By Brenda Lopez Romero

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MEXICO CITY, Mexico – The National Commission for Human Rights reported that as of today twelve journalists have been killed throughout the Republic of Mexico. It stated that eight persons considered disappeared should be added to the list of violence against reporters. Seven of the reporters had been victims of attempted killings.

The Commission stated that “Mexico has become one of the highest risks for working as a journalist.” The Commission also opened up an investigation to expedite the homicides of many of the victims, and has demanded that the government take a more proactive and efficient approach in their investigations in order to obtain justice.

The Commission reported that since 2000, a total of fifty-seven journalists have been victims of aggression with countless more in complaints of abuses against journalists. It reiterated that there are also countless more that go unreported. The Commission stated “every time there are more communicators that in the exercise of their profession, they are victims of threats, intimidations, persecutions, attempts, and forced disappearances.”

For more information, please see:

Milenio.com – Doce periodistas asesinados en Mexico durante 2009 – 25 December 2009

El Algora – Doce peiodistas han sido asesinados – 11 December 2009

Reporteros Sin Fronteras – Asesinados doce periodistas en Mindanao: “Un dia negro para la libertad de infromar – 23 November 2009

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – In its first Christmas Eve vote since 1895, the United States Senate passed a reform bill that will change the health care system in the United States. The bill will provide health care coverage to millions of Americans that are uninsured now. 

The Senate passed the health care bill along party lines. The final tally of the vote was sixty to thirty-nine. All fifty eight Democrats and two Independents voted to send the bill to the Conference Committee with the House of Representatives. The Senate version of the health care bill is similar in some aspects to the version passed earlier by the House. However, there are some notable differences between the two pieces of legislation. 

The Senate version of the health care reform bill will cost approximately $871 billion dollars. The House version of the bill costs approximately one trillion dollars. Both costs would be paid over a period of ten years. Under the Senate version of the health care reform bill about fifteen million more people would be added to the health insurance rolls.

Under both the Senate version of the bill and the House version of the bill, approximately thirty million more people would have health insurance. Both versions would prevent suppliers of health insurance from denying people coverage because of pre-existing condition. Insurers would be barred from increasing interest rates because of a person’s gender or past medical history. Both versions of the health insurance bill would make it easier for small businesses and the unemployed to purchase coverage.

Nevertheless, there are major differences between the two pieces of legislation. The most revealing difference between the two versions is that the House has a public option while the Senate does not. The public option is something that the Democrats have fought hard for since taking the majority in both the House and the Senate. Another striking difference between the two versions is how health insurance reform is going to be paid. Under the House version, those people making five hundred thousand dollars or more per year and those families making more than a million dollars a year will pay a five point four income tax surcharge. Under the Senate bill, health insurance companies would be subject a forty percent tax when they only offer the most premium plans that only the wealthy could afford. 

For more information, please see:

CNN – Senate Approves Health Care Reform Bill – 24 December 2009

MSNBC – Senate Passes Historic Health Care Legislation – 24 December 2009

NYTIMES – Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul on Party-Line Vote – 24 December 2009

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Last month, United States Major General Anthony Cucolo issued a statement saying that troops under his command in Iraq would be subject to court martial if they were found to be pregnant or that they have impregnated a women. This week, Cucolo issued a statement that he would never actually subject a violator of the the regulation to a trial but wanted to echo the seriousness of the situation.

General Cucolo commands more than 22,000 troops in Iraq. The troops under his command are stationed throughout the northern provinces in Iraq. This includes cities such as Tikrit, Kirkuk, and Mosul. Of the 22,0000 troops under Cucolo’s command, 1,682 are female. 

The military has a policy of sending women home within fourteen days after finding out they are pregnant. The levels of troops within the ranks are lessened by sending these women home in the time of war. This diminishing of the troops within units places strain and stress on the unit to compensate for those who are are sent home to the United States because of the pregnancy. 

According to army regulations, each commander of a unit has the option to create supplemental rules that govern the unit troops. Each general is not allowed to lessen the rules of the General Order but can add rules to the General Order. Cucolo stated that his order of court martialing pregnant women and the men who are also involved was implemented after great consultation. He stated that he consulted with his commanders, lawyers, and two female soldiers before implementing the regulation. The two female officers supported the measure fully. 

Since coming out with the order, General Cucolo has faced a great deal of criticism. National Organization of Women’s president, Terry O’Neil stated that she is going to lobby Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Obama to change the order. She likened the order to the discrimination perpetuated against women in the 1800’s. Also, four U.S. Senators have written letters to General Cucolo asking him to rescind the order. The letters state “We can think of no greater deterrent to women contemplating a military career than the image of a pregnant women being severely punished simply for conceiving a child.” The letter was signed by Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. 

For more information, please see:

ABC – Four Senators Demand General Rescind Order on Pregnant Soldiers – 22 December 2009

CNN – Pregnant Soldiers Won’t be Court-Martialed, Commander Says – 22 December 2009

MSNBC – General: No Trials of Pregnant Soldiers in Iraq – 22 December 2009

By William Miller

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

OTTAWA, Canada – A woman has filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission claiming she was racially profiled when authorities selected her for a strip search at an Ottawa Airport. Charmaine Archer, a duel citizen of both Canada and Jamaica, and her four-year-old son were pulled aside by authorities upon returning from Jamaica.

Archer went to Jamaica for four days to attend her grandmother’s funeral. She was stopped after exiting a plane coming from Philadelphia to the Ottawa airport.

Authorities claim that they selected her for screening because of her short stay in Jamaica and because she purchased her ticket at the last minute. She however claims that her selection was racially motivated. As archer points out, “I was the only black person on that flight and I was the only one in there being searched. I have all reason to assume it was racial profiling.”

Authorities unpacked her suitcase and tested her belongings for the presence of drugs. They claimed that her tooth brush tested positive for Marijuana and heroin during the search. Archer maintains that this was a lie: “I don’t do drugs, I don’t know anybody that does drugs and I wasn’t around drugs when I was in Jamaica. … I come from an upstanding family and nobody touched that toothbrush but me.”

Archer complied with the guards when they first pulled her aside and continued to cooperate as they searched her belongings. It was not until they told her she would have to be strip searched that she protested saying she would rather be arrested. She was handcuffed and forced to comply with a full cavity search despite her protest. She has now decided to file a complaint. No drugs were found during the strip search.

Archer says that her goal is to show that authorities faked the presence of drugs on her toothbrush and to make sure the video tape goes public so people will know she was compliant up until she was strip searched. She has contacted the Human Rights Commission and expects to hear back from them next week.

For more information, please see:

Winnipeg Free Press – Strip Search Criticized – 21 December 2009

Montreal Gazette – Woman to File Human Rights Complaint after Airport Strip Search – 20 December 2009

Montreal Gazette – Woman Claims Profiling Following Strip Search – 19 December 2009

By Brenda Lopez Romero
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

Washington, D.C. – Six months after an all-white jury in Schuylkill County acquitted two young men of aggravated assault and one of murder of Luis Ramirez, the federal government indicted five people related to Mr. Ramirez’s case.

Mr. Ramirez was beaten into a coma that led to his death that was found to be racially motivated in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in July 2008. The federal government brought charges for hate crimes, obstruction of justice and conspiracy. The crime has caused racial tension in the small town. According to the Department of Justice, the two young men that committed the beating while shouting racial epithets at him, Derrick Donchak and Brandon Piekarsky, then seventeen and nineteen, are accused of hate crimes.

Donchak also faces three counts of conspiring to obstruct justice because he is accused of attempting to organize a cover-up with the Shenandoah Police Department. Three police officers were also indicted. Police Chief Matthew Nestor, Lieutenant William Moyer and Officer Jason Hayes are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. Moyer faces additional charges of witness and evidence tampering and making false statements to the FBI. Officer Hayes was dating Piekarsky’s mother at the time.

 

Piekarsky had delivered a fatal kick to Ramirez’s head after Ramirez was knocked to the ground. The state medical examiner found that Ramirez died from blunt-force trauma to the head, according to the state prosecution.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell denounced the attack as racially motivated and asked the Justice Department to intervene. After the verdict, Rendell, in his letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recommending the Justice Department pursue civil rights charges stated “the evidence suggests that Mr. Ramirez was targeted, beaten and killed because he was Mexican … Such lawlessness and violence hurts not only the victim of the attack, but also our towns and communities that are torn apart by such bigotry and intolerance.”

The indictment read that Nestor, Moyer and Hayes purposefully failed to “memorialize or record” statements made by Piekarsky and “wrote false and misleading official reports” to “intentionally omitted information about the true nature of the assault and the investigation.”

Crystal Dillman, Ramirez’s fiancée, welcomes the indictments, but is afraid for her safety and had to moved to an undisclosed location outside Shenandoah because her truck was vandalized and people have yelled racial epithets at her on the streets, according to her attorney.

The Department of Justice said “the FBI wants to hear from anyone who may have information regarding alleged civil rights violations or public corruption in Schuylkill County,” and those with information can contact the Allentown, Pennsylvania, FBI office.

For more information, please see:

CNN – 3 Police Officers Among 5 People Indicted in Race-Related Beating – 15 December 2009

NY Daily News – 4 Cops, 2 Teens Indicted in Hate Crime Probe of Fatal Attack on Latino Man – 15 December 2009

WNEP News Station – Death of Immigrant Leads to Federal Charges – 15 December 2009