By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Peruvian prosecutors have decided not to file criminal charges against former President Alberto Fujimori or any of his ministers over a 1990s sterilization program under which thousands of women say they were forcibly sterilized.

Prosecutor Marco Guzman said there were no crimes against humanity committed by Fujimori’s government and decided to close the case. Guzman found no evidence to support claims that hundreds of mostly poor and indigenous men and women were sterilized against their will. “The women would come to the clinic, agree to the procedure, and undergo sterilization. That was the regular, normal process,” he concluded.

Human rights groups do not agree with the decision and are saying they will appeal. They allege that sterilization was forced upon more than 2,000 women under Fujimori’s government in an attempt to reduce poverty by lowering the birthrate. The campaign had the backing of international donors including the United Nations Population Fund, Japan and the United States, as well as anti-abortion and feminist organizations.

Activists say that besides being forced, the sterilizations were often carried out in unsanitary conditions.

An independent congressional commission stated that the government of President Fujimori had sterilized 346,219 women and 24,535 men during his terms in office between 1990 and 2000. The Fujimori government has always maintained all operations were consensual.

Hundreds of people, some of them illiterate, said they were forced to undergo operations and not told they could have refused. Some women say they were deceived, threatened with jail, bribed with food parcels, and otherwise pressured into the operations to meet program quotas.

A Peruvian feminist organization, Demus, condemned the decision, saying in a statement: “The program was a public policy that promoted the sterilization of thousands of women in the country, especially in rural areas, who by deception and blackmail were deprived of their reproductive capacities.”

The original investigation into allegations of forced sterilization was archived in 2009, but prosecutors reopened the investigation again in 2011 at the urging of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, is now in prison serving four concurrent sentences for corruption, authorizing death squads, and human rights abuses. The longest is 25 years.

For more information please see:

The Boston Globe – Fujimori cleared in Peru sterilization case – 26 January 2014

CNN – Peru will not prosecute former President over sterilization campaign – 25 January 2014

BBC – Peru closes forced sterilisation probe and clears ex-President Alberto Fujimori – 24 January 2014

Fox News –Peru’s Fujimori spared prosecution for 1990s sterilization program – 24 January 2014

By Ellis Cortez
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A former Argentine army officer accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 1976-83 military dictatorship has escaped while in transit to a court in Buenos Aires.

Alejandro Lawless, 66, fled at midday from a police van outside a court building where he was being taken to along with other prisoners. Airport Security Police said they were temporarily distracted by escorting other prisoners to the court house. Lawless, who was not wearing handcuffs, took advantage of their distraction and escaped.

Lawless was an engineer who had served as a lieutenant-colonel in the army. He was found guilty in 2010 for his involvement in kidnapping, torturing and killing political opponents of the government between 1976 and 1983.The charges he faces entail his time working in the Navy and the Command Corps V of the Army.

Investigations into human rights abuses committed under the military regime have led to the imprisonment of key figures of the military junta, including that of Gen Jorge Rafael Videla who died in prison earlier this year while serving a life sentence.

Lawless is the third convicted military officer to escape from custody this year. The others were Jorge Olivera and Gustavo De Marchi who broke out of a military hospital in July and are still on the run. Seven staff members were relieved of their duties following their escape.

Estela de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers of  Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization, expressed dismay at his escape. “It is negligence or, to think the worst, complicity. This is serious, it will have to be investigated and those responsible sanctioned,” Estela de Carlotto told reporters.

An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the seven years of military rule in a campaign against perceived dissidents known as the Dirty War.

For more information please see:

Buenos Aires Herald – Carlotto says repressor Lawless escaped with ‘complicity’ – 13 November 2013

The Argentina Independent – Former Army Officer Escapes Custody on way to Tribunales – 13 November 2013

BBC – Jailed Argentine ex-army officer Alejandro Lawless escapes – 13 November 2013

Global Post – Jailed former Argentine army officer Alejandro Lawless escapes – 13 November 2013

La Nacion – Se fugó un ex militar procesado por delitos de lesa humanidad – 12 November 2013

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