By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador — A plan from the Obama administration to deploy troops and station aircraft at seven Colombian military bases aimed at combating drug operations has generated controversy across Latin America, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez warning that it could lead to war.

According to the Washington Post, the agreement with Colombia would last ten years and allow for U.S. aircraft to be stationed at up to five Colombian air bases and for U.S. naval vessels to dock at two Colombian ports, one on the Caribbean and the other on the Pacific. Up to 800 U.S. military personnel and 600 private contractors could use the bases.

The President of Venezuela cautioned leaders at the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit held in Ecuador this week that an American military presence in Colombian bases “may result in a war in South America.”

“Winds of war are starting to blow,” warned Chávez, as he added that his country was gearing up because “we are in their sights,” referring to American military forces.

A day before the summit got under way, the Venezuelan Secretary of State, Nicolás Maduro, said that the military bases “are part of a plan to blow up South America, to divide South America once again, and to turn South America into a destabilized region.”

The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, who took over Unasur’s leadership from Brazil, kept the issue of the bases out of the summit’s agenda but condemned the Colombia-U.S. deal.

“We have put up with seven years of crop-dusting, we have put up with bombings, we have put up with 300,000 displaced, we have put up with Colombia allowing its southern border to go unprotected and where we have to keep over 10,000 troops and spend millions of dollars for a problem that is not ours,” Correa said. “We have put up with too much, we are honestly tired, truly tired,” he added.

The presidents of Brazil and Chile said they did not like the idea of an expanded American presence in the region but seem to agree that the deal is a Colombian sovereign matter.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe had embarked on a three-day South American trip in anticipation of the Quito summit to reassure fellow leaders, including populists such as Bolivia’s Evo Morales and moderates such as Chile’s Michelle Bachelet.

Uribe was not intending to attend the Unasur meeting in Quito. Ecuador and Colombia broke off diplomatic relations last year when the Colombian army raided a terrorist camp in Ecuadorian territory that killed a guerrilla chief and twenty-five other people. Bogotá says that documents found at the rebel camp show the guerrilla had at least tried to help finance Rafael Correa’s first presidential campaign.

But at the summit, the Latin American leaders called for a separate meeting in Argentina in late August to confront the issue with Presidents Uribe and Obama.

Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina said such a meeting could help allay disquiet over the plan, which was announced last month. Mrs. Kirchner said the proposal was creating “a belligerent, unprecedented and unacceptable situation.”

Uribe accepted to attend the Unasur meeting in Argentina later this month on condition that the illegal weapons trafficking in the region be discussed as well as the “military agreements that Venezuela and Ecuador hold with Russia and China, and those between Venezuela and Iran.”

As of June 19, there were 268 U.S. military personnel in Colombia and 308 civilian contractors.

For more information, please see:

Buenos Aires Herald – Uribe confirms attendance at UNASUR meeting – 13 August 2009

Noticias Cooperativa – Chávez: Soplan vientos de guerra en Sudamérica – 10 August 2009

The New York Times – Ecuador: Area Leaders Voice Worry Over G.I.’s for Colombia – 10 August 2009

The Washington Post – U.S. Plan Raises Ire in Latin America – 08 August 2009

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Santiago Omar Riveros, age 86 and former chief of the Argentinean Military Institutes Command, was sentenced to life in prison for human rights abuses while he commanded the Campo de Mayo military barracks on the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the 1970s.

He is accused of more than 40 crimes against humanity involving victims of the era’s so called desaparecidos or “disappeared.”

Amid the wave of accusations, Omar-Riveros was found guilty of torturing and beating to death 15-year-old Floreal Avellaneda, a member of the Communist Youth Federation, and abducting his mother, Iris. Floreal Avellaneda and his mother were abducted in 1976 by a military squad and tortured to find out the whereabouts of the boy’s father, a Communist Party union leader.

“They applied an electric current to my armpits, breasts, mouth, genitals and did exactly the same to my son,” Iris described her torture experience to the Argentinean court.

Floreal and Isis were first taken to the police station at Villa Martelli and tortured.  Afterwards, they were taken to Campo de Mayo.

Over the court of the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Floreal was thrown into the River Plate from a plane that departed from Campo de Mayo. In August of 1976, Floreal’s body was found impaled on the shores of Rio de La Plata in the Uruguayan city of Colonia de Sacramento.

The court found the defendants tactics “unacceptable.”  Their main argument was that Floreal’s death was part an accident.

Another former Military Institutes Command intelligence chief, Fernando Verplaetsen, was also sentenced to 25 years in prison in connection with the human rights abuses.  Four other defendants were sentenced to serve between eight to 18 years in prison.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – ‘Dirty war’ general found guilty – 13 August 2009

Yahoo News – Perpetua para Santiago Omar Riveros – 12 August 2009

Yahoo News – Argentine general gets life for rights abuses – 12 August 2009

Telam Noticias – Dan a conocer la sentencia en el juicio por el secuestro y asesinato de Floreal Avellaneda – 12 August 2009

By Don Anque
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Brazil’s Supreme Court has approved the extradition to Argentina of retired Uruguayan military officer, Manuel Juan Cordero-Piacentini, wanted for his role in Operation Condor.

Cordero-Piacentini pictured here.  Photo by AFP.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Operation Condor was a covert operation in which the dictatorships of the Southern Cone countries of South America coordinated efforts to kidnap, murder and “disappear” leftists and other dissidents.  In addition to the disappearances, the dictators also shared intelligence information in order to pinpoint target.

An estimated 30,000 people were “disappeared” in Argentina, while an unknown number of people in neighboring Uruguay were held as political prisoners and tortured.

Cordero-Piacentini is wanted by Argentina for the torture, disappearance and killings of leftist Uruguayan activists in 1976 in the “Automotores Orletti” secret detention center in Buenos Aires, Agrentina. At age 70, Cordero-Piacentini has been under house arrest since December 19, 2008 in Brazil.  He has been able to avoid prison and the extradition due to heart surgery which occurred earlier this year.

During hiding, Cordero-Piacentini married a Brazilian woman 32 years ago. After three years at large, the former Uruguayan Army colonel and intelligence officer was arrested in February 2007 in Santana do Livramento, Brazil. Santana do Livramento is just across the border with Uruguay.

The Brazilian Supreme Court said that Argentina requested the extradition of Piacentini-Cordero to Argentina because that is where the crimes took place. Piacentini-Cordero is wanted for his alleged involvement in the disappearance in 1976 of Adalberto Soba Valdemar-Fernandes, who was then only 10 years old. Valdemar-Fernandes has never been found.

For more information, please see:

Yahoo News – Brazil court okays Cordero extradition to Argentina – 07 August 2009

IPS News – URUGUAY-ARGENTINA: Hunting the Condor, 28 Years On – 20 May 2009

Uruguay Al Dia – Cordero extraditado a la Argentina – 07 August 2009

Associated Press – Brasil extradita a militar uruguayo retirado – 07 August 2009

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru — Peruvian police captured Félix Mejía Ascencios, allegedly one of the leaders of a Shining Path cell in the jungle region known as Upper Huallaga Valley, an area of coca cultivation and cocaine production.

According to the police, Mejía Ascencios, 31, is a high ranking Shining Path guerrilla leader in charge of security for “Comrade Artemio,” the terrorist group’s only remaining top commander who has not been captured or killed.

Very little is known about Comrade Artemio and even his real name is unconfirmed. Although he has appeared in video tapes wearing a ski mask, it is often with an extra piece of cloth sewed on to hide not only his face but also his eyes.

The Shining Path terrorized Peru in the 1980s and has been widely condemned for its brutality, including violence directed at peasants, trade union organizers, elected officials and the general civilian population.

But since the capture of its leader Abimael Guzmán in 1992, the Shining Path has only been intermittently active. Remnants of the group now claim to fight in order to force the government to reach a peace treaty with them.

Although authorities believe Comrade Artemio is the current leader of the terrorist group, he claims that he is only the regional commander of the Shining Path for the Huallaga Valley. Officials believe this might be because he takes the imprisoned former leaders, Abimael Guzmán, or his successor, Oscar Ramirez Durand, to be the true leaders of the guerrilla group.

Under Comrade Artemio’s leadership, the remnants of the Shining Path have reinvented themselves as a highly efficient cocaine smuggling operation, working with drug cartels and staging attacks on security forces.

Mejía Ascencios, known as “Comrade Mono” was arrested on Sunday afternoon having a drink at a bar as he provided security for a drug hoard intended for drug dealers.

The suspected guerrilla has an outstanding warrant for his arrest on charges of terrorism. He is accused of taking part in police ambushes, and in selective killings of peasants and authorities.

Subsequent to his arrest, Mejía Ascencios was transferred to Lima for questioning. The police believe he has key information that may lead to the location of Comrade Artemio.

President Alan Garcia said last week that the remaining Shining Path guerrillas “must be exterminated.” Garcia admitted that it will take time and patience but he emphasized that the problem of terrorism is “not even a tenth or a hundredth of what it was in the 80s.”

For more information, please see:

La Republica – Trasladan a Lima al “Camarada Mono” – 11 August 2009

La Republica – Cae la seguridad del “camarada Artemio” – 10 August 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune – Suspected Guerrilla Leader Captured in Peru– 10 August 2009

RPP Noticias – Anuncian captura de integrante de seguridad de camarada ´Artemio´ – 09 August 2009

La Republica – Alan García: Hay que “exterminar” remanentes de Sendero Luminoso – 08 August 2009

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez announced a new purchase of weapons from Russia arguing that the use of seven Colombian military bases by the United States is forcing his hand. Chávez said he would like to spend “not one cent in weapons,” but he must under the circumstances.

Chávez announced that the transaction would be in September but did not disclose the weapons involved or the amount he is spending.

“It’s going to be a series of agreements not just on weapons, although weaponry will be a significant component in order to enhance our operational capacity, our defense system and antiaircraft defenses,” Chávez said during an international press conference.

The announcement comes as the President of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, just completed a lightning visit to seven Latin American nations to explain Colombia’s decision to allow the United States to use the bases and address some of the concerns in the region. Uribe’s trip did not include Ecuador and Venezuela.

Although Uribe’s tour generated some understanding, it did not quell the uneasiness of neighboring states. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay expressed reservations over the Colombia-United States agreement. Bolivia remains its harshest critic while Peru supports it, and Chile and Paraguay said Colombia has the right to make sovereign decisions, such as who it allows on its territory.

Chávez’s weapons purchase announcement also comes on the backdrop of Colombian accusations that the Venezuelan administration has been supporting the terrorist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian guerrilla group financed mostly by proceeds from the drug trade.

Evidence has surfaced in the last two weeks that ties Venezuela to weapons seized from the rebels and to collaboration between the guerrillas and high-ranking military and intelligence officials in Chávez’s government.

Chávez reacted to the accusations by freezing bilateral relations. This week, he accepted to meet with former Colombian president Ernesto Samper to discuss the quickly deteriorating situation between the two nations.

At the end of the meeting, Chávez said that “there are no mediators here, no possible mediation. The only way for calm to return is for Colombia to back away from its decision to hand over its territory to the United States so that it [the United States] can continue its aggression against us. There’s no other way.”

The Venezuelan leader warned that the use of military bases in Colombia by the United States, whom he calls “the Yankees, the most aggressive nation in the history of humanity,” can lead to war in the region.

For more information, please see:

El Pais – Chávez alerta del riesgo de guerra en Suramérica por el acuerdo militar entre Colombia y EE UU – 06 August 2009

RCN Radio – Chávez subraya al recibir a Samper: “No hay mediación posible” con Uribe – 06 August 2009

El Pais  – Chávez anuncia otro pacto de rearme con Rusia – 07 August 2009