By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America 

Ricardo Ezzati, the archbishop in charge of mediating the situation, claims that the Mapuche peoples and the Chilean government have reached an agreement after representatives for the two sides met on two separate occasions. 

The government has proactively sought to reform the archaic anti-terror law and, in addition to the legal reform, has decided to withdraw the charges against the Mapuche under the anti-terror law. 

The news was met with great joy by family members of the imprisoned Indians.  However, the Mapuche hunger-strikers will not be completelyacquitted as they will still be charged with crimes under the common criminal code, albeit lesser ones.  

An attempt to negotiate an end to the hunger strike had failed recently when the Indians were unable to secure assurances that the anti-terror law would not be applied in their cases.  However, a meeting Thursday between several relatives of the jailed Mapuches and Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter at La Moneda presidential palace facilitated the resumption of the talks.

In addition to demanding the end of the anti-terror law, the hunger strikers are calling for the demilitarization of the poor southern region of Araucania, which is home 650,000 Mapuche people.

There are ten Mapuche prisoners who have refused to end their hunger strike.  Undersecretary of the Presidency Claudio Alvarado, who represented the government in talks with the prisoners’ family, said he hopes that the rest of the prisoners will follow suit and end their strikes soon.

The Mapuche hunger strike is the latest scuffle between the indigenous peoples and the Chilean government in a long and sometimes violent campaign by members of the Mapuche for the return of their lands to alleviate their poverty.

The Mapuche Indians are one of Chile’s original peoples, but were pushed into the country’s south only to lose those lands later to timber companies and other wealthy landowners.

For more information, please see:

Inside Costa Rica – Chile: End of Mapuche Hunger Strike – 3 October 2010

Associated Press – Chilean Archbishop: Most Mapuche prisoners end hunger strike after lengthy negotiations – 2 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Mapuches End Hunger Strike after Agreement with Chile Government – 2 October 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador—Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa maintains that he was physically abused and detained against his will during an attempted coup Thursday.  The attack was waged by police officers protesting a new law that they believe would deprive them of bonuses and minimize compensation. Correa argues that the officers had not even read the law and misunderstood it.

The officers became violent after Correa had stood in the window of a barracks and challenged, “If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill him, if you want to! Kill him if you are brave enough!”

According to Interior Minister Gustavo Jalkh, the officers’ reaction proves they intended to overthrow the government.  “The president was talking with some police who wanted to talk with us. We were talking. Why else would they throw bombs at a politician?” he said.

President Correa was battered by members of the angry group and surrounded by tear gas.  He claims he was not allowed to leave the hospital where he was taken for treatment afterward.  As his military rescued him that night, his SUV was struck by bullets.

At least four people were killed in the violence and over 200 were injured in related bloodshed throughout Ecuador.  Three days of national mourning began on Friday out of respect for the victims.

The government responded quickly to the unrest, declaring a week-long state of emergency and placing armed forces in charge of security.

Correa believes that the police officers who sparked the violence wanted to kill him; yet he says he recognizes the efforts of many others who remained loyal, including the officers who rescued him at the hospital.  The national police force is comprised of 42,000 members.  Their chief resigned on Friday.

No group or individual has admitted any involvement in the alleged coup attempt, but three colonels are being investigated.

Some have questioned Correa’s account of the attack, and others see the president’s confrontation in the barracks as a provocation.  Analyst Roberto Izurieta told CNN, “The elements for a coup do not exist. There was no political movement or a call for the president to leave office. What occurred was an uprising from part of the police.”

On Friday, the government said the law the police officers had been protesting would be revisited.

Correa received support from the international community, including Venezuela’s President Chavez and U.S. Secretary of State Clinton.

Ecuador is no stranger to unrest; three of the last eight presidents lost power after protests.

For more information, please see:

LA Times-Ecuador ‘coup attempt’ draws attention to Rafael Correa’s presidency-4 October 2010

NPR-Foreign Policy: The Power Of Ecuador’s Democracy-4 October 2010

CNN-Ecuador’s government maintains unrest was coup attempt-4 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune-Judge Releases 3 Colonels Arrested in Ecuador Policy Mutiny-3 October 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama apologized this week for what many consider the most infamous example of unethical medical research in history.  From 1946-1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected hundreds of Guatemalans with venereal diseases so that the doctors could test the effectiveness of penicillin.

The experiment exposed as many as 700 Guatemalan prisoners, mental health patients and soldiers to these diseases.  Records indicate that the United States actually paid for infected prostitutes to sleep with Guatemalan prisoners in an effort to spread the diseases.  If that did not work, some prisoners had the bacteria introduced to open wounds on their bodies.

It has taken the United States more than 60 years to apologize for the horrific treatment of these Guatemalans.  Although many feel that it is likely more form than function, the U.S. State Department has assured that an investigation will be conducted on the matter.

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom, who just recently learned of the experiments via a telephone call from Secretary of State Clinton, called them “hair-raising” and “crimes against humanity.” His government said it would cooperate with the American investigation and would also perform an independent investigation of their own.

Professor Reverby, a Wellesley College Professor who is credited with bringing these experiments to public attention with a recent paper, said that the United States Public Health Service “was deeply interested in whether penicillin could be used to prevent, not just cure, early syphilis infection, whether better blood tests for the disease could be established, what dosages of penicillin actually cured infection, and to understand the process of re-infection after cures.”

While many would like to believe that the U.S. discontinued the experiment after only two years because of the ethical and humanitarian considerations, the evidence simply does not support such a finding.  More likely, the project was halted after “medical gossip” began to accumulate and because penicillin, which was quite costly, was being used at an exorbitant rate.

Dr. Mark Siegler, director of the Maclean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago’s Medical School, said that “[the project is] appalling — that, at the same time as the United States was prosecuting Nazi doctors for crimes against humanity, the U.S. government was supporting research that placed human subjects at enormous risk.”

Dr. Siegler also stated that the Guatemala experiment was worse than the famous Tuskegee trials that infected African-Americans living in Alabama with syphilis because many of those subjects were infected by natural means, while many of the Guatemalan subjects were infected by inhumane and almost tortuous means.

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect is that U.S. Public Health Service was entirely aware of the ethical violations at play here, and consciously disregarded them.

For more information, please see:

USA News Week – U.S. Expresses Regret Over Infecting Guatemalans for STD Tests – 2 October 2010

CNN – Studies Show “Dark Chapter” of Medical Research – 1 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – U.S. Apologizes to Guatemala for Syphilis Experiments – 1 October 2010

The New York Times – U.S. Apologizes for Syphilis Tests in Guatemala – 1 October 2010

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela—A deadly riot inside one of Venezuela’s overcrowded prisons has left 16 people dead and another 35 injured.  This marks the second time violence has erupted at this prison just this week alone.

According to prison official Consuelo Cerrada, the riot occurred Wednesday between rival gangs vying for power within the Tocoron prison in Aragua state, 75 miles south of Caracas.  The fighting lasted for eight hours while inmates fired automatic weapons and hurled grenades at other inmates and guards.  Local police were unable to take control of the combat until the riot began to subside of its own accord.

It is believed that the riot was sparked by the murder of a gang leader earlier this week.  Six of the wounded are still hospitalized.  Four of the injured were women relatives of inmates who were hit by stray bullets while anxiously awaiting news outside the prison.

On Monday of this week three inmates were murdered and four correctional officers were injured at the same prison in a separate display of violence.

The Tocoron prison has yet to release an official statement on the riot and inmates’ families have demanded answers; some relatives have created blockades on nearby roads to protest the lack of information.

Venezuela’s prisons are notoriously overcrowded and plagued by incessant gang violence.  About 40,000 inmates live in prisons that were constructed to hold only 15,000.

According to Venezuelan Prison Watch, an organization against prison violence, over 220 inmates died in the country’s substandard prisons in just the first quarter of 2010 alone.  Gangs in Venezuela’s prisons battle over control of the cellblocks and the trade of weapons and drugs.

Earlier this month thousands of prisoners throughout the country protested poor prison conditions and human rights violations by guards by joining a hunger strike.

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has asked Venezuela to increase security and protect the human rights of inmates in the country’s prisons.

For more information, please see:

AP-16 inmates killed in prison riot in Venezuela-30 September 2010

Gather-Gang Battle in Venezuela Prison: Ten Dead-30 September 2010

Americas Quarterly-Gun Battle Grips Venezuelan Prison-30 September 2010

BBC-Ten die in Venezuela prison gang battle-29 September 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – A plan by the Peruvian government to expand agriculture by diverting water from small villages near Machu Picchu to the Arequipa region of Peru is being met with staunch resistance. 

In anticipation of the public outcry regarding this irrigation project, the Peruvian government recently passed a law allowing for the use of military force during times of civil unrest, including demonstrations.  But many fear that protesters’ rights are in jeopardy because of the new law.

The law states that, should the military commit any illegal act in the process of its deployment; these will be dealt with in military courts, which are generally considered neither impartial nor independent.

This military court stipulation is contrary to international human rights law, which calls for human rights violations to be tried in civilian courts.

Just weeks ago, demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Espinar, leaving one person dead and forty-four additional people injured.  The conflict began when Peruvians took to the streets to rally against the irrigation project, claiming that it would leave Espinar without water.

Guadalupe Marengo, Deputy Americas Director at Amnesty International, said that using the military during these protests could put the protesters at a real risk of acts of excessive force committed against them with impunity.

The city of Cuzco was recently shut down for 48-hours during a general strike to show support for the protestors in Espinar.  The strike included transportation stoppages, a student walk-out of schools in the area, and additional clashes with armed Peruvian law enforcement officials.  Although the military has not yet been deployed to quell the happenings in Cuzco, many fear that they soon will be and the results will be deadly.

Marengo also stated that “[p]ast use of the military for law enforcement purposes in Peru has resulted in grave human rights abuses, which to this day remain in impunity. It should be seriously reconsidered.”

The Peruvian government has gone ahead with the irrigation project despite two judicial rulings suspending the tender process and ordering an environmental impact assessment.

For more information, please see:

Bikyamasr- Risk of Rights Violations during Peru Water Protests – 26 September 2010

World War 4 Report – Peru: General Strike against Irrigation Project Shuts Down Cusco – 26 September 2010

Planetizen – Irrigation Project Spurs Protests in Peru – 22 September 2010

The New York Times – Clash over Peru Irrigation Project Kills One – 17 September 2010