A Voice for the Voiceless

By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Colombia—An investigation into Colombia’s former president Alvaro Uribe has been opened by the Accusation Commission of the Colombian House of Representatives.  The investigation, which began on Tuesday, will discover any role Uribe may have played in the illegal wiretapping of political opponents.  The scandal has been called “far worse than Watergate” by the Washington Office on Latin America.

Numerous  officials who served under Uribe have also been under fire.  Bernardo Moreno, who was Uribe’s personal secretary, was convicted of illegally wiretapping politicians, journalists, human rights organizations, and Supreme Court magistrates.  Moreno was banned from holding any public office for 18 years.

Andres Felipe Arias, who served under Uribe as agricultural minister, is also being investigated for allegedly funneling millions of dollars in state subsidies for impoverished farmers into affluent families.  It is believed that the money went to landowners and agro-industrial companies that supported Uribe in his 2006 presidential campaign.  Arias is a familiar name to many Colombians as he recently ran for president against the current President Santos.

Although Uribe has admitted responsibility for Moreno’s acts, he has fervently defended his administration.  “We avoided allowing the guerrillas and paramilitaries who took the country to turn Colombia into a failing state,” he recently posted on the social networking website Twitter.  Uribe also Tweeted about the accomplishments of his presidency, such as battling poverty and extraditing drug traffickers.

Uribe is now teaching at Georgetown University and continues to be an object of controversy.  Last month, while giving a lecture, Uribe was protested by demonstrators outside; inside, a student approached the former president and confronted him about his poor human rights record.

“This was Uribe trying to clean his image, basically, in front of our future leaders,” the student later told Newsweek.  “He needs to be put in front of a criminal court.”

More than 150 scholars, including 10 Georgetown professors, have signed a petition calling for Uribe’s termination from his Georgetown post.  The accompanying letter, composed by a priest, stated that Uribe’s position at the institution “is not only deeply offensive to those Colombians who still maintain moral principles, but also places at high risk the ethical development of the young people who attend our university.”

For more information, please see:

Colombia Reports-Uribe mounts Twitter defense of policies-14 October 2010

Radio Netherlands Worldwide-Colombia’s Congress Investigates ex-president Uribe-13 October 2010

Newsweek-Appointment of Colombian Ex-President Sparks Controversy at Georgetown-13 October 2010

Colombia Reports-Congress opens wiretap investigation against Uribe-12 October 2010

By Patrick Vanderpool
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

 LIMA, Peru – High ranking members of Peru’s military have been sentenced to prison terms that range from fifteen to twenty-five years for their roles in civilian massacres.

Vladimiro Montesinos, former intelligence chief under ex-President Alberto Fujimori, and military commander Nicolás Hermoza, were convicted of ordering and carrying out killings on civilians.

Aside from President Fujimori, Montesinos and Hermoza were the two most powerful men in the political regime from 1990-2000.  The two disgraced military men were found guilty of aggravated homicide in the 1991 massacre of fifteen people in the Lima neighborhood of Barrios Altos, and the killings in 1992 of nine peasants in the northern town of El Santa and journalist Pedro Yauri.  Montesinos and Hermoza were responsible for authorizing a special commando unit that carried out the killings.

Montesinos and Hermoza’s actions were not an isolated occurrence.  Retired generals Julio Salazar, former head of the National Intelligence Service, and Juan Rivero, former head of the Army Intelligence Directorate are also facing twenty-five year sentences for their roles in the massacres.  Additionally, Santiago Martin Rivas, the army major who headed the death squad known as the “Colina Group” and major Carlos Pichilingüe, his right-hand man, were sentenced to twenty-five years as well.

Rosa Rojas, whose husband and eight-year-old son were among a group massacred in Barrios Altos stated, “[W]e are satisfied with the sentences, but we aren’t happy. Nothing will relieve the pain we carry inside.”  Rojas went on to say that “[m]y son Javier received eight bullets, one for each year of his life. That pain can’t be erased by a sentence.”

In the case of the Barrios Altos massacre, which claimed Rojas’ husband and son, it was later reported that the killers actually went to the wrong address, and slaughtered a group of people who were not suspects.

During the trial, the defendants justified their crimes claiming that they were “at war against terrorism.”  The Fujimori regime was struggling with the Shining Path, a violent left-leaning Peruvian terrorist group.

Montesinos is already serving a twenty year sentence for his participation in unrelated human rights abuses.  However, under Peruvian law, sentences cannot be served consecutively.

For more information, please see:

Living in Peru – Fujimori’s Right Hand Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison – 5 October 2010

IPS – No Sentence will Bring them Back to Life – 4 October 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune – Former Members of Peru Military Brass Sentenced for Massacres – 1 October 2010