed, holding that such a refusal constituted discrimination. The Court awarded the couple 1,800 pounds (about $2,900) each in damages, reported Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which supported the gay couple’s claims.

Peter and Hazel Bull, the couple who own and run the bed and breakfast in Cornwall, England, insisted that they had a long-standing policy refusing to allow all unmarried couples to share a room due to their strict Christian beliefs.

Mrs. Bull offered support for their 24-year-old policy by stating that even her brother and his female partner were not allowed to share a room in the bed and breakfast due to her strict religious beliefs.

The Christian Legal Centre, legal counsel to the Bulls, said that “the Bulls made it clear that they did not hold any hostility towards homosexuals and applied their policy of ‘only giving double rooms to married couples’ regardless of sexual orientation.

But Judge Andre Rutherford ruled against the Bulls, holding that they discriminated against Martyn Hall and Steve Preddy on the ground of sexual orientation and in violation of British equality law.

After the judgment, the Bulls stated they are considering an appeal. “We are obviously disappointed with the result,” they said. “Our double-bed policy was based on our sincere beliefs about marriage, not hostility to anybody,” they added.

Judge Rutherford also made a point to announce that he believed the Bulls. “I am quite satisfied as to the genuineness of [their] beliefs and it is, I have no doubt, one which others also hold,” he said. The Judge, however, refused to accept the defense because the Bulls’ views are not “those accepted as normal by society at large.”

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, a British gay-rights group, supported the ruling. “You can’t turn away people from a hotel because they’re black or Jewish and in 2011 you shouldn’t be able to demean them by turning them away because they’re gay either,” he said.

For more information please see:

CNN – Christian B&B Owners Discriminated Against Gays, UK Court Finds – January 18, 2011

THE FREETHINKER – Judge Rules Against Christian Fundie B&B Owners Who Turned Away a Gay Couple – January 18, 2011

SKY NEWS – Gay Couple Win B&B Discrimination Case – January 18, 2011

Survivors of Brazil’s Worst Natural Disaster Struggle Without Government Aid

January 17, 2011

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Mudslides have ravaged Brazil, killing over 600. (Photo courtesy of ABC)

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil—More than 600 people are thought to be dead after severe floods and dangerous mudslides that occurred on January 13 in Brazil. Today, numerous survivors are struggling to endure without much-needed help from their government. At least 14,000 people are believed to be homeless after what is already being called the country’s worst natural disaster.

Rain continues to fall on affected areas, making bad conditions even worse. According to the Associated Press, about 225 federal police officers are working to enforce order and fire departments have reported deploying 2,500 rescue workers. But the poor weather conditions have blocked roads and many areas are unreachable, leaving injured or isolated citizens without aid.

In some areas, the police officers do little more than stand and watch as survivors haul supplies to other neighborhoods in need. Sgt. Luciano Comin, dressed in a neat, clean uniform, said, “Our function here today is to avoid looting.”

Survivors like Wanderson Ferreira de Carvalho are trying everything in their power to stay alive and help others in need. He told the Associated Press that 23 of his family members had perished in the disasters, including his wife and 2-year-old son. Still in a state of shock, he worried about friends and neighbors who remain isolated because of flooded roads.

Carvalho, like other survivors, has been exhausting himself carrying supplies (food, water, blankets) long distances over flooded paths in hopes of saving other victims. “We have to help those who are alive,” he stressed. “There is no more help for those who are dead. I’ve cried a lot and sometimes my mind goes blank and I almost forget what happened. But we have to do what we must to help the living.”

Many residents have expressed doubt that the government will ever attempt to render any aid; they have depended instead on their own willpower and the kindess of friends and relatives. “It has been four days [since the disasters struck],” one survivor said. “The president has flown over, I saw on TV. Is it taking them this long to get organized?” Another citizen, who carried supplies for herself, her mother and infant daughter, accused, “Where is the government? What are they doing? This is shameful.”

President Dilma Rousseff has assigned $60 million in aid but only half of that amount will arrive in local accounts by Monday, six days after the disasters.

The mudslides struck a mountainous area 900 square miles in size, 40 miles north of Rio.

For more information, please see:

NY Times-Rain Hampers Search After Brazilian Mudslides-16 January 2011

AP-Brazil slide survivors left to fend on own-16 January 2011

Examiner-Stories of horror as flood survivors in Brazil without government aid-15 January, 2011

SADC Tribunal Orders Zimbabwe to Pay Torture Victims

January 16, 2011

By Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

WINDHOEK, Nimibia- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia has ruled against Zimbabwe and ordered them to pay compensation to torture victims who settled their cases against the country between 2003 and 2007. The case was brought before the SADC in 2009 by 12 victims alleging Zimbabwe had refused to pay the judgments awarded them by Zimbabwe’s High Court, which total almost seventeen million US dollars. The judgment, given by SADC Justice Arrirange Govindasamy Pillay, reads in part:

We hold, therefore…that the Respondent (government) is in breach of [. . .] the treaty in that it has acted in contravention of various fundamental human rights, namely the right to an effective remedy [and] the right to have access to an independent and impartial court or tribunal and the right to a fair hearing.

All the victims originally sued and were awarded damages after the High Court ruled that they had been victims of state sponsored violence and torture carried out by state agents. The claims stem from election violence that occurred approximately eight years ago. The injuries range from gun shot wounds to paralysis and beatings. One victim, Kerina Gweshe, was awarded nearly one million US dollars after her and her husband were assaulted by soldiers in 2003. In court documents from the original suit, Gweshe stated that soldiers broke into her home during the early morning hours, cut the telephone lines and beat Gweshe and others in her home. During the course of the assault, Gweshe’s arm was broken when she raised it to defend against a soldier who was trying to hit her with a chair. At one point, a soldier put the barrel of a gun in Gweshe’s mouth and demanded money.

The Zimbabwean government did not defend the case at the tribunal hearing, asserting that besides the tribunal being illegitimate, the State Liability Act protects the state and its assets from being attached to pay damages. As part of his ruling, Justice Pillay stated that the “State Liability Act is a relic of the legal regime which was pre-constitutional and placed the state above the law.” Even though Zimbabwe is a SADC treaty signatory, the current regime does not recognize its judicial power. President Robert Mugabe and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa have publicly called the rulings ‘null and void’ and Zimbabwe’s High Court has denied the authority of the Tribunal’s land reform rulings. In a broadcast this week on SW Radio Africa, analyst Professor John Makumbe said the government’s actions are “a major threat to the cohesion of the region, because it makes the Tribunal superfluous. [. . .] I can’t see how any other member state will abide by the Tribunal if Zimbabwe disregards it and gets away with it.”

For more information, please see;

Zimbabwe Independent- Zim Should Compensate Violence Victims–Tribunal– 13 Jan., 2011

ZimOnline- Landmark SADC Torture Ruling– 15 Jan., 2011

The Zimbabwean- SADC Court Says Zim Government Undermining Rule of Law– 15 Jan., 2011

Law and Justice Zimbabwe- 06-HH-028 Kerina Gweshe vs Minister Of Defence– 15 Sept., 2006

UNITED STATES RESUMES DEPORTATION OF HAITIANS DESPITE RISK

January 16, 2011

By Erica Laster Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States – The mass deportation of Haitians from a number of countries has caused various human rights groups to take action. Six Miami and Washington based human rights groups filed a petition to halt Haitian deportation by the United States with the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Given the cholera epidemic and the civil unrest, human rights groups are attempting to stem the flow of Haitians back to the quake ravaged country.

Police take fingerprints of Haitians facing deportation. Photo courtesy of Public Radio International.

Over 350 Haitians have been placed in detention centers in the United States since the Administration announced their decision to resume deporting detainees back to Haiti. While the Obama administration indicated that deportation would extend to Haitians who have finished serving time for violent crimes, other Haitian families are terrified at the implications and repercussions.

On the condition of anonymity, one father spoke about his families struggle to which led them to the United States. Speaking in Creole, Fritz explained that his family traveled to the U.S. after the January earthquake to survive.

“We should not be having to look at families and telling them we don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know if they are going to be sent back to Haiti, we don’t know if they are going to be given work permits so they can support their families,” says Cheryl Little, immigration advocate of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Amnesty International also took action against the Dominican Republic, urging the country to cease the deportation of Haitians which they argue would lead to grave human rights violations.

In the past week, 950 Haitians have been deported out of the country. Javier Zuñiga, Amnesty International’s Senior Advisor believes “Haiti is still recovering from a devastating natural disaster. Instead of forcing people back to a desperate situation, the Dominican Republic and other countries should be stepping up their efforts to help Haiti and its people.”

Those facing deportation will be subject to harsh conditions and will likely be placed in detention centers upon their arrival. 48 Haitians placed in such centers have died in their holding cells. Over tens of thousands of immigrants living and working in the United States are Haitians who do not have legal permission to remain in the country.

While Haitians may apply for Temporary Protective Status (TPS), many have stopped applying despite the January 18 deadline. Over 1 million Haitians still remain homeless and without proper sanitation in Haiti.

The Department of Homeland Security has refused to comment on the situation.

For More Information Please Visit:

Caribbean News Now – Rights Groups Petition U.S. To Stop Haitian Deportations – 15 January 2011

Amnesty International – Dominican Republic Must Stop Forcible Deportation of Haitians – 7 January 2011

Public Radio International – U.S. Resumes Haitian Deportation – 14 January 2011