That Which Unites: Impunity in El Salvador, Uruguay, and Mexico

On the 21^st anniversary of the assassination of one Salvadoran and five Spanish Jesuit priests, human rights defenders in El Salvador have once again come out with strong statements rejecting a 1993 amnesty law that continues to prevent justice in the cases being served. Salvadoran human rights ombudsman, Oscar Luna, tells EFE that it’s the fiscalía general who has failed human rights activists for not taking up the case. Luna also says he supports the annulment of the 1993 law, calling such a move a potentially “positive message” for the country and its fight against impunity.

For his part, Benjamin Cuéllar of the Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad Centroamericana (Idhuca) says the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has been clear in its demands regarding human rights justice in the country. Investigation of the facts of the crime, the arrest of those responsible, reparation to victims, and repealing of the amnesty law all must be carried out, he says, in order for the country to fall in line with international human rights norms.

Meanwhile, the National Security Archive in Washington DC continues in its efforts to get US government documents about the assassinations declassified. The NSA, at Unredacted, has more about the search for missing documents that might shed light on the case.

From El Salvador to Uruguay, IPS also this morning on the persistence of impunity following cold war terror in the region. This week Argentine poet Juan Gelman went before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Quito to testify about the murder of his daughter-in-law and the kidnapping of his granddaughter in 1977. The testimony came as part of efforts to repeal an amnesty law in Uruguay, passed shortly after its return to democracy in 1985. While courts in Uruguay have found a variety of ways to get around the “ley de caducidad” over the last half-decade, the controversial “expiry law” remains on the books. Here’s Juan Gelman, to IPS:

“The impunity that has reigned for 25 years in Uruguay (since the end of the 1973-1985 dictatorship) will continue. No one has been issued with a final sentence, no one at all. And the state knows who the guilty parties are.”

Juan Gelman, his once-kidnapped granddaughter Macarena, and Sara Mendez, an Uruguayan woman who was tortured in the infamous Automotores Orletti detention centre in Buenos Aires before being flown clandestinely returned to Uruguay in a Plan Condor operation in 1976, all testified in Quito this week.

To a quick wrap up of some other stories:

· The Washington Office on Latin America has a new report out on civil-military relations in Latin America – namely the major contradiction in US policy toward the region by which why U.S. aid programs so frequently encourage the mixing of police and military roles while clearly defining the separation of the two at home. The full text of “Preach What You Practice” is available via Just the Facts, and comes as the region’s defense ministers – including US Defense Sec. Robert Gates – prepare for a regional summit in Bolivia.

· On that same topic, El Universal reports the return of the Mexican military to Chihuahua border to “reinforce security.” The federal police will apparently maintain their lead role in Operación Coordinada Chihuahua. No specific date has been set for the return of the military, according to the paper. In addition, there seem to be questions about whether the military ever really pulled back from its roll in border operations.

· Also on Mexico, Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna rejected this week the notion that there was a “narco-insurgency” in the country. More from La Jornada.

· Notimex reports on the return of some Ciudad Mier residents to the town they mostly abandoned one week ago. According to Mexican officials, some 300 families have made their way back home after being displaced to nearby Ciudad Miguel Aleman after a new round of threats from cartels in the city, most notably Los Zetas.

· A terrific report from ProPublica on the demise of regional newspaper reporting in Mexico, related to the drug wars. Quoted in ProPublica:

“The Fundación MEPI, an independent investigative journalism center, studied the crime coverage of 11 regional newspapers and found that the drug-trafficking cartels receive little mention. The data, and interviews with journalists, shows that threats, bribery and pressure are shaping the news delivered to hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who live outside the capital, Mexico City.”

A look at the whole report is worthwhile.

· Returning to the question of impunity, the Committee to Protect Journalists demands justice in the case of assassinated El Diario de Juarez journalist Armando Rodriguez, killed two years ago. From a letter written by Rodriguez’s fellow journalists and published on Nov. 13 on the front page of El Diario:

“Two years later our rage is even greater, because we see the ease with which the president of the republic, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, lies when he publicly announces that they have detained suspects in relation to Armando's death, when actually no one has been remanded, by the power of the state or federal law, to answer for this act.”

· Venezuela handed over three alleged Colombian guerrillas to its neighbor this week, says EFE.

· The Wall Street Journal reports on a bill sent to the Bolivian legislature this week that would nationalize pensions, lower the minimum retirement age and increase pension benefits. The system was privatized in 1996 during a wave of neoliberal restructuring and privatization. According to the paper, the new bill comes after “extended negotiations with labor unions” and would push the retirement age down to to 58 from 65 – “with an even lower retirement age for women with children and those working in dangerous industries such as mining.”

· From BBC Mundo, more on cocaine flights to Africa on old commercial aircrafts being purchased by drug traffickers. “Aerolineas Cocaina,” the BBC cleverly calls the operations.

· A 3^rd protestor was killed in Haiti during anti-UN riots on Wednesday, although other reports seem to indicate the demonstrations are tapering off.

· And finally, from MercoPress, an interview with Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, Marco Aurelio García about strengthening “institutional” mechanisms for regional integration in Latin America, specifically Mercosur and Unasur. Garcia, who is in the running to be Dilma’s foreign affairs minister apparently, says the administration of President Lula da Silva was very effective in advancing continental integration, but adds that leaders “still need to give the process the necessary institutional framework.” After Mercosur and Unasur are secure, Garcia says, the next step is consolidating the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.