Amnesty: Fight Against Impunity Must Continue

“In recent years (…) a growing number of Latin American countries have made important advances towards tackling impunity, recognizing that reconciliation is an empty concept unless it is built on truth, justice and reparation” (…) But “despite important progress in a growing number of emblematic cases of past human rights violations, justice for most of the hundreds of thousands of victims of past human rights violations remained elusive.”

That description of ongoing impunity in the Americas is how Amnesty International [see link for full list of country reports] begins its summary of the human rights situation in the region over the past year – part of the group’s annual human rights survey of 159 total countries.

Beyond impunity, AI cites public security shortcomings as another principal concern in the Americas:

“The public security situation affecting many countries continued to cause great concern. Murder rates for women and men continued to rise, in particular in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Jamaica. Millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean’s poorest communities were plagued by violent criminal gangs and repressive, discriminatory and corrupt responses by law enforcement officials. At the same time, members of the security forces, especially the police, were required to work in ways that often put their own lives at risk.”

Further worries about an arms build-up in the region [AI: “A general trend in 2009 towards an arms build-up in the region led to concern about the potential impact on human rights for people already living in fragile or non-existent security.”]; “deep and persistent social inequalities,” especially with respect to access to education, income levels, health, and basic services; and threats against indigenous groups also get significant attention. Amnesty’s conclusion:

“Despite the progress made in an important number of emblematic cases of past human rights violations, the legal, jurisdictional and political obstacles that have helped entrench impunity in the region, remained formidable in 2009.

However, across the region, victims of human rights violations, their families and human rights defenders supporting them continued to defy intimidation, threats and harassment and campaigned vigorously to hold governments and armed groups to their obligations to respect international and domestic human rights standards.”

Speaking at the release of the report in London, AI’s interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone highlighted Latin America’s trailblazing role in cases of international justice. “We're very encouraged by the trend for example in Latin America where we had three former heads of states brought to justice from Peru, Uruguay and Argentina,” noted Cordone.

Below the headline:

· Violence continued in the Kingston neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens Wednesday as the Jamaican military and police continue their search for accused drug baron Christopher “Dudus” Coke. The government recently announced that parts of the city would remain under a state of emergency for at least a month. And on a news conference Wednesday, the New York Times reports that officials were asked whether they had made any sort of contact with Mr. Coke. “Did the government, someone asked, have any idea at all where Mr. Coke might be?” The police spokesman’s response: “For all purposes we are not speaking on the matter.” The silence, the paper says, has “given rise to a multitude of theories and hard questions,” including the possibility that Coke has already fled the island. More than 500 Jamaicans have been arrested by the police over the last four days while the official death toll now nears 50. According to the AP, PM Bruce Golding has promised an independent investigation into civilian deaths, although just when such an investigation might begin is unclear. In a separate report, the Times also looks at how the case against Coke was made in New York City where Coke’s “operatives send him part of their drug proceeds and buy guns that they ship to him.”

· US Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and George LeMieux (R-FL) are leading a group of 12 Republican senators petitioning the US State Dept. to review Venezuela’s status as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” In a letter to Sec. of State Clinton, Ensign writes:

“It’s no secret to the American people that Venezuela wishes harm to the United States,” said Ensign. “What is a secret is how many more ties to terrorist organizations and State Sponsors of Terrorism does Venezuela need to be declared a State Sponsor of Terrorism. The letter I drafted with Senator LeMieux will ask that the State Department reassess their handling of this state to protect our national security.”

For his part, George LeMieux says “Hugo Chavez’s relationships with Iran and other foreign terrorist organizations continue to grow and pose a serious threat to our hemisphere.” Since 2006, the U.S. has designated Venezuela as “not cooperating fully” with U.S. antiterrorism efforts. That designation places a prohibition on American arms sales. But an upgrade to “State Sponsor of Terrorism” status would “cause a prohibition on American arms sales, a prohibition of American economic assistance, and place several restrictions on bilateral trade” with the country. The co-authors of the letter include: Robert Bennett (R-UT), Scott Brown (R-MA), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Jim Bunning (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), James Inhofe (R-OK), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), James Risch (R-ID), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).

· In Peru, indigenous leader Alberto Pizango was arrested upon returning to his country from an 11-month political asylum in Nicaragua. Pizango is being charged by the Peruvian government with sedition and rebellion, the Guardian reports, stemming from his role in organizing protests against oil and gas exploration in Bagua almost one year ago. Pizango, a leader of the indigenous group Aidesep, was accompanied on the flight to Peru by the American actor Q'orianka Kilcher, whose father is an ethnic Quechua artist. Before his departure, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega asked President Alan Garcia to “guarantee Pizango's safety and not imprison him” upon his return. García’s stiff response, “Here we respect rights,” makes it seem unlikely that the request will be honored.

· The New York Times has more on the release of American Lori Berenson from a Peruvian jail, almost 15 years after being convicted of providing aid to the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

· In Argentina, meanwhile, BBC Mundo says police arrested Colombian model and suspected narcotrafficker, Angie Sanclemente Valencia, on Wednesday.

· In a letter printed in Colombia’s El Tiempo, Santiago Uribe, brother of President Alvaro Uribe, denied having links to paramilitary groups in the early 1990s – a response to a Washington Post report filed over the weekend. “I emphatically reject the article published by The Washington Post,” with which “they are trying to revive false and loathsome accusations from long ago against me and my family,” the younger Uribe wrote.

· In Haiti, the New York Times says the UN and Haiti will establish a joint commission looking into the Jan. 19 alleged massacre of prison inmates in Les Cayes. The announcement comes after an article in The New York Times on Sunday examined the shooting deaths.

· Bloomberg reports on a new law in Bolivia which allows the president to “suspend regional opponents from office if they’re accused of a crime.” The new legislation, Bloomberg says, “boosts criticism” of President Evo Morales “that he’s using the courts to consolidate power.” Three of the country’s nine incoming governors, all Morales opponents, currently face charges brought by the government.

· And the AFP looks at the FMLN’s first year in power in El Salvador, writing that 2009 has been defined by a divergence between the party and its nationally popular leader, President Mauricio Funes. According to analyst Salvador Samayoa, “The first year of government has been marked by the contradiction between the president and the party he represents. This, without a doubt, is the most notable political fact of the year.”

· Finally a number of opinions. Two differing thoughts on the truth commission process in Honduras, one from Michael Lisman in the Guardian argues that the commission should be given chance while Daniel Altschuler at AQ is decidedly more skeptical. At the Huffington Post, the International Crisis Group’s Mark Schneider posts his statement on recovery in Haiti, which he presented to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. Jennifer Jeffs, president of the Canadian International Council, writes on Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s visit this week to Canada, calling for the two countries to tighten their relationship further. And in the International Herald Tribune, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and his Turkish counterpart call for more international diplomacy, not sanctions, against Iran. The two argue:

“In the presence of deep mutual mistrust there will always be those who display skepticism about the feasibility of any negotiated outcome. But there is now sufficient substance to give negotiations a chance. Missing it may well be regretted for generations to come.”