News

Mexican Government Legalizes Vigilantes

By Brandon R. Cottrell 
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America 

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – After months of implicit cooperation with rural vigilantes, the Mexican government formally signed an agreement today, which will allow the vigilantes to gain legal status.

In today’s agreement, Mexican vigilantes will legally join forces with the Mexican Military (Photo Courtesy: The Guardian).

Under the agreement, the vigilantes, or so called “self-defense groups” will be temporarily incorporated into the Rural Defense Corps and will be subject to regulation by the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force.  In incorporating with the Corps, the vigilantes will “cooperate with the troops activities being carried when they are asked to.”

Additionally, this agreement allows the vigilantes to join municipal police forces, which will allow them to protect their communities.  Prior to joining such forces, however, the vigilantes must be approved by the applicable city council.

The vigilantes must submit a list of their members to the Defense Department.  The vigilantes, who are heavily armed, may keep their weapons, provided that they register their weapons with the Defense Secretary prior to their individual incorporation.  The military will, however, give the groups “all the means necessary for communications, operations and movement.”

Though the government has admirable goals in solving the nation’s security problems, the legalization of the vigilantes comes with plenty of risks.  For example, consider that the government must enforce military discipline and instill respect for human rights and due process among more than 20,000 heavily armed civilians, then eventually disband them and send them back home.”  Instilling such respect is likely to prove difficult, as the Mexican Army itself has been accused of human right abuses during the current “war against organized crime.”

Furthermore, in other Latin American countries were vigilantes were legalized, the vigilantes morphed into state-backed militias, which carried out “widespread human rights abuses [such as] mass killings.”  For example in Guatemala, thousands of deaths were attributed to the army-backed Peasant Self Defense Patrols during the country’s civil war.  Claudia Samayoa, a human rights activist in Guatemala, said that this “cure is going to be worse than the disease” and that “it would be better not to go down that road, and instead strengthen law enforcement and the justice and public safety systems.”

However, there is optimism in such an arrangement, as the vigilantes, prior to legalization, “have seized a dozen towns terrorized by extortion, killings and rapes at the hands of the cartel’s gunmen.”  Additionally, the vigilantes are mostly pro-government and are dedicated to “ fighting against kidnapping, violence, and extortion by the cartels.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

AP News – Mexican Vigilante Legalization Plan Carries Risks – 28 Jan. 2014

Fox News Latino – Mexican Gov’t Signs Agreement With Vigilante Groups – 28 Jan. 2014 

Guardian Liberty Voice – Mexico – Three Sided Vigilante Standoff – 28 Jan. 2014 

Al Jazeera –Mexico Legalizes Vigilantes – 27 Jan. 2014 

 

German Newspaper Publishes Heinrich Himmler’s Letters and Photos

by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany –  Excerpts from a collection of photographs and approximately 700 letters and notes penned by Heinrich Himmler were published for the first time on Sunday.

A documentary on the collection will be premiered next month at the Berlin International Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of New York Daily News)

The German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, published parts of the collection in seven pages of its Sunday edition. The letters and notes are thought to be written by Himmler himself. Some of the pictures depict the Holocaust-era Nazi officer gently: posing with his family, and feeding a baby fawn.

The excerpts, which include Himmler’s love letters to his wife, will be a part of an eight-part series that the newspaper is planning to publish. According to the newspaper, two American soldiers found the collection at the end of the war in May 1945 inside of a safe in Himmler’s Bavarian home. Fast forwarding to the 1980’s, the collection surfaced again in Israel, in the possession of Chaim Rosenthal, a holocaust survivor. Rosenthal sold the collection in 2007 to Israeli film director Vanessa Lapa’s father, who gave them to Lapa.

Lapa then approached the German newspaper three years ago about the collection. The newspaper has since verified the authenticity of the collection by historians. Lapa will unveil a documentary that she directed on the Himmler collection at the Berlin International Film Festival next month.

Himmler’s wife, Marga, shared Himmler’s hatred of Jewish people, as they both regularly referred to Jews in derogatory terms in their letters to each other. In a letter dated June 21, 1928, Himmler wrote to Marga: “Don’t be upset about those Jews, good, good wife, if only I could help you.” Ten years later, Marga wrote in a diary entry dated Nov. 14, 1938, “Those Jews, when will that pack finally leave us so that we can enjoy our lives again.”

The collections document the progression of Himmler’s career from the beginning in the 1920’s, to the Holocaust of the 1940’s. Himmler does not explicitly write about the happenings of World War II. However, small quotes in the collection reveal his involvement, as when he writes to his wife “I’m going to Auschwitz, kisses, yours Heini.” Himmler committed suicide on May 23, 1945, in Lueneburg, Germany, after he was captured by British forces.

For more information, please see:

New York Daily News – German Newspaper Publishes Top Nazi Himmler’s Letters and Photos – 27 January 2014

AP News – German Newspaper Publishes Top Nazi’s Letters – 26 January 2014

Fox News – German Newspaper Publishes Top Nazi’s Letters – 26 January 2014

The Local – Caviar, Auschwitz, Love- Himmler’s Letters to Wife – 26 January 2014

Former President Alberto Fujimori Cleared in Peru Sterilization Case

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Peruvian prosecutors have decided not to file criminal charges against former President Alberto Fujimori or any of his ministers over a 1990s sterilization program under which thousands of women say they were forcibly sterilized.

Two Peruvian women in file photo from 2000
Hundreds of mostly poor and indigenous women and men allege they were sterilized against their will. (Photo Courtesy of BBC News)

Prosecutor Marco Guzman said there were no crimes against humanity committed by Fujimori’s government and decided to close the case. Guzman found no evidence to support claims that hundreds of mostly poor and indigenous men and women were sterilized against their will. “The women would come to the clinic, agree to the procedure, and undergo sterilization. That was the regular, normal process,” he concluded.

Human rights groups do not agree with the decision and are saying they will appeal. They allege that sterilization was forced upon more than 2,000 women under Fujimori’s government in an attempt to reduce poverty by lowering the birthrate. The campaign had the backing of international donors including the United Nations Population Fund, Japan and the United States, as well as anti-abortion and feminist organizations.

Activists say that besides being forced, the sterilizations were often carried out in unsanitary conditions.

An independent congressional commission stated that the government of President Fujimori had sterilized 346,219 women and 24,535 men during his terms in office between 1990 and 2000. The Fujimori government has always maintained all operations were consensual.

Hundreds of people, some of them illiterate, said they were forced to undergo operations and not told they could have refused. Some women say they were deceived, threatened with jail, bribed with food parcels, and otherwise pressured into the operations to meet program quotas.

A Peruvian feminist organization, Demus, condemned the decision, saying in a statement: “The program was a public policy that promoted the sterilization of thousands of women in the country, especially in rural areas, who by deception and blackmail were deprived of their reproductive capacities.”

The original investigation into allegations of forced sterilization was archived in 2009, but prosecutors reopened the investigation again in 2011 at the urging of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, is now in prison serving four concurrent sentences for corruption, authorizing death squads, and human rights abuses. The longest is 25 years.

For more information please see:

The Boston Globe – Fujimori cleared in Peru sterilization case – 26 January 2014

CNN – Peru will not prosecute former President over sterilization campaign – 25 January 2014

BBC – Peru closes forced sterilisation probe and clears ex-President Alberto Fujimori – 24 January 2014

Fox News –Peru’s Fujimori spared prosecution for 1990s sterilization program – 24 January 2014

Ukrainian Standoff Escalates as Yanukovych Seeks to Avoid Possible Emergency State

By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian opposition leaders scoffed at what has been deemed President Viktor Yanukovych’s moment of weakness in the recent months of tension. Meanwhile, leaders and protesters throughout Europe support dialogue between Ukraine’s government and the opposition.

Ukrainian protests spread, including a siege on the Justice Ministry. (Photo courtesy of Voice of Russia)

In November 2013, anti-government protests erupted in Ukraine; particularly, over President Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of a deal that would have brought Ukraine and the European Union closer. In mid-January, tensions led to a number of fatalities, as police and protesters clashed. All three primary opposition leaders attended a funeral for Mikhail Zhiznevsky, a Belarussian national who was shot and killed at the height of the violence.

Activists occupied regional administrations in ten Ukrainian regions, where they protested against president-appointed governors. In four Ukrainian cities, thousands of activists laid siege to local government offices. Police broke up a rally in Zaporizhya with batons and stun grenades.

As protests spread into Eastern Ukraine, high tensions in Kyiv led to dozens of protesters seizing control over the Justice Ministry, smashing windows and erecting barricades. Ukraine said that it may issue a state of emergency if the situation at the Justice Ministry worsens.

On 25 January 2014, Yanukovych offered opposition leaders posts within the government, including offering Arseniy Yatsenyuk (Fatherland party) prime minister and Vitali Klitschko deputy prime minister. The next day, Ukrainian opposition leaders said the deal would not be enough to end the worst crisis since Ukraine gained independence.

In his offer, Yanukovych failed to address key demands, such as bringing forward presidential elections and releasing jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Klitschko, who is believed to have a personal rivalry with Yatsenyuk, said, “This was a poisoned offer by Yanukovych designed to split our opposition movement.”

However, opposition leaders have neither accepted nor expressly rejected any of Yanukovych’s proposals; but instead, stating that talks will continue. Feeling unprecedented pressure, Yanukovych’s office stated that Yanukovych is willing to consider constitutional amendments that would shift power and authority from himself to the prime minister.

Into the weekend, Europe urged dialogue within Ukraine. During his weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Francis expressed hope that “the search for common good may prevail in the hearts of all.” A crow and a seagull immediately attacked two doves released in hope of peace for Ukraine.

On 28 January 2014, Ukraine’s parliament will meet for a critical debate session. They are expected to debate key points of the crisis, including protest laws.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the situation as “not only tense but truly serious. The coming days could decide Ukraine’s path into the future.”

For a brighter day, Ukraine must hope that peace for its government and for its people is saved from assailants, both foreign and domestic.

For further information, please see:

Voice of Russia – Ukraine May Issue State of Emergency If Protesters Don’t Leave Justice Ministry – January 27, 2014

Associated Free Press –Ukraine Protests Spread as Opposition Snubs Compromise Offer – January 26, 2014

BBC News – Ukraine: President Yanukovych Blinks First over Protests – January 26, 2014

BBC News – Ukraine Protests ‘Spread’ into Russia-Influenced East – January 26, 2014

RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty – Rallies Held Abroad for Ukraine – January 25, 2014

Impunity Watch – New Deaths Make Ukrainians Unsure How Long Tensions Must Continue – January 23, 2014

Snowden Reveals NSA Conducts Corporate Espionage

by Michael Yoakum
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden claims that the US intelligence agency engages in industrial espionage according to a German public television broadcaster. ARD released a statement prior to a television interview Sunday in which Snowden is quoted as saying that if German engineering company Siemans had something information beneficial to the US, the NSA would take it.

Snowden is scheduled to give an interview with the German public television broadcaster ARD Sunday evening. (photo courtesy of The Guardian)

Snowden alleged that the NSA would take information from private industries even if the information had no connection to US national security needs. Snowden went on to tell the German broadcaster that he no longer has possession of any documents or information on NSA activities, adding that he has turned over all available information to selected journalists.

At present Snowden faces felony charges for the information he has incrementally released to journalists since last June when he offered information to The Guardian about NSA surveillance of American cell phone data.

A legal adviser for Snowden is quoted as saying Snowden would be open to entering talks with US Attorney General Eric Holder to negotiate his return to the US. However, that willingness to negotiate was premised on a guarantee of amnesty for crimes related to releasing classified information.

Jesselyn Radack, Snowden’s legal adviser, said she was glad to hear last week that the Attorney General was open to negotiating Snowden’s return, but expressed disappointment about the US government’s stance on amnesty.

“It’s a little disheartening that [Holder] seemed to take clemency and amnesty off the table, which are two of the negotiating points,” said Radack in an interview on “Meet the Press.”

Holder said in an MSNBC interview that the US government would not provide amnesty in some kind of “no harm, no foul” deal.

Snowden made a statement Thursday expressing his wish to return home and bring resolution to his conflict with the US government.

“Returning to the U.S., I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself,” Snowden wrote on the website “Free Snowden.”

For more information, please see:

Fox News – German TV: Snowden says NSA also practices industrial espionage – 26 January 2014

MSNBC – Snowden says NSA engages in industrial espionage: German TV – 26 January 2014

Reuters – Snowden won’t return to U.S. without amnesty, says legal adviser – 26 January 2014

The Guardian – German TV: Edward Snowden says NSA is involved in industrial sabotage – 26 January 2014

CNN – NSA leaker Edward Snowden says U.S. return ‘not possible’ given current laws – 24 January 2014