By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela—New laws imposed by “lame duck” legislators in Venezuela have continued to inspire criticism that the country has now lapsed into a dictatorship.  President Hugo Chavez, who will rule by decree for the next 18 months, has taken this opportunity to stifle as much opposition as possible.

One of the new laws sparking controversy will prevent lawmakers from switching political parties, categorizing such an act as “fraud.”  Lawmakers breaking this law may be thwarted from holding public office of any kind.   Many leaders of the opposition have protested, calling the law unconstitutional.

Proponents of Chavez defend the regulation.  Iris Varela, a legislator who is a member of the President’s United Socialist Party, argued that such a law was necessary as it disallowed Chavez’s critics from being elected on one ticket “so later they can betray.”

Another new law changes the way the country’s legislature will operate procedurally.  For example, legislators used to be able to take to the floor to orally defend a bill for 15 minutes; now they will only have 10 minutes.  Those opposing a bill will only have 3 minutes to make their argument.  A further change restricts parliamentary debates from being broadcasted on state television.

Defenders of free expression have spoken out against a new law that expands restrictions on Internet messages that “incite or promote disobedience of the current legal order,” or “refuse the legitimately constituted authority.”

“One has to say it clearly:” said Ismael Garcia, an anti-Chavez legislator, “a new dictatorial model is being imposed in Venezuela.”

Last week, fervent protests erupted against the restrictive laws.  Most of the protesters were students and were dispersed by armed forces shooting off water cannons and rubber bullets.

“In Venezuela, the law is destroyed by the law,” opined historian and philosopher Fernando Mires in a recent essay.  “The judicial system is destroyed by the judicial system and the Parliament is destroyed by the Parliament.”

For more information, please see:

New York Times-New Laws in Venezuela Aim to Limit Dissent-24 December 2010

Wall Street Journal-Flurry Of New Laws Strengthens Chavez’s Grip On Venezuela-24 December 2010

AP-Flurry of laws boost Chavez’s power in Venezuela-24 December 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CORDOBA, Argentine – Jorge Rafael Videla, President of Argentina from 1976-1981, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed by Videla’s military regime.  The court also handed down life sentences to retired Gen. Luciano Benjamin Menendez and 28 other defendants.

Videla and his co-defendants were on trial for the extrajudicial execution of 31 inmates at a Cordoba prison and for the abduction and torture of six people targeted as “infiltrators from revolutionary organizations.”

Videla presided over the so-called “Dirty War” in which it is estimated that at least 10,000 people suspected of working against the regime, and perhaps as many as 30,000, “disappeared” or were killed, according to historians and human-rights groups.

Videla, now 85, was also convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison in 1985; however, he was pardoned a few years later by President Carlos Menem.  That amnesty was overturned in 2007 and cases have mounted against Videla since.

The guilty verdict was hailed with praise by the families of “Dirty War” victims.  Prosecutor Maximiliano Hairabedian’s winning argument was that Videla bore ultimate responsibility for devising a systematic plan “to eliminate opponents” of military rule.

During the trial, Videla took verbal swipes at the government of President Cristina Kirchner, who has acted aggressively to bring former dictatorship officials to justice.  Videla said, “the enemies of yesterday achieved their goal and govern the country and they try to set themselves up as champions of human rights.”  Videla also stood strong in his convictions that the war he waged was “just.”

The court was specific in saying that Videla’s sentence is to be carried out at a common prison, not a military detention center or on house arrest.

For more information, please see:

ABC News – Former Argentine Dictator Jailed for Life – 23 December 2010

The Wall Street Journal – Former Argentine Dictator Gets Life in Prison – 23 December 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Argentine Junta Leader Sentenced to Life in Prison – 22 December 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela—On Friday, Venezuelan legislators voted to allow President Hugo Chavez to rule by decree until 2012.  The bill, which is called the “enabling law,” was allegedly passed in order to safeguard the country during emergencies; but in essence, the law gives Chavez the power of a dictator.

The overwhelming majority of “lame duck” legislators agreed to pass the enabling law.  The National Assembly voted to give Chavez 18 months of unchallenged power.  Cilia Flores, assembly boss of the United Socialist Party, said the lawmakers’ act displayed their “revolutionary commitment.”  These legislators will be replaced by newly-elected ones who are critical of Chavez and his government.  The new lawmakers, who will consist of about one-third of the National Assembly, take office in less than three weeks.

The law was supposedly a response to the recent torrential rain in the country that caused significant damage.  President Chavez held “capitalism” responsible for the terrible weather.  Now, Chavez will have supreme control over Venezuela for the next year and a half, including taxes, the armed forces, land-use, and banking.

Chavez taunted opposition members after the bill passed, saying, “You won’t be able to make even a single law, little Yankees.  We’re going to see how you make laws now.”  Chavez refers to his critics as Yankees to imply that they are U.S. sympathizers.  The president has claimed to already have at least 20 decrees planned, including requirements for media operations and an increase in “Value-Added Tax.”

Numerous human rights groups, along with the U.S. State Department and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), have criticized the “autocratic” seizure of control by Chavez.  The IACHR announced that the new law “assigns the president of the republic ample, imprecise, and ambiguous powers to dictate and reform regulatory provisions in the telecommunications and information technology sectors.”

According to Business Monitor International, the enabling law will prevent opposition members from altering “an increasingly radical policy trajectory.  This not only has negative implications for democratic legitimacy, but it also increases the threat of major political upheaval in 2012.”

Chavez has given no indication that he will relinquish any of his power, and quipped that “the empire” is attempting to thwart his “Bolivarian Revolution.”

For more information, please see:

The New American-Socialist Chavez Set to Rule Venezuela By Decree-20 December 2010

Washington Post-Venezuelan legislature grants Chavez decree powers-19 December 2010

Epoch Times-Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to Rule By Decree-19 December 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – Monday, Justice Minister Felipe Bulnes called the overcrowding of Chilean prisons, which lead to the deadliest prison fire in the country’s history, “subhuman.”  Overcrowding in penitentiaries was officially recognized as a primary cause of last Wednesday’s fire that burned part of the capital’s San Miguel Prison and killed 81 prisoners.

The San Miguel Prison currently houses approximately 1,900 people, double its intended capacity.  This overcrowding can be seen in almost every jail in Chile.  Chile’s prison population totals approximately 54,000 people; however, it’s  infrastructure only has the capacity for 34,000 people.

Bulnes was quoted on a Chilean television network as saying, “of course we need more jails, because it would allow us to separate and rehabilitate. With rates of overcrowding like this, conditions are subhuman, an indignity.”  He also admitted the need to purge the Gendarmeria, the Chilean prison service, in response to accusations by inmates’ families that guards regularly accept bribes to bring drugs, cell phones and other prohibited items into the prisons.

Jaime Pincheira, the prison warden Calama, a city in Northern Chile, has denied reports that 500 inmates began a hunger strike Sunday in solidarity with the families of the San Miguel victims.  Pincheira told local reporters that only 200 of the prisoners there are fasting, some 40 percent of the prison population.

In a report on prison conditions last year, Supreme Court attorney Monica Maldonado found that some prisons have potable water only a couple of hours a day, a hundred prisoners share one usually infested toilet and the population in some jails easily doubles their capacity.

President Sebastian Pinera has responded to the recent criticisms and deaths by announcing a $460 million plan to improve conditions for Chile’s prisoners. The plan includes purchasing prefabricated modular prisons for minimum-security inmates to help reduce overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

The courts are currently investigating claims that prison police in San Miguel waited an hour before calling the fire department while 81 inmates suffered burns and smoke inhalation.

For more information, please see:

Global Post – The Story Behind Chile’s Prison Fire – 15 December 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Chilean Official: Prison Inmates “in Subhuman Conditions” – 13 December 2010

Associated Press – New unrest at Chile prison where 81 inmates died – 11 December 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – Earlier this week, twenty-three Colombian lawmakers blocked a vote on a law intended to regulate compensation for victims of violence in the country.  The proposed law establishes a process of reparation and assistance available to the more than 4 million Colombians affected by the country’s violence committed by guerrillas, paramilitaries and government forces will all be eligible under the law.

Last week, international NGO International Organization for Migration weighed in with their support for the proposed legislation by signing a memorandum with Colombia’s Vice President Angelino Garzon.  The memorandum also illustrates an initiative to create an agenda for promoting human rights, protecting migrant populations and preventing children from involvement in armed conflict.  Garzon went on record to say “the victims law would be an invaluable tool, but could have ended up being a dead letter if not for the support of international bodies such as the OIM.”

Although the law has seen significant support from international organizations, and perhaps most importantly from current Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, members of the Colombian Legislature blocked the bill from moving forward citing a “conflict of interest.”  Elias Raad, one of the representatives who blocked the vote, said that he couldn’t vote because the husband of a fourth cousin would benefit from the law.

The majority of representatives responsible for blocking the vote are supporters of former President Alvaro Uribe, who publicly opposed the law.  Uribe refused to support the bill because it includes compensation for victims of state violence and Uribe simply found that these reparations would be “too expensive.”

Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras and Agriculture Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo were vocal in their anger about the congressmen’s blocking of the vote.  Restrepo called the legislators’ actions “filibuster politics,” claiming the only aim is to obstruct the approval of the law by delaying the necessary voting rounds.  Vargas Lleras claimed that he would call “extraordinary sessions” if the House wasn’t able to vote on the bill within its legal time limit.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports – Lawmakers Block Victims Law Vote – 8 December 2010

Colombia Reports – International NGO Supports Victims Law – 3 December 2010

Colombia Reports – Santos to Personally Defend Victims Law – 27 September 2010