By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SUCUA, Ecuador-Radio Voice of Arutam, the primary radio station broadcasting to the Shuar indigenous community in the Amazon region, was taken off the air last week for violating Ecuador’s Broadcasting Act. The government contends that the station violated Article 58 of the Act when it allegedly incited violence during protests against the government in October 2009.

International rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch have denounced the government’s actions. the Committee to Protect Journalists referred to the government shut down as “nothing but an attempt to intimidate the media into silence.”

The community was protesting to protect their “Plan of Life,” against government proposals that would allow their territory to be used for mining without their consent. A teacher and community member died during the protest after he was shot.

The Shuar have pledged to continue their legal battle in the courts, arguing that they provide a community service by airing messages in their own language to a poor community where TV and electric power are almost unknown.

The station argues that even though Arutam was issued a commercial frequency license, they acted as a community service station allowing thousands of their people to communicate with others through the use of a simple message. For example, to notify family members that one has arrived safely at a destination after traveling by car, canoe, or by foot. The Shuar use the radio station, known as “the voice of the jungle” to pass along this information.

Thirteen other radio frequencies have been taken off the air. The government also shut down a television broadcasting company for violating a rule prohibiting false information that could lead to social disturbances.

In the first instance, the station allegedly made a false report that the government’s electoral commission had a “clandestine center” where voting results were manipulated. The second offense was an allegedly false report stating that people on the island of Puná would not be able to fish for six months because of proposed exploration for natural gas.

The Arutam plan on taking their case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights if the court decision stands. They have also pledged to broadcast clandestinely.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian-Power Versus the Press-8 January 2009

Global Voices-Ecuador:Radio Voice of Arutam Taken Off the Air-14 January 2010

The Huffington Post-Media Battles in Latin America Not About Free Speech-17 January 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru-Ex-President Fujimori’s appeal to annul his conviction and 25-year prison sentence was turned down by the Peruvian Supreme Court. A law enacted in 2006 prevents a pardon or amnesty from being granted to victims of kidnapping.

Fujimori is seventy-one years old and is serving three concurrent prison sentences. He was convicted in 2007 of voluntary manslaughter, serious injury, and aggravated kidnapping for four events in 1991 and 1992. In 1991 fifteen people were shot and four were seriously injured in a Barrios Altos tenement. In 1992 nine students and a university professor from La Cantuta were tortured, murdered, and dumped in sand dunes outside Lima. Fujimori was also found guilty of kidnapping journalist Gustavo Gorriti and a businessman names Samuel Dyer.

The Supreme Court ratified the Special Criminal Court’s verdict that Fujimori knew and authorized its operations under Vladmiro Montesinos. The fines and damages awarded by the lower court were ratified in addition to the twenty-five year sentence.

Fujimori’s attorney vowed to “continue to fight for the annulment” of the sentence and to take the case to the Constitutional Court. Fujimori’s daughter and Congresswoman vowed to present a writ of habeas corpus to the court. However, the president of the Constitutional Court told the press that the Supreme Court’s decision cannot be changed by his court.

Fujimori is to serve his sentence until February 10, 2032. While a pardon is not permitted, after three quarters of the sentence have been served, Fujimori will be eligible to shorten his remaining sentence. Fujimori is currently being held in the special operations unit of the National Police in north Lima.

For more information, please see:

Peruvian Times-Peru’s Supreme Court Turns Down Fujimori’s Appeal on 25-Year Sentence-5 January 2010

AFP-Peru Confirms 25-year Sentence For Alberto Fujimori-3 January 2010

BBC-Fujimori 25-year Sentence Upheld By Peru Supreme Court-3 January 2010

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia-Three Colombian citizens and an Ethiopian were arrested and accused of running an international ring for trafficking Africans to the United States and Canada. Traffickers charged between $3,000 and $5,000 to take African citizens to the United States via Colombia.

The individuals in custody were charged with migrant trafficking, criminal conspiracy, and forgery of public documents.Johenes Elnefue Negussie, an Ethiopian living in Colombia with refugee status, is thought to be the ring leader. Negussie’s network allegedly has branches in the Colombian cities of Pasto in the South and Cartagena and San Andres in the North.

Colombia is considered a growing hub for people trafficking to the United States due to links to powerful drug traffickers. Two weeks ago, Marines rescued seventy undocumented Africans from the Caribbean, who later sought refugee status on Colombia’s northern coast. A member of the group told local media “we dream of arriving in the United States.”

Colombia deported 285 African and Asian citizens in 2009, and expelled forty-one other foreigners. The majority of migrants reaching Colombia are from Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Benin, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, and Liberia. Mobile patrols have been set up at various points along its border with Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil to end the flow of migrants.

Migrants arrive penniless, often ill, and in debt. The director of the Department of Administrative Security said that the migrants are “victims” that “deserve all the attention, respect and assistance from the Colombian authorities. But behind it lies a very elaborate network that seeks to create links with local drug lords for new routes.”

The director of a local rights group told the press that “its ironic that these people seek refuge in Colombia, one of the countries with the highest rate of displacement and asylum requests in other countries.”

For more information, please see:

Latin American Herald Tribune-Colombia Arrests Four for Human Trafficking-10 January 2009

AFP-Colombia Police Arrest Ethiopian for Human Trafficking-9 January 2009

AFP-Colombia, Neva etapa en el periplo de inmigrantes africanos hacia EEUU-8 January 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LAGUNILLAS, Bolivia-The government of Bolivia has begun seizing ranches, totaling in over sixty square miles, in efforts to end a system of indigenous servitude. The changes came in the new constitution, establishing Bolivia as a pluri-national republic giving the thirty-six ethnic groups that make up over sixty percent of the population the right to self determination at the municipal level.

The land seizures are a part of the process of redistribution where 77,000 square miles of underused or disputed land will be turned over to indigenous communities nationwide by 2013. Eventually there will be autonomous territories. The government claims that all land seized thus far was obtained by fraud and was serving no social or economic purpose. The government also claims that indigenous people were living in servitude on ranches on the land.

The ranchers deny the government’s charges and are challenging the seizures in the courts. Other occupants who have had land seized by the government claim that it was an act of “vengeance.” Large land owners have been some of President Morales’ strongest opponents.

Morales was reelected on December 6, when twelve of Bolivia’s 327 municipalities voted in favor of indigenous self-government. This gives the indigenous communities control over natural resources on their land and more agency in deciding how to use funds transferred from the central state, as well as how they are dispersed.

Local government structure will be determined by each group. Some concerns are that there will be a shortage of farmland. In one area there are 16,000 people who will potentially be assigned plots of only 200 square meters, an insufficient amount to sustain agriculture. Other clans are seeking a redistribution of the 1.7 million dollars a year in funds that come from the central government, because they now only receive half of the total. Groups are also seeking an increase in local taxes and leasing charges on “fair terms” for companies exploiting minerals, limestone, water, and other natural resources.

For more information, please see:

Latin American Herald Tribune-Bolivia Announces Large Land Seizure From Private Company-7 January 2010

AP-Bolivia’s New Leader Seeks Justice for Exploited Indians-3 January 2010

Upside Down World-Bolivia:Native People Take First Step Toward Self Government-23 December 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-A series of investigations and trials are underway in a renewed attempt to confront the legacy of the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Fifteen policemen and officers are on trial before a three-judge panel for their roles in the “dirty war” deaths of over 30,000 people.  DNA test are being used to determine the origin of children thought to have been stolen from “disappeared” parents. 

Military and police defendants are charged with running clandestine torture centers known as the Athletic Club, the Bank, and Olimpo. The defendants are some of the dictatorship’s most notorious figures. They include the leader of the junta that governed Argentina after the 1976 coup and Reynaldo Bignone, Argentina’s last dictator.

Individuals charged with involvement in “Operation Condor” are expected to stand trial next year. “Operation Condor” was a cooperative effort between South American dictatorships in hunting down and killing leftists. The courts have requested declassified US cables that contain information about what the United States knew about Argentine military operations. The Argentine ambassador to Washington is petitioning the CIA and other agencies to open their files on Argentina.

Meanwhile, DNA tests are being used in the pursuit of justice for the estimated 500 children that were stolen from their leftist political prisoner parents and given away to regime supporters. The process has been difficult because many of the children do not know their origins or remain loyal to their adoptive parents. As a result, the Congress supported a bill that required the extraction of DNA from suspected stolen children, even if they did not want to know the results. 

DNA testing is also being used to identify bone fragments found in graves across Argentina. Over 600 skeletons have been compared with samples supplied by relatives of disappeared leftists. There have been forty-two matches made and another 100 waiting confirmation.

Argentine prosecutors have convicted sixty defendants since 2005 for violations of human rights through the use of the ordinary penal law and the criminal courts. 627 former military officers, policemen, and officials were charged with a total of 325 cases open nationwide. The resurgence in investigations and trials comes after the Argentina Supreme Court withdrew amnesty laws, which were in effect through most of the ’80s and ’90s.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian-Argentina’s Authorities Order DNA Tests in Search for Stolen Babies of the Dirty War-30 December 2009

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

The Washington Post-Argentina Puts Officials on Trial Over the Abuses of the Dirty War-28 December 2009