By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

HUANCAYO, Peru-Three generals and other army officers are on trial for the murders of thirty-seven university students from 1989 to 1993.  Generals Manuel Delgado, Luis Pérez, and David Jaime Sobrevilla commanded an army brigade during those years in Huancayo where the Universidad Nacional del Centro is located. Formal charges were filed on March 4th.

The murdered students were allegedly targeted because they were suspected of being connected to or sympathising with the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) or Tupác Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerrillas. The three Generals allegedly ordered former intelligence Commander Col. Elías Espinoza of seizing and killing the students. Ordering deaths are the same charges that led to the conviction of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for two army massacres.

The National Human Rights Coordinator for Peru told IPS that evidence against the former military officials includes “testimony of relatives who witnessed the kidnappings of their children . . . and who later found their bodies dumped on the outskirts of the city.” The prosecutors also have army operation manuals that describe how to kidnap and kill detainees and “accounts of students who after being hauled in and tortured by the military, managed to regain their freedom.”

Prosecutors allege that the thirty-seven murders took place as a part of a “systemic and generalized practice of kidnappings and homicides.” The Maoist movement Sendero Luminoso was reported to have a strong presence at the University in Huancayo, where it targeted any person opposed to its efforts.

During the government’s struggle against Sendero Luminoso, it entered the University fifteen times and over one hundred people were murdered and kidnapped. After the military’s first incursion on the campus, it set up a “civil action base,” after which student and staff disappearances began.  The occupation was legalized in 1990 through a law authorizing the military to stay on campuses if “terrorist elements or groups disturb the peace and internal order.”

Protection has been ordered for the five individuals testifying against the generals who are former kidnapping victims.

For more information, please see:

Rebelión-Generales Enjuciados por asesinatos a 37 estudiantes-5 April 2010

IPS-Generals on Trial for Murders of 37 Students-2 April 2010

Correo-Caso UNCP:Justicia Tras Diesisiete Años-25 March 2010

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CHACO REGION, Paraguay-Brazilian cattle-ranchers working for Yaguarete Prora S.A. reportedly have plans to “bulldoze” land where un-contacted indigenous people live. The company is a member of the UN “Global Compact” which must operate under ten universally accepted principles dealing with human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.

Protesters of the controversial plan say that Yaguarete should be expelled from the UN “Global Compact” because they will destroy land belonging to the Ayoreo-Totogeigosode tribe “in flagrant violation of both Paraguayan and international law.” An independent media outlet reports that Yaguarete ownes 78,549 hectares of the tribe’s ancestral land and intends to leave only 16,784 hectares of it as “continuous forest.”

Two specific principles of the global compact are reportedly being violated: 1) that “businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and 2) ensure that the company is not complicit in human rights abuses.  A legal claim based on destroyed forest was submitted by the Totobeigosode in 1993.

UN President Ban Ki-Moon is head of the UN Global Compact and rights groups have solicited him directly to expel Yaguarete from the group. The Director of Survival International said that “Yaguarete cannot be said to be committed to aligning their operations with human rights. We urge the Compact to blackball Yaguarete from the initiative now – if it doesn’t, it runs the risk of losing all integrity.”

For more information, please see:

Ekklesia-UN Urged to Ditch Cattle-Rachers From Human Rights Board-31 March 2010

Scoop World-Brazilian Ranchers on the UN Global Compact-30 March 2010

Survival-Ban Ki-moon Urged to Remove Brazilian Ranchers From U.N. Global Compact-29 March 2010

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia-Clodomiro Castilla, a Colombian magazine editor and radio reporter was shot dead at his home in the city of Monteria. An unidentified gunman reportedly shot Castilla eight times before being picked up by another man on a motorcycle.

CPJ spoke with a local journalist who stated that Castilla had been receiving threats for four years for disclosures of links between local politicians, landowners, and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. Castilla declined government protection. However, Castilla was under protection for threats from 2006-2009.

An anonymous journalist told CPJ that just before his death, Castilla was reporting on the participation of a local landowner in the murder of a local lawyer, corruption in local government agencies, and links between paramilitaries and local government officials. The Colombian National Police have not yet discussed possible motives.

A new report published by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on “The Safety of Journalists and the Risk of Impunity”  highlights acts of violence against journalists in Colombia. Four reporters were killed in the last four years according to the AFP. This is higher than Brazil, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Honduras.

The report found that the bulk of reporters killed world wide operate in outside of war zones are typically covering local stories on corruption, human rights abuses, and drug trafficking.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-UN Report Highlights Journalist Murders in Colombia-24 March 2010

CPJ-Colombian Journalist Shot Dead by Unidentified Gunman-22 March 2010

Latin America News Dispatch-Journalist Killed by Gunman While Reading on his Terrace-20 March 2010

Washington Post-Colombian Journalist Shot and Killed-20 March 2010

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Seventeen former Naval Officers are currently on trial in Argentina for the deaths of political opponents detained at the Naval Mechanics School. Estimates are that over 5,000 people were brought to the Naval Mechanics School, where they were tortured and most died. Only one hundred people are thought to have survived detention.

Notorious Mechanics School Official Jorge “El Tigre” Acosta took the stand next week on charges that he was the leader of  “Task Force 3.2.2,”  a group that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered people detained at the complex. Acosta admitted that he is liable for all military orders and that the deaths were unavoidable in what he considered to be a “civil war.”

Alfredo Astiz, also known as the “blond angel of death” is also on trial. He is charged with infiltrating circles of families of the disappeared that led to the abduction of the three founders of the group Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo. He has been sentenced in absentia for the abduction and murder of two nuns who were thought to be counseling the families of disappeared individuals.

When Astiz took the stand, he spoke for over an hour and harshly criticized the current Argentine government. He denied all the charges against him and alleged that his conviction was “already on paper.” Astiz insisted that all charged officials should be tried in a military court.

Roughly 30,000 people are thought to have disappeared during Argentina’s military government. Since 2005, prosecutors have convicted sixty defendants. There are three hundred and twenty-seven cases open nation wide. The courts have requested declassified U.S. Cables that contain information about what the United States knew about Argentine military action against leftists. Argentina’s ambassador has reportedly petitioned the C.I.A. and other U.S. agencies to release information.

For more information, please see:

BBC Mundo-Argentina: Militar Admite Detenciones Iligales-19 March 2010

AFP-Face of Argentine Military Repression Defiant in Court-18 March 2010

Publimetro-Represor Astiz Se Delacra Democrático y Republicano-18 March 2010

PressTV-Argentine “Dirty War” Defendants on Trial-28 December 2009

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia-Colombia’s Supreme Court asked the prosecutor general to place two witnesses in the trial of former Presidential Intelligence Service  or DAS (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) director Jorge Noguero under state protection, after reports that the witnesses are being followed and threatened. Noguero is on trial for alleged involvement in alleged acts of wire tapping Colombian citizens.

This is just the latest in numerous complaints regarding the DAS. In late 2005, Noguero was accused of working with paramilitares to facilitate narcotrafficking and in the development of a list of human-rights workers and labor leaders to be murdered. The recent allegation of wire tapping forced the resignation of DAS director María de Pilar Hurtado.

The DAS was allegedly conducting surveillance on opposition Senator Gustavo Petro. However, allegations are that the DAS conducts surveillance of many prominent citizens. “Targets” include opposition politicians, social movement leaders, journalists, and even Supreme Court officials trying to investigate ties between paramilitary narcotraffickers and President Uribe’s political allies.

One source reported that “any person or entity who represents an eventual danger for the government has to be monitored by the DAS. As a result, more than a year ago, the activities of the Supreme Court, and some of its members, came to be considered and treated as a legitimate target.” This was corroborated to a local news agency by four other DAS officials.  A local media outlet reports that almost all DAS surveillance materials on high profile Colombians were destroyed by investigators after they were collected at the Office of Counter Intelligence.

The witness currently under court ordered protection include former DAS employee Matha Leal and former paramilitary Wilson Mayorga.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-Court Seeks Protection For DAS Trial Witnesses-15 March 2010

Center for International Policy-The New DAS Scandal-27 February 2010

MediaLeft-Colombia’s DAS: Vicious Security Octopus Acts With Impunity-9 February 2010