HRW: 11,000 killed by Rio and Sao Paulo Police Since 2003

HRW: 11,000 killed by Rio and Sao Paulo Police Since 2003

Police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have killed more than 11,000 people since 2003, many of which could be considered “extrajudicial killings” This according to a new Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday. The report says most of the shootings have been identified as “resistance” killings—instances in which the police returned fire against those usually tied to drug gangs—but the real nature of such killings is frequently covered up. According to the New York Times report on the HRW findings, “police investigators routinely failed to conduct proper inquiries into deadly shootings by police officers, helping ensure that responsibility could not be established and that the guilty remained unpunished.” Daniel Wilkinson, HRW’s Deputy Americas Director, says “The problem with the current system and the reason these killings continue is that the criminal justice system relies entirely on police investigators to resolve these cases, and they don’t do it.”

With no current system of accountability, HRW suggests that public prosecutors’ offices in Rio and Sao Paulo be created as a special unit to focus on police resistance cases. The group also proposes that public security officials “establish and strictly enforce crime-scene protocols that deter officers from engaging in cover-up techniques, and that they prosecute officers who engage in such activities,” in the Times words.

In response to the report, the secretary of security in São Paulo noted that lethal force by the police in São Paulo is actually on the decline, having fallen by almost 50 percent since 2003. He also added that new training programs for police in the state are “yielding positive results.” The Washington Post adds that Rio’s top public security official stated in April that he could not simply dismiss officers suspected of rights violations. “We only have one way to do this and that is to develop proof that the officer has committed a crime.” There, new community policing program continues to be implemented as an alternative strategy for providing citizen security.

Honduras Round-Up

With the latest from Honduras, the Miami Herald writes that disputed president-elect Pepe Lobo met Tuesday with Costa Rica’s Oscar Arias and Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli. Of all the Central American heads of state, Arias and Martinelli are the only two who have recognized the Nov. 29 elections in Honduras. Speaking with reporters Arias remarked, “I have faith that the international community, especially the European Union and the majority of countries on this continent, little by little will recognize the [newly] elected government of Honduras. Honduras has suffered far too much.” Arias and Martinelli also called on Roberto Micheletti to step down from the presidency. For his part, Mr. Lobo’s also announced Tuesday that he will seek amnesty for all parties to the last months of crisis, following suggestions made by Mr. Arias.

Bloomberg reports that the MERCOSUR trade bloc—which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and most recently Venezuela—condemned Honduran elections as “illegitimate and illegal” during this week’s meetings in Montevideo. The group passed a resolution declaring “the grave violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms against the Honduran people are unacceptable.” And as speculation continued that Brazil might recognize the Nov. 29 election of Pepe Lobo, Brazil made its position crystal clear (again) earlier this week. “One thing is dealing with the fact that there were elections and another is recognizing the legitimacy of the elections,'' Lula’s spokesman told reporters Monday. “And for now, Brazil does not recognize that legitimacy. The president's position is clear. Brazil does not intend to recognize a government elected in a process that was organized by an illegitimate government.” Although I suppose the words “for now” will keep some speculation churning. More on this from RAJ at Honduras Coup 2009.

The OAS’s chief, José Miguel Insulza, meanwhile, has also declared that Honduras cannot be reintegrated into the Inter-American body until the country “reaches a true restoration of its democratic regime and the outcome of the coup of June 28 has been overcome.” Hinting at what exactly this might mean, Insulza said Pepe Lobo must:

“Bring to an end the persecution of José Manuel Zelaya, break clearly and publicly from what happened in these months, fully reestablish the respect for human rights and public liberties, and summon all democratic forces to a great National Accord.”

Speaking of the Nov. 29 elections specifically, Insulza went on:

“An election does not erase, on its own, the forced deposition of the constitutional President, his expulsion from the country and his seclusion, even today, under precarious conditions in the enclosed Embassy of a sister country.”

According to RAJ, Lobo has hinted that he may allow Zelaya to live in Honduras, without persecution or prosecution, after January 27. But, the president-elect has taken no actions to repudiate the June coup against the Zelaya government.

The AP adds that the State Dept. lifted its travel advisory for Honduras on Tuesday, saying “the improved security situation there has removed the immediate threat to the safety of U.S. citizens in the country.” [No update yet on State’s webpage]. In a separate piece, however, two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed Honduras’s top anti-drug official in Tegucigalpa on Tuesday, suggesting problems of citizen security and drug trafficking still run deep.

And finally, two opinions. CIP’s Laura Carlsen, in Tegucigalpa for the Nov. 29 elections, writes at Foreign Policy in Focus:

“…Throughout the country, farmers, feminists, union members and citizens are more organized than ever before. The demand for the constitutional assembly to change one of the world's most obsolete constitutions is at the center of this new phase.

In the end, the Honduran political crisis cannot be resolved without a legal means to channel dissent and eliminate the gross injustices of Honduran society. A broad swathe of the population that rejects the "elections panacea" scenario is determined to fight for just that, and nothing less. They deserve the support of the U.S. government and the rest of the international community.”

And CIP President and former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador and Paraguay, Robert White, writes about how U.S. policy on Honduras has ended a brief U.S.-Latin American partnership.

“Lula, and other Latin American democratic leaders, understood that by "equal partnership" Obama meant a sharing of responsibility and joint action with other American states to safeguard the future of democracy in the hemisphere. Unfortunately, in the case of Honduras, our diplomats apparently did not get Obama's message.”

In Other News:

Venezuela and Colombia Ambassadors in FP

Foreign Policy today opens its pages to Bernardo Alvarez and Carolina Barco, ambassadors to the U.S. from Venezuela and Colombia, respectively. Each tells their side of the tense Venezuela-Colombia relationship.

7000 Killed in Mexico in 2009 alone

Mexico’s El Universal reports that 7000 have been killed just this year in Mexico’s still-bloody drug wars. Thirty-one individuals were killed on a single day (Monday) says the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. More on Mexican military abuses in the now available Amnesty International report, as reported yesterday.

More on Chile and Eduardo Frei Murder

A judge in Chile announced yesterday that Eduardo Frei did not die of natural causes in 1982 but was rather poisoned by agents of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. “…we had always doubted and thought that something else had happened,” Carmen Frei, one of the former president's seven children, said in an interview Tuesday.

John Dinges is no stranger to political assassination in the Southern Cone, having written the definitive history of Plan Condor, The Condor Years. But even he was left nearly without words Tuesday, telling the Washington Post:

“I'm the last guy who is going to be shocked by the stuff Pinochet has done, and I'm shocked. This is probably the greatest crime of the military government, to kill a former president. This is like discovering that Nixon was involved in the Kennedy assassination.”

Evo Re-elected

The LA Times has an editorial on Evo’s re-election landslide, noting that the MAS appears to have also secured the 2/3 super majority it sought in both houses of Congress. “Although Morales' populism has sometimes led to political clashes with the U.S. government, and we'd like to see more cooperation with the U.S. in fighting drug production, we congratulate Morales on his election to a second five-year term. He clearly has the support of his people,” writes the paper.

And for a bit of humor, IKN does some research on how long it took reporters of Bolivian elections to talk about Hugo Chavez in their coverage of Evo’s re-election. The winner (meaning the only one to not to mention Venezuela): Jonathan Levin of Bloomberg!