By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The Roman Catholic Church in El Salvador has abruptly closed its important human rights and legal aid office, which for years denounced and investigated the most egregious massacre cases of the 1980’s civil war.

The closure triggered national and international condemnation from faith, human rights and solidarity groups. They called for the preservation of Tutela Legal’s extensive archive, which contains evidence for unresolved criminal cases.

On September 30, employees showed up for work at the Tutela Legal office and found the locks changed on the doors and armed guards at the door. They were allowed 10 minutes to clear their desks. Attorneys who have worked with survivors and victims’ families for decades now have no access to evidence in the cases.

The current Archbishop, José Luis Escobar Alas, had closed Tutela Legal and issued a statement saying its work was “no longer relevant.” Employees said they were told that, with the war long over, the office was no longer necessary.

“We had no idea this was going to happen,” Tutela’s director, Ovidio Mauricio Gonzalez, said. “It is a strange coincidence. Just as they are talking about the amnesty, they close Tutela Legal, they close access to the archive, and abandon it to its fate,” he said.

The timing of the closure has caused widespread suspicion. The closure of Tutela Legal comes in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to consider vacating an “Amnesty Law” that has long protected perpetrators of war crimes.

The amnesty law, passed in 1993 by the military-allied Nationalist Republican Alliance government, protected numerous government officials, military officers and guerrilla leaders from prosecution for acts committed during the civil war that took place between 1980 and 1992, in which approximately 80,000 people died.

The court’s decisions renewed hope of the amnesty law being repealed and the possibility of reopening several prominent human rights cases that were investigated and documented by Tutela Legal. 

Late last year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the law cannot be used to protect those who ordered and carried out the single largest massacre in the war: the 1981 El Mozote massacre in which at least 800 peasants, including children, were killed by the army.

“I am worried about the bad signal this sends,” President Mauricio Funes said in a news conference, adding he did not know the reasons behind the closing. “The Catholic Church, and especially the archbishop of San Salvador, are not determined to accompany the just causes of the people,” Funes added.

Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero founded the Human Rights Office, originally known as Socorro Juridico (Legal Relief) in 1977, in order to document human rights violations from across the country. In addition to counselling the poor and oppressed, it was one of the only places people could go to report state-sponsored crimes. Every Sunday until his assassination in March 1980, Romero would broadcast a homily from the grand cathedral in San Salvador which included the latest denunciations.

Since then, Tutela Legal has documented more than 50,000 cases of human rights abuses. It holds the most comprehensive archive of El Salvador’s bloody history and its lawyers continue to represent survivors of notorious massacres including El Mozote and Rio Sumpul.

In the past two decades Tutela Legal’s work has proven crucial in cases brought against senior military figures living in the United States.Tutela Legal was also active in new cases, such as the 2007 Red car battery factory lead-poisoning case, and ran education programs and human rights training across El Salvador. Tutela’s work has recently included studies of gang violence, abuses tied to the expanded role of the military in policing, and important legal work for the poor.

Members of the Tutela Legal staff have been examining alternatives. There were suggestions that the office reopen as an independent human rights organization, without the auspices of the church.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – El Salvador shutters historic rights clinic – 12 October 2013

National Catholic Reporter – Salvadoran archbishop closes legal aid office – 4 October 2013

Los Angeles Times – Catholic Church in El Salvador shuts down rights and legal office – 2 October 2013

Center for Democracy in the Americas – San Salvador Archbishop shuts down historic human rights office, Tutela Legal – 2 October 2013

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Six young Australians wanted in connection with the death of a 45 year-old hotel doorman in Lima have won the right to make statements on the case from Australia instead of returning to Peru, where the case is being tried.

A statement from the group revealed they would be permitted to give statements via video link rather than having to return to Peru, where they have said they fear they will not get a fair trial. “We were told by our lawyers and DFAT [Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] on 24 October that the three Superior Judges in Lima had made a favorable decision on our appeal to be able to give our statements from Australia under the International Co-Operation Procedure. However, we couldn’t share the news with you until it had been formally stamped by the court and overnight it was!” wrote the group on their official Facebook page.

The Australians, known as the “Peru Six”, are Jessica Vo, Hugh Hanlon, Tom Hanlon, Harrison Geier, Andrew Pilat, and Sam Smith. They were named as primary suspects following the mysterious death of Lino Rodriguez Vilchez, who fell 15 stories from a balcony at the Lima hotel where they were staying in January of last year.

Police initially ruled the death a suicide, but they reopened the investigation after a public campaign by Vilchez’s brother who argued that the evidence appeared inconsistent with suicide. The family of Vilchez claims the Australians attacked and threw Vilchez from the balcony after a dispute over a noise complaint.

Peruvian courts seeking extradition of the six served subpoenas in July and threatened the group with an Interpol arrest warrant if they failed to return to Peru to face court proceedings. The group remained in Australia over fears that they would be imprisoned and not receive a fair trial. A Peruvian court originally rejected the group’s bid to give evidence in Australia, but that decision was overturned on appeal.

The Peruvian judges have set dates of November 5, 6 and 7 for the group to testify.

The six have strongly denied any involvement in Vilchez’s death and maintain their innocence. Theresa Hanlon, mother of two of the Australians, says the group is relieved that the threat of being placed on Interpol’s wanted list appears to have ended.

For more information please see:

ABC News (Australia) – ‘Peru Six’ to be allowed to make statements while remaining in Australia – 30 October 2013

The Guardian – Six Australians accused of murder will not have to return to Peru – 29 October 2013

Peru this Week – ‘Peru 6’ will be allowed to testify from Australia – 29 October 2013

The Sydney Morning Herald – Peru Six win bid to give evidence in Australia – 29 October 2013

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – Four men in Chile have been convicted of first-degree murder for torturing and beating to death a young gay man and carving swastikas into his body.

Daniel Zamudio, a 24 year-old clothing store salesman was attacked on the night of March 2, 2012 at the San Borja de Alameda park in the Chilean capital, Santiago. The attackers burned Daniel Zamudio with cigarettes, broke his right leg with a heavy stone, beat him with glass bottles and carved swastikas into his body with broken glass before walking away. He died of his injuries 25 days later.

Judge Juan Carlos Urrutia said Patricio Ahumada Garay, Alejandro Angulo Tapia, Raul Lopez Fuentes and Fabian Mora Mora, who were between the ages of 19 and 25 at the time, were guilty of a crime of “extreme cruelty” and “total disrespect for human life.” The four are due to be sentenced on October 28^th. Prosecutors are asking for jail terms ranging from eight years to life in prison.

Daniel Zamudio’s death set off a national debate in the country about hate crimes that led Congress to approve the nation’s first anti-discrimination law targeting hate crimes. The law adopted last year, named the “Zamudio law,” allows people to file anti-discrimination lawsuits and adds hate-crime sentences for violent crimes.

“It is typical of us, Chileans, that an accident has to happen for us to approve a law. My son will not come back, but this case may end up being good for Chile,” said Daniel’s father, Ivan Zamudio. He was in court to hear the verdict, alongside Daniel’s mother, Jacqueline Vera.

The law had been stuck in Congress for seven years after the initiative was stalled by conservative legislators, but President Sebastian Pinera put it on the fast track after Zamudio’s murder.

“We’re satisfied with this ruling. There’s a before and an after the Zamudio case,” said Rolando Jiménez, president of the Gay Liberation and Integration Movement. “It generated such outrage because of the brutality, the hate, that it helped raised awareness,” he said. “We’ve witnessed a cultural change that finally led to an anti-discrimination law.”

For more information please see:

The Guardian – Chilean men carved swastikas into body of gay man they killed – 18 October 2013

ABC News – 4 Guilty in Chile Gay Murder That Led to Hate Law – 17 October 2013

The Washington Post – Chilean court convicts 4 in murder of gay man that prompted Chile to adopt hate crime law – 17 October 2013

BBC – Four Chileans convicted over murder of gay man Daniel Zamudio – 17 October 2013

 

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia – The governor of the northern province of La Guajira, Juan Francisco ‘Kiko’ Gomez, was arrested by Colombian officials for his involvement in three murders and for collaboration with right-wing paramilitaries.

Colombia’s Deputy Attorney General, Jorge Fernando Perdomo, said that Gomez was linked to the 1997 assassination of a Barrancas city councilman, Luis Lopez Peralta, and the killings in 2000 of Luis Alejandro Rodriguez Frias and Rosa Mercedes Cabrera Alfaro.

Gomez is also accused of criminal involvement with paramilitary groups in La Guajira, on Colombia’s border with Venezuela. The charges include links with Rodrigo Tovar, commander of the right-wing United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), and Salvatore Mancuso. Tovar and Mancuso were extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges in 2008.

The governor’s supporters surrounded Gomez’s house to try to prevent his arrest when police came for him during a festival in his home town of Barrancas, in north-eastern Colombia. He was later removed from the property in an ambulance, with undisclosed injuries and was under treatment at a clinic.

Earlier this week Kiko Gomez was charged with five counts of corruption, in a separate case. Gomez, who served as mayor of Barrancas from 1995 to 1997 and again from 2001 to 2003, was elected governor of La Guajira in 2011.

Colombia’s paramilitaries were created in the 1980s by drug traffickers and ranchers to counter leftist rebel kidnapping and extortion. However, many of the militias degenerated into death squads and carried out massacres of peasants suspected of having rebel sympathies. They also killed journalists and union members accused of favoring the leftist insurgents.

The AUC, accused of committing numerous human rights violations, demobilized during the administration of former Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe. During the demobilization, thousands of paramilitaries gave testimony and handed in their weapons in exchange for benefits, including immunity from prosecution in some cases.

More than one hundred national, regional and local politicians were investigated for links with the AUC and other paramilitaries as part of scandal known as the “parapolitics,” Dozens of those accused have been convicted.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Colombia Governor Arrested, Accused of Gang Ties – 13 October 2013

The Washington Post – Colombian governor arrested on racketeering charges, suspected in 3 killings – 13 October 2013

BBC – Colombian governor Kiko Gomez charged with murder – 13 October 2013

El Tiempo – En ambulancia, sale capturado ‘Kiko’ Gómez, gobernador de La Guajira – 12 October 2013

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILIA, Brazil – Ten military police officers in Brazil are accused of torturing, murdering, and then hiding the corpse of Amarildo de Souza, a resident of the city’s biggest favela, Rocinha.

Souza, 43, was last seen by his family on July 14th, when he went to buy seasoning for the fish dinner he had bought his wife and six children. His family later learned that Souza, a bricklayer, was rounded up in a police sweep of possible drug traffickers and was taken to police headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

Prosecutor Homer das Neves said that Souza, who was an epileptic, was allegedly taken for questioning, then tortured with electric shocks and suffocated with a plastic bag. Mr. Souza’s body is still missing.

Police said that Souza had been brought in for questioning and was released. The officers state they had nothing to do with his subsequent disappearance. However, a prosecutor said there was no evidence from security camera footage that Souza ever left police headquarters. There was evidence that two security cameras were turned off or burned. A court ordered the arrest of the officers who all deny any involvement.

Souza’s wife, Elizabeth, said her husband had lived in the area without any problem for 43 years. She accused the police of “pure evil” and said they had tried to coerce her into dropping the case.

The revelations are a major setback for government efforts to “pacify” favelas by using paramilitary forces to drive out drug-trafficking gangs and replace them with resident-friendly police units known as the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP).

The pacification program is a key element of Rio’s efforts to reduce crime, improve public security, and revitalize the city before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, which are both being held in Brazil. However, favela residents have long complained that the methods used by the police are excessively brutal.

The incident was allegedly committed by members of the UPP. One of the 10 accused is the commander of the UPP in Rocinha, Edson dos Santos. It is alleged that he attempted to bribe witnesses to blame drug dealers for the killing.

Brazil’s human rights minister, Maria del Rosario, said, “what this investigation reveals is the necessity of changes so that the police are more focused, more accountable to citizens and not oriented towards criminal disregard for human rights.”

Their UPP’s involvement in Souza’s disappearance has led to protests in Rio and other cities both in Brazil and abroad. The case has drawn attention to allegations of police violence in the “pacification” of Rio’s favelas. Critics say it is indicative of a large number of disappearances in Rio and the lack of investigation into them.

For more information please see:

BBC – Brazil police charged with Rio murder over Amarildo case – 5 October 2013

CNN – 10 cops in Brazil accused of killing and hiding body – 4 October 2013

The Wall Street Journal – Police Criticized After Allegations of Torture in Rio – 3 October 2013

The Guardian – Brazil: Rio police charged over torture and death of missing favela man – 2 October 2013