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

by Emilee Gaebler
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador’s National Court of Justice, the highest court in the nation, has upheld a ruling in a libel case that restricts the freedom of the press.  On Wednesday, the court sentenced three people from the newspaper El Universo to pay a fine of $40 million to Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa. 

Emilio Palacio, an editor and the writer of the article in question, was fined $30 million.  The owners of the newspaper, Cesar Perez and Nicolas Perez, were fined $10 million.  All three of the men were additionally sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Correa instigated a libel suit against the newspaper El Universo in March of 2011 for an article they printed about him.  In the article, it was insinuated that the Correa had authorized soldiers to shoot on a hospital with innocent civilians inside. 

The article was printed following a police strike in September of 2011.  The police were revolting against a new austerity law that reduced their bonus pay and Correa pushed into the crowd to personally address some of the officers leading the rebellion.  

Media reports from the time state that Correa confronted them by opening his shirt and stating, “If you want to kill the president, here he is.  Kill him, if you want to.  Kill him, if you are brave enough.”  After this, as Correa’s guards escorted him from the area, he was attacked with tear gas and shoved by the protestors.

Correa was taken to a nearby hospital from which he declared a state of emergency.  Rebellious police protestors surrounded the hospital and Correa was trapped inside of it for the next 12 hours.  He was eventually rescued by the military in an operation that left two dead and dozens injured from gunshots.

The article, printed by El Universo, and written by Palacio, called Correa a dictator and referenced the strike as an attempted coup.  It also stated that the President had ordered the military to fire on the hospital regardless of the innocent civilians that would be injured by such a move.  The article stated: 

 “In the future, a new president, maybe an enemy of yours, may bring you to a criminal court for ordering to open fire at discretion and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people. Do not forget, there is no statute of limitation for crimes against humanity.”

The libel suit was brought as a criminal and not a civil charge.  The trial court found the article to be libelous and imposed the three year imprisonment and $40 million fine from which El Universo appealed.  The decision handed down yesterday to uphold the sentence was final.  Ecuador’s highest court termed any appeal from their decision as “out of order.”

Amnesty International’s Deputy America’s Director, Guadalupe Marengo, says that this case has raised a number of concerns, “this harsh sentence is an attack on the right to free speech for everyone in Ecuador, and will discourage journalists from engaging in legitimate criticism of the government.”

“Libel cases should be dealt with in civil trials and should not involve jail terms. Peaceful criticism of government policies must never be the subject of criminal proceedings, as regional and international human rights bodies have unequivocally stated.”

El Universo and Palacio have made it clear that they will not accept this ruling as they claim they were restricted from making a proper defense and the judge’s selection was manipulated by Correa.

 “Of course this sets a precedent: For the first time in the history of Latin America, and I suppose, the world, a president wins $40 million for his pocket by manipulating justice, naming the judges he desired, and using his influence,” was Palacio’s statement.

The defense will now take the case to an international level, going first to the Interamerican Human Rights Commission and then the Interamerican Human Rights Court.  In the current political climate of Ecuador this is likely the best option, especially with the recent rising concerns over the increased restrictions of the press.

As reported by Aljazeera, shortly after his election in 2007, Correa re-wrote Ecuador’s constitution to lengthen the presidential term and to allow greater government control of the media.  This allowed for the government to take command of a variety of media outlets including TV stations and radio stations.  Fundamedios, an Ecuadorian free media advocacy group, estimates that there have so far been 400 violations of freedom of the press during Correa’s presidency. 

Prior to the court’s announcement, Correa made it clear that he viewed the case as one in which the “corrupt private press” was going to be held accountable for their actions.  Following the decision he announced that, “the truth has shined…We have set a precedent. This sentence and this process are historic. They demonstrate that nobody has the right to tarnish the truth.”

For more information, please see;
BBC – Ecuador Court Uphold $40M Rafael Correa Victory – 16 February 2012
Chicago Tribune – Ecuador Top Court Upholds Libel Ruling Against Newspaper – 16 February 2012
CNN – Ecuador High Court Upholds $40 Million Libel Suit – 16 February 2012
France 24 – Libel Case Brings “Ridicule” on Ecuador Says Lawyer – 16 Febraury 2012
The West Australian – Ecuador Leader Wins Libel Suit Against Newspaper – 16 February 2012
Aljazeera – President v. the Media in Ecuador – 1 December 2012
Refworld- Ecuador Court Sentences Journalists to Prison in Presidential Libel Case – 22 July 2011
The Suffolk Journal – Police Uprising in Ecuador Causes Chaos – 20 October 2011