By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia—Protests have continued against a controversial new law in Bolivia.  Members of the press and others fear that the “Law Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination” will hamper their freedom of expression; supporters of the law herald it as a step toward equality.

The two disputed articles of the new legislation—Articles 16 and 23—make it illegal for journalists to publish or broadcast anything that could be construed as discriminatory.  The law also holds members of the press responsible for statements uttered by third parties.

Opponents of the law say they are concerned that the government will use the regulation’s language to eliminate voices of opposition.

During a protest in Santa Cruz last week, demonstrators wearing muzzles held signs reflecting sentiments such as, “democracy is dead,” “don’t muzzle our children’s future,” and “life is nothing if liberty is lost.”  A journalist tied a microphone to a noose and labeled it, “The PRESS-R.I.P.”  Many have dubbed the law “la ley mordaza,” which means “the muzzle law.”

The law’s proponents see things differently.  “The bill protects and guarantees equal treatment for all people,” Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said.  “We have to combat a culture of racism. . . .  Do not forget that until four years ago the indigenous were discriminated against and abused, handicapped in their social and economic presence with racist epithets and attacks.”

An article by Workers World commended the law as a “triumph for the working class and oppressed,” and “for Bolivia’s majority Indigenous population and for the Afro-Bolivian community as well, both of which have suffered 500 years of oppression.”

There doesn’t seem to be an immediate end to the controversy.  Journalists are presently trying to collect a million signatures to overturn Article 16 and modify Article 23.

The Bolivian Bishops’ Conference released a statement which reaffirmed the “commitment to any initiative that leads to the removal of racism and discrimination,” but expressed worry over the “imminent risk associated with the recent approval and promulgation of that law, in regards to the exercise of the principles and fundamental rights of individuals and institutions.”

For more information, please see:

Committee to Protect Journalists-In Bolivia, anti-discrimination law raises concerns-18 October 2010

Workers World-New Bolivian law guarantees equality-15 October 2010

Andean Information Network-Conflict and Consensus:  The Anti-Racism and Discrimination Law in Bolivia; Part I:Content and Justification of the Legislation-15 October 2010

Fides-America/Bolivia:  Church promotes dialogue between journalists and government on anti-racism law-14 October 2010

CNN-Protests Continue in Bolivia Over Controversial Racism Law-14 October 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America  

LIMA, Peru – Survival International, an organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide, has warned the United Nations that a massive oil pipeline set to be constructed in Northern Peru will be very harmful to indigenous peoples living in that area. 

In a letter from Survival International to the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, James Anaya, the organization claims that “permitting companies to operate in this region of Peru flagrantly violates international law.” 

 The letter exhorts the Special Rapporteur to initiate an immediate investigation and to urge Peru’s government to prohibit the companies from working in the area.  The human rights NGO believes that if work on the pipeline proceeds, “some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens could be wiped out.”

Independent from the environmental concerns, there are significant fears that outsiders who enter the Indians’ land to work on the pipeline may introduce new diseases into the indigenous peoples’ population that their bodies are not prepared to fight.  Perenco, a Peruvian gas company, has recently admitted to transporting 50,000 tons of material into this region, the equivalent of ‘seven Eiffel towers.

While the pipeline has not yet been approved by the Peruvian government, there are signs that the pipeline will be given the go-ahead.  Survival’s appeal to the UN comes as the Peruvian government attempts to expel a British environmentalist, Paul McAuley, for speaking out against environmental and human rights abuses in northern Peru.

Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said, “[t]his is as serious as it gets for indigenous people anywhere in the world. Massive oil operations are planned which will destroy the rainforest and could decimate two tribes.”

The other companies interested in petroleum operations in that region are Spain’s Repsol-YPF and U.S.-based ConocoPhillips, which have applied to cut 282 miles of seismic lines in their bid to find oil.

For more information, please see:

Indymedia.org – UN Warned about Oil Pipeline in Peru – 15 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Group Says Peru Pipeline will Harm Indians – 15 October 2010

Domain-b.com – Survival International Warns US about Oil Pipeline in Peru -14 October 2010

Survival International – Letter to to the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people – 14 October 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia—An investigation into Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe has been opened by the Accusation Commission of the Colombian House of Representatives.  The investigation, which began on Tuesday, will discover any role Uribe may have played in the illegal wiretapping of political opponents.  The scandal has been called “far worse than Watergate” by the Washington Office on Latin America.

Numerous  officials who served under Uribe have also been under fire.  Bernardo Moreno, who was Uribe’s personal secretary, was convicted of illegally wiretapping politicians, journalists, human rights organizations, and Supreme Court magistrates.  Moreno was banned from holding any public office for 18 years.

Andres Felipe Arias, who served under Uribe as agricultural minister, is also being investigated for allegedly funneling millions of dollars in state subsidies for impoverished farmers into affluent families.  It is believed that the money went to landowners and agro-industrial companies that supported Uribe in his 2006 presidential campaign.  Arias is a familiar name to many Colombians as he recently ran for president against the current President Santos.

Although Uribe has admitted responsibility for Moreno’s acts, he has fervently defended his administration.  “We avoided allowing the guerrillas and paramilitaries who took the country to turn Colombia into a failing state,” he recently posted on the social networking website Twitter.  Uribe also Tweeted about the accomplishments of his presidency, such as battling poverty and extraditing drug traffickers.

Uribe is now teaching at Georgetown University and continues to be an object of controversy.  Last month, while giving a lecture, Uribe was protested by demonstrators outside; inside, a student approached the former president and confronted him about his poor human rights record.

“This was Uribe trying to clean his image, basically, in front of our future leaders,” the student later told Newsweek.  “He needs to be put in front of a criminal court.”

More than 150 scholars, including 10 Georgetown professors, have signed a petition calling for Uribe’s termination from his Georgetown post.  The accompanying letter, composed by a priest, stated that Uribe’s position at the institution “is not only deeply offensive to those Colombians who still maintain moral principles, but also places at high risk the ethical development of the young people who attend our university.”

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-Uribe mounts Twitter defense of policies-14 October 2010

Radio Netherlands Worldwide-Colombia’s Congress Investigates ex-president Uribe-13 October 2010

Newsweek-Appointment of Colombian Ex-President Sparks Controversy at Georgetown-13 October 2010

Colombia Reports-Congress opens wiretap investigation against Uribe-12 October 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 LIMA, Peru – High ranking members of Peru’s military have been sentenced to prison terms that range from fifteen to twenty-five years for their roles in civilian massacres.

Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief under ex-President Alberto Fujimori, and military commander Nicolás Hermoza, were convicted of ordering and carrying out killings on civilians.

Aside from President Fujimori, Montesinos and Hermoza were the two most powerful men in the political regime from 1990-2000.  The two disgraced military men were found guilty of aggravated homicide in the 1991 massacre of fifteen people in the Lima neighborhood of Barrios Altos, and the killings in 1992 of nine peasants in the northern town of El Santa and journalist Pedro Yauri.  Montesinos and Hermoza were responsible for authorizing a special commando unit that carried out the killings.

Montesinos and Hermoza’s actions were not an isolated occurrence.  Retired generals Julio Salazar, former head of the National Intelligence Service, and Juan Rivero, former head of the Army Intelligence Directorate are also facing twenty-five year sentences for their roles in the massacres.  Additionally, Santiago Martin Rivas, the army major who headed the death squad known as the “Colina Group” and major Carlos Pichilingüe, his right-hand man, were sentenced to twenty-five years as well.

Rosa Rojas, whose husband and eight-year-old son were among a group massacred in Barrios Altos stated, “[W]e are satisfied with the sentences, but we aren’t happy. Nothing will relieve the pain we carry inside.”  Rojas went on to say that “[m]y son Javier received eight bullets, one for each year of his life. That pain can’t be erased by a sentence.”

In the case of the Barrios Altos massacre, which claimed Rojas’ husband and son, it was later reported that the killers actually went to the wrong address, and slaughtered a group of people who were not suspects.

During the trial, the defendants justified their crimes claiming that they were “at war against terrorism.”  The Fujimori regime was struggling with the Shining Path, a violent left-leaning Peruvian terrorist group.

Montesinos is already serving a twenty year sentence for his participation in unrelated human rights abuses.  However, under Peruvian law, sentences cannot be served consecutively.

For more information, please see:

Living in Peru – Fujimori’s Right Hand Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison – 5 October 2010

IPS – No Sentence will Bring them Back to Life – 4 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Former Members of Peru Military Brass Sentenced for Massacres – 1 October 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Argentina has protested Britain’s plan to conduct military exercises, including firing missiles, on the nearby disputed Falkland (or Malvinas) Islands.  Britain disclosed the plan last week.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina let her reaction to the planned exercises be known via Twitter, tweeting that it would be “a militarization of the South Atlantic.”  She went on to call the situation, “Serious, very serious,” and wrote, “Typical nineteenth century colonialism.  Anachronistic use of force in violation of international law.  They do not care.  A clear example of double standards.”

The President also said she would summon Shan Morgan, the British ambassador, and referred to the British Navy as “pirates for ever?”

An official statement by the President declared, “The Argentine Government reiterates that the Malvinas . . . , part of the Argentine Republic and unlawfully occupied by the United Kingdom, are in dispute, which is recognised by the United Nations and other international organisations.”

In a letter sent to the British embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alberto D’Alotto wrote:  “The Argentine government expresses its formal and energetic protest to this planned military exercise and demands the British government refrain from carrying it out.”  D’Alotto has called Britain’s plan “an unacceptable provocation.”

British companies have been hunting for oil around the Falklands.  Earlier this year, the Rockhopper Exploration company claimed to have been the first to discover oil in the North Falkland Basin.  As the archipelago is situated on Argentina’s continental shelf, Argentina has claimed sovereignty over it and considers Britain’s presence an affront to that sovereignty.  Argentina has said that the Islands are within its sphere of economic influence and has promised to legally prevent Britain from accessing any oil in that area.  The President has previously vowed an “eternal fight” to claim the Islands, though without force.

There is a history of acrimony between Argentina and Britain.  In 1982, they waged war for 10 weeks over the Islands, resulting in the deaths of over 600 Argentine and 255 British troops.  Today, Britain keeps a permanent presence of 1,076 troops and four ships on the Islands.

Argentine veterans of the Falklands war have protested Britain’s upcoming exercises and demonstrated in front of the National Congress in Buenos Aires.  Many carried signs with messages such as, “The Malvinas are Argentine,” and “English Go Home.”

A spokesperson from the British embassy has said that the  military tests are “routine and are carried out every six months,” and that therefore, “[w]e are a little taken aback” by Argentina’s protest.

For more information, please see:

Press TV-Argentina protests to UK over drills-10 October 2010

Voice of America-Argentina Protests British Military Exercises on Falklands-10 October 2010

Telegraph-Royal Navy are pirates, says Argentina’s president-10 October 2010

Reuters-Argentina protests UK Falklands military exercise-9 October 2010