Dirty Wars and Democracy

Pascale Bonnefoy, Global Post.com, Sept. 1, 2009, 19:45 ET

A Chilean judge ordered today the arrest and indictment of more than 120 former intelligence agents from the Pinochet dictatorship under charges of crimes against humanity in three major operations that took place in the 1970s.

Judge Victor Montiglio’s decision marked the first massive indictment for human rights crimes here since the courts began serious efforts in 2000 to investigate human rights violations during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).

The crimes include the disappearance of the entire Communist party leadership in 1976, in a case known as “calle Conferencia,” in reference to the street where they were abducted, and an operation known as “Colombo,” in which 119 opponents were made to disappear in 1975. This was a scandalous case — the regime, with the cooperation of its counterparts in Argentina and Brazil, mounted a cover-up operation by fabricating newspapers in those countries listing the names of the victims as having been killed in political infighting within their own organizations.

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Pagina 12, Viernes, 19 de Junio de 2009

Deben seguir cumpliendo la pena perpetua impuesta en el Juicio a las Juntas. El tribunal aclaró que la sentencia de Massera sigue vigente más allá de que fue declarado “incapaz” y que podría ser trasladado a un “establecimiento médico psiquiátrico”.

Los indultos que concedió el ex presidente Carlos Menem a los dictadores Jorge Rafael Videla y Emilio Eduardo Massera en 1990 fueron declarados inconstitucionales por la Cámara Nacional de Casación Penal. La decisión, que ratifica un fallo de la Cámara Federal, deja firmes las condenas a reclusión perpetua que ambos represores habían recibido en 1985 en el marco del Juicio a las Juntas

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Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 May 2009 10.22 BST

Victor Jara, who was killed in the first few days of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Photograph: Reuters

It was the atrocity which symbolised Chile’s descent into dictatorship: soldiers used rifle butts to smash the hands of Victor Jara, a political activist and folk singer, so he could not play guitar. Then they shot him 44 times.

Yesterday, almost 36 years later, justice caught up with one of killers. José Adolfo Paredes Márquez, a former conscript in Augusto Pinochet’s army, was charged with murder.

The burly 54-year-old was tracked down in San Sebastian, a spa town outside the capital Santiago, where he was working as a waiter and gardener.

Activists who have campaigned for the case to be reopened welcomed the announcement but urged authorities to focus on arresting commanding officers. “There are other people responsible – those who ordered the torture and the execution,” said Joan Turner Jara, the singer’s English-born widow.

Jara, a political songwriter and poet and high-profile supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende, was among thousands swept up in the aftermath of Pinochet’s CIA-backed coup in September 1973. The author of El cigarrito and Manifiesto was herded into Santiago’s football stadium which was used as a mass jail.

Soldiers broke the musician’s hands before shooting him in the head and riddling his body with bullets, one of 3,100 murders committed by Pinochet’s forces during military rule which lasted until 1990, when democracy returned to the South American country.

After the rightwing dictator died in 2006 activists stepped up efforts to find Jara’s killers despite apparent foot-dragging by prosecutors and the army.

In 2008 the case was closed after Mario Manriquez, a retired army colonel who was commanding officer at the stadium, was found guilty of the murder but was deemed not to have pulled the trigger.

Judge Juan Fuentes reopened the investigation after fresh evidence was presented and earlier this month Paredes was tracked down. The former conscript, who was 18 when the crime was committed, confessed his participation but said blame rested with commanding officers.

Campaigners have long sought a notoriously brutal commander, a tall, fair-haired officer nicknamed “El Principe” (The Prince), as the man mostly responsible. Paredes has identified him as Nelson Edgardo Haase Mazzei, a former lieutenant. He allegedly remained seated at a desk while ordering conscripts to torture and shoot prisoners, including Jara.

The stadium has since been named after its most famous victim.

Por Jacmel Cuevas P, especial para CIPER

A casi cuatro meses de conmemorarse 36 años de la muerte del destacado folclorista chileno, el tesón de su viuda Joan Turner y de sus hijas, logró que la investigación judicial llegara al punto que se creía imposible: individualizar al grupo de oficiales y conscriptos que perpetraron el asesinato. Las confesiones de los involucrados, entre ellos un conscripto que participó en forma directa en el crimen, permiten conocer las estremecedoras últimas horas de vida de Víctor Jara: un subteniente jugó a la ruleta rusa con él hasta que le descerrajó un tiro en su cabeza. Después ordenaron acribillarlo en un camarín de un subterráneo del Estadio Chile. También revelamos la historia nunca antes contada de cómo se rescató su cuerpo desde la Morgue. Junto al artista, fueron acribilladas otras 15 personas, entre los que se encontraba el ex Director de Prisiones, Litre Quiroga. Los detalles del homicidio fueron recabados en la presente investigación de Ciper.

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By Ari Melber

The Nation, May 5, 2009

Jacob Weisberg, the talented journalist, editor and opinion leader, floats a very dangerous idea in the new issue of Newsweek.

Weisberg argues that because illegal torture was essentially America’s official policy after 9/11, operating with complicity from the general public, it would be wrong to enforce US laws against torture now.This argument basically morphs the infamous Nixon standard into a referendum–if the public supports something, then it is not illegal.

Does that sound too crazy to be a serious proposal? Here is the core premise of Weisberg’s column, “Our Tacit Approval of Torture“:

…waterboarding was ordered and served up in secret. But it, too, was America’s policy–not just Dick Cheney’s. Congress was informed about what was happening and raised no objection. The public knew, too. By 2003, if you didn’t understand that the United States was inflicting torture upon those deemed enemy combatants, you weren’t paying much attention. This is part of what makes applying a criminal-justice model to those most directly responsible such a bad idea. (emphasis added)

In this lawless paradigm, public awareness of government misconduct is cited as a justification for placing government officials above the law. Weisberg rules out the “criminal justice model”–you know, those laws that govern the rest of us–because some segment of the public “knew” about government torture in 2003. “Well before the nation reelected George W. Bush in 2004,” the article states, “investigative reporters had unearthed the salient aspects of his torture policy.”

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The Latin Americanist (April 29, 2009)

A Spanish magistrate said that he will investigate abuses committed at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

In a ruling issued on Wednesday, Judge Baltasar Garzon said that he will probe the “perpetrators, the instigators, the necessary collaborators and accomplices” behind illicit actions taken at Gitmo. The judge mentioned that recently declassified papers “revealed what was previously a suspicion: the existence of an authorized and systematic program of torture and mistreatment of persons deprived of their freedom”.

Garzon’s move came after four former detainees detailed torture allegations including “sexual abuse” and “beating”. (Two of them were acquitted and “similar charges against two others were shelved.”)

Garzon’s decision was unrelated to a separate investigation against several former White House officials including ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Spanish Attorney General Candido Conde-Pumpido declared weeks ago that that case had “no merit” and could be used as a political “toy.”
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK, AFP, CNN

Friday, May 1, 2009 

So you’re through torturing people. And you’re never, ever going to do it again. You’re not that kind of country. What on earth were you thinking? And what is the best way to put it all behind you?

The United States is far from the first nation to misbehave, regret it, make itself this promise and then face this kind of question. The question might be about things far worse even than torturing a few terrorism suspects. But the possible answers still boil down to three: (1) forgive and forget; (2) forgive but don’t forget; and (3) don’t forgive and don’t forget.

Option One is off the table. In a genuine advance of civilization, some variation on a “truth commission” has become almost mandatory as proof of sincerity when the good guys (or at least when different guys) take power. President Obama frankly longs for Option Two, saying (with some justification) that he needs to worry about the future, not the past. But many Americans feel that prosecuting the perpetrators is required for reasons of catharsis or “closure.” They also remember being told from their youngest days that no one is above the law. Why should torturers, of all people, be forgiven?

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By Ryan Powers on Apr 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pm   – Thinkprogress.org

When President Obama released the four of the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) Bush-era torture memos last week, he issued a statement promising not to pursue torture prosecutions against CIA agents who relied on the memos to justify their use of torture tactics on terrorist suspects in U.S. custody. (Notably, Obama left open the possibility of prosecuting the torture architects.) “[I]t is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution,” Obama said.

But in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Manfred Nowak, explained that Obama’s grant of immunity is likely a violation of international law. As a party to the UN Convention Against Torture, the U.S. is obligated to investigate and prosecute U.S. citizens that are believed to have engaged in torture:

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New York Times, March 28, 2009

By MARLISE SIMONS

LONDON — A Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

The case, against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and others, was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by Baltasar Garzón, the crusading investigative judge who ordered the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The official said that it was “highly probable” that the case would go forward and that it could lead to arrest warrants.

The move represents a step toward ascertaining the legal accountability of top Bush administration officials for allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners in the campaign against terrorism. But some American experts said that even if warrants were issued their significance could be more symbolic than practical, and that it was a near certainty that the warrants would not lead to arrests if the officials did not leave the United States.

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