By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Clashes between the Peruvian Army and the militant remnants of the Senedero Luminoso (also known as the “Shining Path”) left a child dead in the street from gunfire.

Counter-Insurgency troops in VRAEM. (Photo Courtesy of La Republica)

A clash in Valley of the Rio Ene, Apurimac and Mantarao (VRAEM), by counter-insurgency forces and rebels left an 8 year old dead in the province of Junín, Peru. On the morning of September 8th, Army and police personnel descended into the small town of Ranrapata, Peru. Dubbed ‘Operation Mantara’ it’s stated premise was to “dismantle a terrorist camp and not to attack civilians.”

While officially a success, the operation was meant to “identify and destroy a feeding center,” which had been sheltering “supplies and members of Sendero Luminoso.” These centers were reportedly used to indoctrinate children and plan armed attacks in the VRAEM and surrounding areas. Specifically the police were attempting to capture the alleged narco-terrorist known as “Pucañahui” who commanded around 20 rebels.

Details of the operation are hazy. Authorities in Lima initially said the operation resulted in the rescue of three children who were being held by the insurgents and the arrest of two women. One of the women arrested may have been Aquila Paucarcaja Vega, who was either the mother or stepmother of the dead child. The child, Zoraida Case, was hit by a bullet in the back after crossfire between agents against the guerrillas. No one is sure what happened to Zorida Case after she was shot. Some witnesses say they saw her body being dumped in the ravine, while others say she was dragged out of the streets and dropped in the bushes.

The Minister of the Interior Wilfried Pedraza told Congress “The government deeply regrets (the death of the child), whose situation and circumstances are under investigation, but in any case is the Shining Path, the terrorist group, which should respond.” The family of the victim believe law enforcement officials were the ones firing the projectile.

The rebels have reportedly joined forces with drug cartels and producers of illegal coca for the manufacturing of cocaine. They use snipers to attack military bases in the VRAEM and ambush patrols. The guerrilla force has been largely dormant since the turn of the century but has escalated its efforts in recent years. A “truth commission” in 2000, appointed by then-President Alejandro Toledo, blamed the Shining Path for most of  nearly 70,000 deaths in the politically motivated violence during the 1980-2000 period.

For further information, please see:

The Correo – Girl Is Depressed In The Evening VRAEM No Government Presence – 16 September 2012

The Primera – Zoraida Remains Buried Amid Cries For Justice – 16 September 2012

Fox News Latino – Peru President Vows Probe Of Child’s Death In Army Operation – 14 September 2012

RPP Noticias – Sendero Luminoso Must Answer For Death Of Girl In Vraem – 13 September 2012

The Epoch Times – Peru Confronts Its Violent Past – 3 September 2012

By Margaret Janelle R. Hutchinson
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador – By moving small quantities of firearms, utilizing safe houses, and employing hundreds of routes, Ecuadorian arms traffickers have long been able to evade capture and supply weapons to the Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and other guerilla groups in Colombia.

In July, Ecuador and Colombia completed a bi-national training course to combat illicit trafficking in firearms, ammunition and explosives in the border area between the two nations; Ecuador has made notable progress in the past few months.

Ecuadorean police announced yesterday that they have identified the main routes used by arms traffickers in the country. The routes stretch across the country, with most weapons entering via the southern border with Peru.

This success is due, in part, to the capture last month of Edilson Castro Lopez, alias “Chicanero” or “Jairo,” in the province of Pichincha.  Chicanero was responsible for coordinating shipments of weapons to the FARC western command under the command “Pacho Chino” and “Sargent Easter.”

The investigation since Chicanero’s capture has revealed over 175 underground passages from Peru into Ecuador.  Once in Ecuador, guns, explosives, and ammunition are moved overland in small numbers using personal vehicles or other non-conspicuous methods.  Along the route to Colombia, the arms are stored in safe houses.

In September alone, four raids have been conducted at safe houses along known trafficking routes.  Each raid has revealed quantities of ammunition, a few weapons, and gun parts.

It appears that the week-long training involving employees of the Ministry of National Defense of Ecuador, the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Security Coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prosecutor of armed forces of Ecuador, Colombia’s Armed Forces, National Police of Ecuador, and Customs had an appreciable impact on Ecuador’s actions.

During the course, research techniques were developed in the tracing of SALW (small arms light weapons) illegal material.  Technical aspects regarding the identification of firearms and ammunition, national and international legal frameworks on the matter and judicial handling of evidence were all covered.  Host organizations addressed a number of cross-cutting issues related to the use of force, the impact of armed violence on children/girls and women, and the protection of women and children.

The training was promoted by the Government of the Republic of Ecuador, in collaboration with the Program for Development and Peace for the Northern Border, of the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) and the Regional Centre for Peace, United Nations, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC).

For further information, please see:

El Comercio – El tráfico de armas vulnera las fronteras norte y sur de Ecuador – 17 September 2012

InSight Crime – Mapping Gun Smuggling Routes in Ecuador – 17 September 2012

El Tiempo – Traficante de las FARC controlaba 175 pasos ilegales en frontera – 6 August 2012

ONU – PNUD y UNLIREC Asisten a Ecuador y Colombia Para Fortaclecer sus Cpacidades en la Lucha Contra el Tráfico Ilícito de Armas de Fuego en Zonas Fronterizas – 7 July 2012

 

 

 

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Colombia — Last month, retired General Mauricio Santoyo, a former security chief to ex-president Álvaro Uribe, pled guilty to aiding paramilitary groups in Columbia. New evidence has also surfaced that shows that he did not act alone, supporting a theory previously put forth by representative from the 2nd  Chamber of the Colombian House of Representatives, Iván Cepeda. Cepeda claimed that this was “not an isolated incident” and was part of a “criminal structure” that included numerous officers and NCOs who operated within the Antioquia Police in the ‘90s and had links to the presidency from 2002 to 2010.

General Mauricio Santoyo. (Photo Courtesy of el Heraldo).

General Santoyo, who has been extradited to the United States for ties to drug trafficking, entered his plea before the Eastern District Court of Virginia for aiding the paramilitary organization United Self-Defense of Columbia (Spanish Acronym AUC). During his plea, General Santoyo identified at least seven other senior officers of the Colombian Army and Officers of the police, including two ex-directors of that institution.

During his confession, Santoyo confessed to receiving “substantial bribes” from the AUC in-exchange for helping them “achieve acts of terrorism and drug trafficking.” Santoyo continued by explaining that he intercepted communications that provided relevant information and then relayed that information to officers of the AUC. Santoyo then admitted that he would notify the AUC of imminent arrests against members of the organization. Most of these information intercepts were made by members of the police who were specifically employed to fight against paramilitary organizations.

Santoyo was promoted to Chief of Secuirty during Presdient Uribe’s administration. There, with several commissioned officers of the National Police, Santoyo was able to participate in activities that aided the AUC, and as Chief of Security he aided the rise of many officers who had been implicated for corruption by his confession.

Ex-President Uribe denies any knowledge about the ties between Santoyo and paramilitary groups as well as having influenced Santoyo’s rise to General despite Santoyo’s questionable past. Colombian Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo states “it’s extremely clear that if Col. Santoyo had not been a part of the President’s inner circle, had not been the chief of security at the presidential palace, the situation we’re discussing today wouldn’t have happened, wherever one looks.”

There have been attempts to link Santoyo’s illegal operations with officials and politicians from within Uribe’s government. This includes the former Minister of Defense, the current president Juan Manuel Santos, former national chief of police Oscare Naranjo and the former peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, who is now a fugitive from justice.

 

For more information please see:

El Pais – Congressman Ivan Cepeda splashed seven police officers by the Case Santoyo – 12 September 2012

The Spectador – Iván Cepeda other officers linked to scandal Santoyo – 12 September 2012

Vanguardia – Santoyo is not an isolated case, is part of a criminal apparatus: Iván Cepeda  – 12 September 2012

Global Voices – Colombia: Former General Santoyo Admits Ties to Paramilitary Group – 26 August 2012

El Pais – To help the AUC, General (r) Santoyo ‘pike’ colleagues – 22 August 2012

By Margaret Janelle R. Hutchinson
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASÍLIA, Brazil – Upwards of 250 military police, backed by armored vehicles, descended on the Chatuba favela (shanty-town), located in the town of Mesquita, north of Rio de Janiero, early this morning.

The crackdown came in the wake of the gruesome discovery, Monday, of the bodies of six youths left on a street in the vicinity of Chatuba.  Police report that the boys, ages 16 to 19, had been tortured, stabbed and shot before being left naked in the road, only covered by bed-sheets.

Police blame drug traffickers, who dominate the Chatuba favela, for the deaths of the boys. The traffickers are also suspected of being behind the murders of a police cadet and an evangelical minister on Saturday, as well as the disappearance of the minister’s companion.

No shots were fired and officers launched a search for the members of the gang suspected of being behind the weekend’s violence.

Luis Ferreira de Oliveira, a suspected drug trafficker, was arrested and officers found drugs and 15,000 reais (about $7,500) at his residence, the Rio de Janeiro Public Safety Secretariat said.

The slain young men, who did not have criminal records, were heading to a waterfall near their homes and never made it there.  Their families reported them missing on Sunday.

Investigators suspect that the gang from Chatuba may have murdered the teenagers because they came from a neighborhood where a rival gang operates.

“They were tortured. It was a barbaric crime. I think that the criminals killed them in that manner to show how powerful they are,” Sandra Ornelas, a police officer in the neighboring town of Nilopolis, told reporters on Monday.

Police and the army have occupied many of Rio’s biggest favelas as part of a “pacification program” ahead of the 2014 football World Cup and the Olympics.

The authorities say their “pacification program” has managed to reduce violence and restore the dignity of hundreds of thousands of people who live in the city’s poorer quarters.

But in many cases the drug lords have moved from the wealthier central areas of the city to the outskirts, where violence was already rife.

A permanent force of 112 militarized police officers will eventually set up a permanent post in the Chatuba favela, like in other slums in Rio.

Some 5,500 police officers have been deployed in 144 Rio favelas so far.

The next level in the crackdown on favela crime may involve the use of drones to monitor criminal activity.

Reports indicate that the Brazilian government recently started testing the drones, which were manufactured using Israeli technology.  Drones could be used to support security forces operations in favelas controlled by drug gangs.

The “VANTS,” the Portuguese acronym for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), would “see what soldiers can’t see,” according to Montenegro Magalhaes Neto, from the Military’s Engineering Institute.

For more information, please see:

 iol news – Brazil slum stormed after bodies found – 12 September 2012

BBC News – Rio police occupy slum in hunt for teenagers’ killers – 11 September 2012

Fox News Latino – Brazilian police occupy shantytown after massacre – 11 September 2012

In Sight Crime – Brazil Tests Drones to Monitor Rio Favelas – 11 September 2012

Merco Press – Rio police begins to use drones to control drugs and crime in the city’s shanty towns – 10 September 2012

inforsur hoy – Six missing youths found dead in Brazilian slum – 9 September 2012

 

By Brendan Oliver Bergh
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – While 3,500 Chileans marched on Sunday in memory of the estimated 40,000 casualties of the Pinochet dictatorship, a hundred masked figures used the opportunity to riot.

Chileans March in Support of Former President Allende. (Photo Courtesy of Cooperativa)

On the 39^th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende in 1973 and installed General Pinochet; thousands marched through the streets of Santiago. Beginning in in the Hero’s Square in the center of Santiago, marchers placed lit candles to places that were used as detention centers by agents of the Pinochet dictatorship. Many of the marchers carried photos of missing relatives who disappeared during the 17 year reign of the dictatorship. Officials estimate that more than 3,000 people were killed during the 17 years of military occupation, and another 37,000 were detained as political prisoners, or were the victims of torture or exile.

General Augusto Pinochet was eventually arrested and kept under house arrest for two cases of human rights violations, but died in 2006 before receiving any conviction for the thousands of victims who died under his dictatorship. Today more than 700 retired military officers face trial for human rights violations and some 70 have been convicted and 67 of them have been incarcerated for their compliance with the military dictatorship. The Chilean courts still have over 350 open cases of concerning the disappearance of political opponents, and incidents of torture dating back to the period of the dictatorship.

Lorena Pizarro, president of the Association of Relatives of the Disappeared used the opportunity to lay a wreath on the grave of Salvador Allende and criticize the current ruling party and in light of reports of police repression, demand an “end impunity and advance truth and justice.”

While overwhelmingly a peaceful rally, there were incidents of hooded and masked individuals who rioted. There are reports of vandalized public offices and community property as rioters clashed with police and barricaded intersections and lit fires near the general cemetery. Police met the rioters’ stones and firebombs with water cannons and gas canisters.

The riots resulted in eight arrests for the destruction that occurred in the building that housed the regional secretary for education, the looting of a bank, and for the possession of Molotov cocktails.

The march ended peacefully at the general cemetery where marchers laid wreaths on the graves of the executed and disappeared. The general cemetery houses the Memorial of the Disappeared, which stands in remembrance of the victims of the dictatorship.

 

 

For further information, please see:

Univision Noticias – Chile recordara a Salvador Allende – 9 September 2012

Cooperativa – More than five thousand people marched through the disappeared – 9 September 2012

Fox News Latino – Procession by relatives of Chile dictatorship victims ends w/ incidents – 9 September 2012

Google – Thousands march in Chile in memory of victims of the Pinochet dictatorship – 9 September 2012

Terra – Thousands march in Chile in memory of victims of the Pinochet dictatorship – 9 September 2012

Cooperativa – With eight detainees ended up in memory of the disappeared – 9 September 2012