by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

SANTIAGO, Chile – The Aysén region of Chile continues to experience unrest as local residents rebel against the government in an attempt to get better health care access, fuel subsidies, education programs and infrastructure improvements.

On Thursday, February 23, about 400 protestors in the Aysén area clashed with police when their week long blockade of the southern highways was not dismantled.  Police also clashed with protestors in the capital city of Santiago on Thursday.   A group of over 1,000 people, mainly students, were demonstrating in support of the Aysén cause.

In both instances, the Chilean police forces used tear gas and water cannons in dispersing the groups.  As reported by the Santiago Times, the protest in Santiago was the third one this week and was markedly different; there were hardly any signs and no chanting.  Instead, the group, immediately upon entering the square, began to throw rocks at the buildings and the armored police cars surrounding them.

The Aysén protest movement began last Friday when negotiations with the government broke down.  The Aysén region is in southern Patagonia and is a rural area that largely subsists on the tourism industry.  The cost of living in the area is disparately high in comparison to those living in urban areas.  Local leaders had been in talks to get higher government investments in the area.

The uprising is led by the Social Movement for the Aysén Region (MSPRA) which is a collaboration of labor, environmental and student organizations.  The week-long blockade of the highways is significantly slowing the tourism industry as well as causing reported food shortages.  Residents are describing the situation as a war zone

“Tonight is a night of terror like every night, because this is turning into a war. It’s not just clashes anymore but a war where rocks fly, pellets fly, Molotov cocktails fly, buckshot flies. There are all kinds of things outside our homes,” was a statement by an unidentified resident to NTN24 News.

On Friday the protest expanded into the fishing industry as well.  Roughly 200 local fishermen blockaded the North Route 9 of the Magallanese strait and access to the Punta Arenas airport.  They were demonstrating their solidarity with the overall Aysén movement as well as protesting against proposed amendments to the fishing and aquaculture laws which favor “big business” over local production.

For more information, please see;

NTN24 News – Aysén Protestors Clash with Chilean Police – 24 February 2012

The Santiago Times – Chile’s Local Fishermen Add More Roadblocks in Aysén Protests– 24 February 2012

The Santiago Times – Aysén Protest Fails to Make Waves in Chile’s Capital – 23 February 2012

The Guardian – Clashes with Police in Santiago over Aysén Region – 21 February 2012

by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Yesterday police and a crowd of protestors clashed in the Plaza Murillo, the center of the national government.  Roughly 50 disabled individuals ended a 1,000 mile protest walk at the Plaza Murillo and were met by police barricades.

Upon entering the Plaza the group attempted to pass the barricades and the police stepped in to stop them.  Some of the protestors used their wheelchairs, canes and crutches to fight the police.  Pepper spray was used to disperse and end the riot.

La Razón, a daily news agency in Bolivia, reports that four protestors were detained by police and roughly 10 of the disabled had minor injuries from the confrontation.  The police report that about 10 officers were also injured.

The group began the protest on the 15 of November, roughly 100 days ago, in the streets of Trinidad, Bolivia.  Along the way the protestors were fed and given places to sleep by families in the towns they passed through.

The protestors sought to draw attention to a government statute, passed on the 5th of November, that kept monthly payment subsidies, to those disabled, at roughly $130 US.  The demand of the group was that payment be increased to $400 US; a more appropriate amount which they could viably live on.  They also want to establish a more integrated place in society for those with disabilities.

The march was especially symbolic as it claimed for those disabled a strong political identity just like any other social group.  They specifically chose to end the march at Plaza Murillo as that is where other groups typically gather for protests.

“Why not us?  It is a public space and like everyone we all have the right to protest,” said Camilo Bianchi, a leader of the group.

Living in Bolivia as a disabled individual is not an easy life.  Most of the buildings throughout the nation are not handicapped accessible and there is a strong prejudice that continues to exist against them.  Most who are disabled find it impossible to work or to attend school.

“It’s very hard to be a person with a disability. Even our own husbands abandon us because they feel ashamed of us. I look after my four children alone, washing and ironing clothes for people, and doing whatever I can,” said Domitila Franco, one of the protestors.

The group has now declared that 10 individuals will begin a hunger strike in an attempt to gain governmental acquiescence to their demands.  The government’s defense of its actions yesterday centered on the theory that the group had been “infiltrated” by other political activists.  This presented too great of a threat to the Plaza as a public forum and thus police barricades were erected.

For more information, please see;

BBC News – Bolivia’s Disabled Clash with Police Over Subsidies – 24 February 2012

Bolivia Weekly – Disabled Battle Police in the Street – 24 February 2012

The Guardian – Disabled Protestors Clash with Police in Bolivia – 24 February 2012

La Razón – Tras la Violencia, Discapacitados Ingresan en Huelga de Hambre – 24 February 2012

By Paula Buzzi
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela  — Jewish groups in Venezuela and around the world are urging President Hugo Chavez to stop using anti-Semetic attacks as a political tool against opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski. International groups are voicing concerns that Chavez’s campaign for presidency will only become more threatening and offensive as the October elections approach.

Last week, the government-run website of Radio Nacional de Venezuela posted a column that highlighted the Jewish ancestry of Capriles; his grandparents were Polish Holocaust survivors. The column labeled Capriles a secret follower of Zionism, which is a Jewish political movement that the column called “the most rotten sentiments represented by humanity.” The column urged Venezuelans to reject “international Zionism” by re-electing Chavez.

Abraham Foxman, the director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, believes Chavez’s anti-Semitic remarks are an early attempt to cast Capriles as a “traitorous Jew” who is not worthy of the presidency. “The Venezuelan political campaign has just begun, and this early appearance of government-sanctioned anti-Semitism is a deeply troubling sign of the depths that President Chavez is willing to go to retain his oppressive power,” he said.

In 2008, A U.S. State Department report named Venezuela a country where its leaders and governments “fan the flames of anti-Semitic hatred within their own societies and even beyond their borders.” The report also criticized Venezuela’s government-sponsored mass media for functioning as a medium for anti-Semitism.

Other attacks coming from the Chavez campaign include accusations that Capriles is involved in a group that promotes the “Aryan race” with ties to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and that he is a pig and part of South America’s bourgeoisie. “You are not going to be able to disguise yourself, even if you look for advisers, masks. Dress yourself up however you dress yourself up. Pig’s tail, pig’s ears, pig’s nose: It’s a pig,” Chavez said.

Capriles, who spent four months in jail in 2004 on charges related to an attempted coup against Chavez, has denied the accusations against him in an interview and said he wants to focus his campaign on talking about the problems that really bother Venezuelans such as crime and unemployment. “They came here and they called me ‘Nazi,’ when my grandmother was in the Warsaw Ghetto,” Capriles told The Forward newspaper in response to the accusations.

Despite the aggressive campaign against him, Capriles is currently believed to be the most popular politician in Venezuela and a strong contender against Chavez, a socialist who has ruled Venezuela for the last 13 years. Chavez and Capriles will face off in October for the Venezuelan presidency.

For further information, please see:

International Business Times – Venezuela: Hugo Chavez’ Anti-Semitic Election Campaign – 24 February 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek – Chavez Media Say Rival Capriles Backs Plots From Nazi to Zionist – 21 February 2012

ABC News – Jewish Group: Chavez Foe a Target of Anti-Semitism – 17 February 2011

CNN – Jewish Groups Decry ‘anti-Semitic’ Venezuelan State Media Article – 19 February 2012

by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Yesterday, a packed commuter train, on the Once line, crashed into the end of the train station.  Workers and rescue personnel have spent the last 24 hours freeing those still trapped in the crumpled train.  The death toll from the accident currently sits at 50 people, including 3 children.

Close to 600 passengers were injured.  Hospitals in Buenos Aires have been overwhelmed both with working to give aid to those injured and with attempts to reunite family members trying to find loved ones.

Today, in remembrance of the accident, flags across the country were flown at half-mast.  They will fly at half-mast tomorrow as well.  Identification of those who were killed as well as those injured has been slow.  Many have been noted on the lists as “name unknown.”

Mirta Soria, is looking for her 19-year old niece who she believes was on the train.  She thinks that her niece’s wallet was lost in the accident and now she is either in a hospital or morgue.  Soria has been searching throughout the night.  “I am tired, and just have to keep going. I am waiting, and waiting, hoping that she is here,” she said.  A similar sentiment that hundreds of others continue to echo.

Rescue workers had to use vaseline and oil to pull passengers out of the crumpled cars and apart from each other.  As reported by the Boston Globe, it took hours for workers to pull out over a hundred people from one area of the train where they had been compressed into a few square feet of space.

Initial reports indicate that the train’s operator had difficulties with the brakes on the train throughout the morning.  The accident occurred when the train came into the station and was not able to stop.  It slammed into the barrier wall at the end of the line still going at almost 20 miles per hour.

Two cars were essentially folded into each other during the accident.  Passengers recounted that the windows broke and the tops of the train cars separated from the floors.  People were thrown out of their seats and into each other.  The train was extensively overcrowded as it was a rush-hour commuter train.  The Transportation Minister notes that during peak hours each train roughly carries 1200 to 1500 people.

The high death toll makes this the worst train accident in Argentina since February 1 in 1970, when 200 people were killed as two trains collided at full speed.  In the last 2 years there have been five other accidents involving the public transportation system in Argentina.

For more information, please see;

Boston Globe – Argentine Train Crash Toll at 50, Hundreds Injured – 23 February 2012

Mail Online – Train Crash in Argentina Kills 49 and Leaves Hundreds More Injured After Brakes Fail at Busy Station – 23 February 2012

Huffington Post – Argentina Train Accident Kills at Least 40, Injures More than 500 – 22 February 2012

BBC Mundo – La Realidad del Sistema Ferroviario de Argentina – 22 February 2012