By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile-A judge determined that the 1982 death of Chile’s former president Eduardo Frei Montalva was a homicide, leading to the arrest of six men. Three of the individuals have been charged with murder and three others are charged as accomplices to murder.

Judge Alejandro Madrid, who investigated the case, announced that Montalva was poisoned to death with multiple doses of thallium and mustard gas which were secretly mixed with medications and injected into his body. A human rights lawyer working for the Frei family called the murder an “action by the military intelligence of the dictator (Pinochet), with a clear and precise objective, the elimination of President Frei.”

Former aids to General Pinochet alerted the Frei family to the murder. Eugenio Barrios, a chemist who worked for the Chilean secret police is suspected of administering the poison to Frei. Barrios worked on several radical experiments including the production of anthrax, botulism, and nerve gas sarin.

Michelle Bachelet calls the arrests “good for our society.” The arrests include medical personnel and members of Pinochet’s secret police, known as the Dina. Doctors charged as accomplices are accused of conducting an illegal autopsy, removing Frei’s organs and stuffing his corpse with gauze.

Frei was president of Chile from 1964-1970.  He initially supported the 1973 military coup leading to the death of Salvador Allende. However, after severe human rights crimes came to light he emerged in opposition to the military government of Augusto Pinochet.

The murder of Frei in January of 1982 marked the beginning of the Pinochet regime systematically eliminating leaders in the democratic opposition. Former President Frei’s son is a leading candidate in Chile’s presidential election, slated for Sunday. Members of Frei’s family call the charges “a historic step.”

For more information, please see:

The Guardian-Six Arrests Over Murder of Former Chilean President-8 December 2009

AP-Ex-President Was Murdered; Six Charged-7 December 2009

Rueters-Ex-President Murder Probe Shakes Chile-7 December 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOXEL,Suriname-The trial of Desi Bouterse, Suriname’s former dictator, resumed last week with new testimony. Bouterse is charged with ordering the execution of fifteen political opponents in December 1982. Eleven other individuals are also charged for these killings.

Prosecutors claim that Bouterse ordered the killing of four lawyers, four journalists, two university lecturers, two military officers, two businessmen, and a labor leader. The army claimed that it shot at the opponents because they tried to escape from the Fort Zeelandia, where they were being held after Bouterse’s security forces detained them.

Everyone who has testified at the trial so far has dismissed the army’s explanation that they were trying to escape. “Why do they have gunshot wounds on their chests and heads?” said witness Heydi de Miranda, “You would have been shot in the back.” De Miranda’s husband was killed for criticizing Bouterse’s regime.

Sali Blik, a former cameraman for a state-owned television station, testified that he saw Desi Bouterse at Fort Zeelandia sitting beside one of the victims after forcing him to make an on-camera statement. This was just hours before the man was shot.  Onno Flohr, a member of the firing squad, testified that Bouterse was present during the executions, but did not kill anyone.

The trial has been going on for over a year with numerous delays, including witnesses who fail to appear in court. Bouterse denies any direct involvement in the killings, though he has made a public apology and accepted “political responsibility” for the killings.

Bouterse seized control of Suriname in 1980, just five years after it gained independence from the Netherlands. He resigned in 1987, but briefly took power again in 1990. Bouterse is currently the chairman of Suriname’s main opposition party.

For more information, please see:

Caribbean Net News-Witness Describes Suriname’s Former Dictator as a Psychopath-3 December 2009

AP-Witness: Suriname Ex-Dictator at Execution Scene-2 December 2009

Caribbean Net News-Widow Testifies in Suriname Mass Murder Trial-2 December 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru-Peru’s police chief was forced to fire his top organized crime investigator yesterday after evidence surfaced that he and several other police officials deliberately invented a story to divert attention from unlawful police killings. Police lied when they announced that they had broken up a criminal gang who roamed the Andes that killed peasant farmers and drained fat from their dead bodies to sell to European cosmetics manufacturers.

General Felix Murga went so far as to claim to have arrested four members of the “international criminal network,” responsible for thirty to sixty murders per year in the Huanuco province. Medical experts were skeptical about the validity of the story from the beginning, saying that there is no black market for human fat.

Government officials now believe that the police force was trying to divert attention from allegations that officers killed forty-six suspects in 2007 and 2008. The former deputy interior minister, Carlos Basombrio stated that “they were mainly trying to cover up the tremendous revelation of extrajudicial killings of criminals in the town of Trujillo.”

The police played a video of a suspect confessing to the “fat trafficking” scheme at the original press conference. The police even displayed two soft drink bottles full of what they claimed to be human fat sold for nearly 10,000 pounds per liter. Victims were reportedly lured into a jungle hut where they were bludgeoned to death, dismembered, and then candles were used to melt fat off of torsos.

Investigators in Huanuco complained that they were excluded from investigating the case and now believe that the four men arrested carried out one murder, linked to the cocaine trade. Investigators say that the cocaine traffickers in custody bottled the fat of the murder victim to intimidate rival drug traffickers.

The investigation into the “fat-trafficking” story began after an unnamed police official was quoted on Monday in a newspaper saying that local police were surprised about the allegations because they knew them “not to be true.”

For more information, please see:

AFP-Officer Dismissed in Peru “human-fat” Killings-2 December 2009

BBC-Peru Officer Suspended Over Human Fat Killer’s Lie-2 December 2009

USA Today-Peru’s Kill-For-Fat Gang May Be Deadly Police Hoax-1 December 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LONDON, United Kingdom-The high court in London is going to hear testimony from subsistence farmers from Peru who claim that they were detained and severely tortured after a protest at a British-owned mine. The multi-million pound suit was filed against Monterrico Metals for damages arising from the alleged torture.

The allegations of torture stem from a protest in 2005. By law mine construction is allowed only with consent of two-thirds of the local population. Local farmers were protesting because construction began without local consent. Protesters were confronted by police at the mine.

Under the direction of mine managers, the police fired teargas at protesters. Twenty-eight of the protesters say that they were detained, hooded with hands tied behind their backs, beaten with sticks, and whipped. Detainees claim that noxious substances were sprayed in their faces before they were hooded, beaten with sticks and whipped. Two of the protesters were women who say they were sexually assaulted and threatened with rape.

Three protesters were shot and wounded by police, and the protesters claim one of those shot was left to bleed to death at the mine site. A postmortem examination found that he took about thirty-six hours to die.

A journalist who was apprehended with the protesters was given photographs of the arrest that were taken by a Monterrico supervisor. The photographs show bloodied protesters with their hands bound other show groups of blindfolded or hooded protesters being removed from police property. Some of the photographs show grinning police officers waving the female protesters’ underwear. Melanio Garcia, a protester is photographed in one picture alive, though severely injured and then in another photograph he is shown dead thirty hours later.

Richard Meeran, a lawyer with Leigh Day, the London law firm bringing the case, has obtained an injunction freezing five million pounds of Monterrico’s assets in the UK.

Monterrico claims that the arrests occurred because a protester shot a police officer. All claims of abuse are said to be “without merit.” Monterrico further says that it had no control over the police operation. However, lawyers for the protesters have taken statements from eyewitnesses alleging that the mine’s manager was directing the police, and say that two of the corporation’s executives had been in the area shortly before and after the police operation.

Monterrico is building Peru’s second largest copper mine at Rio Blanco in the Northwestern region of Peru. Monterrico has been in conflict with local farmers since its arrival in the region in 2001. The mining concession covers 18,858 acres, much of it covered by forest that collects rainwater and feeds it into rivers flowing into the agricultural basins below. Farmers and environmentalists fear that mining would lead to pollution and depletion of rivers, damage eco-systems, and endanger farmlands.

For more information, please see:

Telegraph-Claims Police Tortured Peruvian Protesters Outside British-Owned Mine-19 October 2009

The Guardian-Abuse Claims Against Peru Police Guarding British Firm Monterrico-18 October 2009

The Guardian-British Mining Company Faces Damages Claim After Allegations of Torture in Peru-18 October 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO,Chile-President Michelle Bachelet created a new agency this week to protect human rights in Chile. A special committee from the institution will investigate claims for compensation based on Pinochet-era abuses.

The National Human Rights Institute will be able to recommend charges in cases where human rights are found to have been violated. Leaders of the National Human Rights Institute can be removed only by the Supreme Court, giving the institute “considerable independence.”

An official tally estimates that over 28,000 people suffered under the Pinochet government. In 2003, thousands of people received government compensation after proving they or their relatives went missing, were executed, or tortured under the Pinochet regime. Those who failed in their claims will now have a second chance to prove their case.

The agency will be given six months to build on the work of the 2003 investigative efforts. It is unclear whether torturers will be publicly identified, something that victims and their families have lobbied for. Furthermore, under the new law, victims have no right to effect prosecutions- only to seek compensation.

Estimates of Pinochet-era abuses include 3,197 political killings by the government. Of those, 1,192 people were disappeared, less than eight percent located or identified after twenty years of democracy.

President Bachelet stated that Chile needs the agency to defend its democratic institutions and prevent a repeat of Chile’s “painful history.”  Batchulet stated that the goal is to “promote a culture of peace and education about human rights principles in present and future generations.”

For more information, please see:

Brunei News-New Claims of Compensation Arise from Pinochet Era-24 November 2009

Taiwan News-Chile Creates Human Rights Watchdog Agency-24 November 2009

Radio Netherlands-Pinochet’s Victims Get Second Chance to Claim-24 November 2009