By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru-Peru’s Vice President, Luis Giampietri is facing criminal charges for alleged irregular arms deals and faces a motion that he be removed from office. A five year investigation revealed that Giampietri was responsible for questionable arms purchases for the Peruvian Navy in 1994 and 1995.

Giampietri is a retired vice admiral in Peru’s Navy. The accusations are from the period where Giampietri was in charge of arms procurement for the Navy, when Alberto Fujimori was in office. Giampietri is accused of using his position to favor supply companies belonging to members of a corrupt network headed by then presidential security adviser Vladimiro Montesinos.

Giampietri is accused of collusion and conspiracy to commit a crime. Allegations detail how Giampietri approved purchases of military equipment from companies specifically selected by Montesinos, who then received millions of dollars in commissions in return. The money was found in his name in Switzerland. The allegedly illicit deals total 49.9 million dollars.

Giampietri denies all charges against him and insists that the arms deals did not do the state any harm, “because equipment . . . was used for national defense.” However, prosecutors are most concerned that the bidding procedure was rigged to favor companies owned by Israeli citizen Moshe Rothschild and Peruvians Enrique Benavides and Claus Corpancho.

Rothschild and Benavides have been fugitives from justice since 2001, and Corpancho has been in prison in Lima since 2007, when he was extradited from Spain. Fujimori admitted that Montesinos accepted a bribe for the sale to Peru of thirty-six MiG-29 warplanes from Belarus. Rothschild, Benavides, and Corpancho organized the sale.

The charges are the reason for the recent motion to remove Giampietri as first vice president. “We view it as improper that a person accused by a prosecutor should be acting president,” said a spokesman for the opposition Peruvian Nationalist Party.

Giampietri was also a part of the trial for those responsible for the 1986 massacre committed by naval forces during a Sendero Luminoso riot. 118 people were killed. Giampietri is among those said to be responsible for the massacre.

For more information, please see:

IPS-Peru: Vice President Accused of Corruption-14 November 2009

Defense News-Peruvian Navy Officials Probed for Contract Fraud-6 November 2009

Radio Programas del Peru-Giampietri califica de “insostenible e infundada” denuncia en su contra-5 November 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LONDON, England-Colombian farmers are suing the oil company BP for damages arising from the construction of a 450-mile pipeline. The lawsuit alleges that the Ocensa pipeline caused landslides and damage to soil and groundwater, caused crops to fail, livestock to die, contaminated water supplies and made fish ponds unsustainable.

The pipeline was laid from the Cusian-Cupiagua oilfields, to the port of Covenas. The region has a significant amount of paramilitary activity. Farmers say that they have been harassed and intimidated by paramilitaries employed by the Colombian government to guard the pipeline. Colombian lawyers who initially were a part of the lawsuit claim that they were intimidated by paramilitaries as well.  One lawyer fled to Britain when she found out that her name was on a paramilitary hit list. She was granted asylum in 2002.

In this case, the environmental impact assessment, which BP conducted prior to pipeline construction, allegedly showed significant risk of damage to the land. However, mostly illiterate farmers were not informed about the risk. BP expressly promised compensation to the farmers for damages caused by the pipeline and that there would be no long-term environmental damage.

The lawsuit claims damages for breach of contract and negligence. If the court accepts evidence of environmental damage, advocates believe that that would allow similar claims by other communities in developing countries who say they have been adversely affected by oil pipelines.

One farmer stated, “Now that my land has been destroyed I realize that the money I was paid for the pipeline to be build across my farm was a mere pittance and that BP took advantage of my inability to read and write and my lack of understanding of technical language.”

BP denies all of the farmers’ allegations. It argues that the main cause of soil erosion and sediment is the removal of forests by farmers for cattle grazing. BP settled outside of court in a similar lawsuit in 2002. A court hearing date has not yet been set.

For more information, please see:

Business and Human Rights Resource Center-Case Profile:BP Lawsuit(Re: Colombia)-11 November 2009

Colombia Solidarity Campaign-BP and Pipeline Damage in Colombia-11 November 2009

The Guardian-BP Faces Damages Claim Over Pipeline Through Colombia Farmland-11 November 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-Trial began for General Bignone, Argentina’s last dictator, and five former generals who are accused of kidnappings and murders during the early 1980’s. Court papers charge Bignone with “ultimate responsibility” for fifty-six cases of torture and illegal searches during this period.

As head of a military junta from 1982 to 1983, General Bignone protected the military during Argentina’s transition to democracy. He granted amnesty to human rights violators and oversaw the destruction of documents containing evidence of torture and disappearances of political opponents. Five former generals, a former colonel, and a former police commissioner are on trial with Bignone. All of the defendants deny the charges against them.

Argentine courts overthrew the amnesty law, and Bignone was formally charged in 2003. The trail was delayed until now. The trial is taking place in a small indoor stadium to accommodate a large crowd, including witnesses, federal officials, members of activist groups, and family members of the disappeared.

More than one hundred family members attended the first proceeding on Monday, some of them held photos of victims as the defendants entered the court room. Around one hundred and thirty witnesses, many of them survivors of torture, will testify.

The fifty-six cases of torture and kidnapping allegedly took place at Campo de Mayo, a military installation. General Santiago Omar Riveros, the base’s intelligence chief, is suspected of giving orders to kill some of the kidnapped individuals.

Bignone is eighty-one and has been under house arrest. He faces two other trials: one in the abduction and disappearance of doctors and nurses at a hospital and another in the case of two soldiers when he was head of the military college. The current trial is expected to last through February.

An estimated 5,000 people were held at the Campo de Mayo, one of the largest death camps in operation during the Argentine dictatorship. An official report lists 13,000 people as being killed during the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship era. Human rights groups estimate the number of dead to be closer to 30,000.

For more information, please see:

BBC-Argentine Ex-Leader Goes on Trial-3 November 2009

AP-Last Argentine Dictator, Ex-Generals go on Trial-2 November 2009

CNN-Former Argentina Dictator, 5 Others on Trial, Accused of Rights Abuses-2 November 2009

New York Times-Trial Begins for a Former President of Argentina-2 November 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador-The Confederation of Ecuadoran Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE) are expressing opposition to a new water law by protesting and blocking roadways. The movement argues that the Hydraulic Resources Law allows for the development of mining projects in areas occupied by springs that are major sources of water. Leaders also argue that the law ensures water provisions for mining companies but not for indigenous and campesino communities and does not attend to the issue of contamination of waterways.

Under the new plan, all water systems in Ecuador will be brought under centralized state authority, thus ending a system of community control over water resources. Ecological Action, a non profit organization, found that the law “contains elements of privatization for both water and land usage in as much as those resources become the sole property of the benefiting industry or business for other uses.” This is because the law allows for water resources to be acquired in the purchase of land and permits the owner to use the water however he or she sees fit.

Forty-five percent of water resources have been privatized through legal concessions, but one percent of those using water resources consume sixty-four percent of the water available and eighty-six percent of Ecuadorians consume just thirteen percent of the country’s water. Critics argue that the new law “does nothing in regard to these points and the National Development Plan favors the mining companies and flower growers.” There are no sanctions in the law for contamination or water quality control.

Indigenous communities have played a large role in the construction of water system networks, constructing irrigation canals and consumer water systems. They view the new “sole authority” provision as a direct threat to their water council system.

Responses to protests resulted in the death of a bilingual professor, who was shot by police when he joined a group of 500 that blocked a bridge over the Upano River. Protesters argue that it was a “trap” because the leaders were called to a dialogue “in order to distract the leadership and the local media.”

Currently, CONAIE has suspended protest actions because the government has opened a negotiation period. The government and indigenous leaders agreed to six points during their most recent negotiation. This included, permanent duologue between the parties, government consideration of the CONAIE water initiative, and the government will receive a mining law proposal from the indigenous movement.

Other grassroots movements continue to stage road blocks and to shut down markets. There is disagreement among grassroots organizations on what is the best strategy. While the CONAIE and Euarunari have called off protests, the Shuar and Achuar people of the southern Amazon continue to demonstrate against mining. One indigenous lawmaker remarked, “the dialogue doesn’t go anywhere. I don’t believe in them anymore.”

For more information, please see:

AP-Indian Political Awakening Stirs Latin America-2 November 2009

Daily Press-Bolivia the Standard-Bearer as Latin American Natives Fight to Protect Lands, Culture-2 November 2009

Latin American Press-Indigenous Movement Continues to Weaken-23 October 2009

By Sovereign Hager

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA,Colombia-Colombia’s National Planning Council blames the government’s “Democratic Security” policy and fight against drugs for the systematic increase in human rights violations. The National Planning Council is a constitutionally mandated body tasked with formulating, monitoring, and evaluating government policy.

President of the council, Adolfo Atehortua, called Colombia’s anti-drug policy a failure. He pointed out that drug production has not decreased and spraying to kill illicit crops has increased poverty in rural areas. “The general and indiscriminate aerial spraying of crops damages farmers who have no other options, the helpless producers . . . but does not eliminate the persistency of the drug plantations,” Atehortua said.

Atehortua further stressed that Colombia has become a consumer of drugs in addition to its exporting role. He recommended that soft drugs be legalized as part of an international campaign. Atehortua argued that legalizing the production of soft drugs, such as marijuana, would provide an opportunity for many farmers to “come out of hiding to develop real centers of agricultural production.”

Atehortua denounced the government’s security policy and the collaboration with the U.S. State Department.  The main point of criticism was the large number of “false positive cases”, where members of the armed forces have executed civilians and then presented them as guerrillas killed in combat in order to boost success figures. These acts have been denounced by the United Nations.

Atehortua called the “humanitarian crisis” the “dark side” of the Democratic Security Policy. Colombia is slated to sign a controversial security pact with the United States to enhance its war on “narcoterrorism” this week.

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-Council:Government Security Policy Caused Increase in Human Rights Violations-27 October 2009

El Pais-Colombia Avanza en Seguridad, pero no en derechos humanos-27 October 2009

El Espectador-Consejo Nacional de Planeación insiste en legalización de la droga-27 October 2009