The Uruguayan Senate is expected to vote today to overturn a 1986 amnesty law which continues to shelter a number of state security officials from prosecution for human rights crimes committed during the country’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship. According to AP, human rights activists and members of the governing Frente Amplio coalition hope the annulment of will be made official by May 20, the country’s annual day of remembrance for the 174 individuals believed to have been killed by the military government. Deputy Felipe Michelini, however, says final approval could come as early as May 4.
Most in Uruguay’s two traditional parties (the Blancos and Colorados), as well as former military officers, oppose the annulment of the 1986 amnesty law. So too have many Uruguayans. During a 2009 vote in which former left-wing guerilla José Mujica – himself a victim of torture during the dictatorship – 52 percent of Uruguayans voted to uphold the amnesty law in a special plebiscite. In a plebiscite held 20 years prior ended with same result.
Neither former FA President Tabaré Vázquez nor current President José Mujica have been particularly vocal supporters of annulment during their respective presidencies, although it seems both men are now actively supporting the Senate’s annulment vote today. “Majorities aren't always correct in matters of human rights,” the AP quotes Vázquez as saying last month.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in a ruling in late March, also rendered the Expiry Law “ineffective” in the 1976 abduction and disappearance of Maria Claudia García Iruretagoyena de Gelman, daughter of Argentine poet Juan Gelman. Ariela Peralta, Deputy Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and the chief lawyer involved in the case, called the IACHR decision “paradigmatic” for Uruguay in that it “means the end of a law that has stood in the way of truth and justice for 25 years.”
Frente Amplio, which holds a slim 16 to 14 majority in Uruguay’s upper house of parliament, says it has secured the necessary votes to approve the amnesty law’s annulment. One FA senator is expected to vote against the measure but Vice President Danilo Astori will be on-hand to case the decisive tie-breaking vote, sources indicate.
More from Uruguay’s right-leaning El País and left-leaning La República.
Today’s bullet points:
· In Peru, a June 5 second-round matchup between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori appears to be a done deal. With just over 90 percent of votes counted, the country’s electoral commission says Humala has received 31.8% votes cast Sunday, compared to Fujimori’s 23.3%. PPK is in an increasingly distant third with 18.7% of the vote. Reports are much the same as yesterday, presenting a Humala-Fujimori match-up as a sort of “worst case” scenario. See, for example, US ambassador Dennis Jett in today’s Miami Herald or the TIME’s coverage of round-one results, which focuses on the high “negatives” both candidates get among different sectors of a deeply divided Peru. For its part, the Wall Street Journal highlights the worries of foreign investors, reporting that Peruivan stocks “fell into a tailspin Monday” (falling more than 3%) upon receiving news of Sunday’s first-round results. Analysts cite Humala’s call for a greater state role in the mining sector as their principal worry, although there appears to be some investor concern about political stability, should Ms. Fujimori be elected. The Miami Herald looks at human rights worries – a notion which, again, seems to ignore any notion of economic justice or social rights which, I would argue, cannot be so quickly dismissed. Interestingly, Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky, quoted in the Herald, predicts a major shift of Peruvian power brokers to the Fujimori camp in the coming weeks. “The vast bulk of the media is going to get behind Keiko and the private sector is going to get behind Keiko,” he says. “A good chunk of the political elite will get behind Keiko. The entire upper middle class of Lima will flock to Keiko.” In the Peruvian press, La República suggests there could be some talk of an alliance between Humala’s Gana Perú party and Alejandro Toledo’s Perú Posible, particularly around the issue human rights. It’s also probably worth watching what, if anything, Lima mayor, Susana Villarán – representative of a more urbane, upper-middle class progressivism – does ahead of round-two. Humala supported Villarán’s mayoral bid last year but Villarán has yet to return the endorsement. Leaving her polling place Sunday, the mayor only said she had voted so that “the errors of the past would not be repeated.” I’m also waiting to see a full electoral map from Sunday. For now, El Comercio suggests Humala won big in the South while Fujimori took the North. PPK looks to have won in Lima and Callao. More from IPS.
· Venezuela deported two suspected ELN rebels to Colombia for prosecution Monday. The AP calls the move a “positive message to other nations that want President Hugo Chavez to ensure suspected terrorists do not find haven in Venezuela.”
· AFP reports on the trilateral Chavez-Santos-Lobo meeting held in Cartagena Saturday, suggesting the encuentro was months in the making.
· AFP and IPS report on new figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) which show Latin America to be the region of the world with the largest percentage increase in military spending last year. In real terms Lat Am expenditures grew by 5.8 percent compared with 5.2 percent for Africa, 2.8 for North America, 2.5 for the Middle East and 1.4 percent for Asia. The big spenders in the region are not, however, the countries you might expect if you read only the US press. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru top the list. Interestingly, Venezuela – a country whose military purchases are frequently under intense scrutiny – saw its 210 military spending fall for a second consecutive year. The full report is available here.
· AP reports that US Ambassador to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, officially left her post in Quito today, after being declared persona non grata last week.
· AP says 16 more bodies were found in a series of mass graves in Tamaulipas, bringing the body count up to 88. The Wall Street Journal also reports on the massacre. The AP adds that at least one of the people abducted from various buses in Tamaulipas in recent weeks is a US citizen. The abductions are still believed to be linked to the massacre in some way, although it’s still unclear exactly how.
· Narco News with more on major anti-drug war protests that have cropped up around Mexico in recent weeks.
· Lula da Silva was in Mexico in recent dasys, apparently suggesting some sort of alliance between his country’s state oil giant, Petrobras and struggling Mexican state oil company, Pemex. Proceso reports.
· The Guardian reports that the last Cuban journalist in a Cuban prison has been released. Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernandez was freed last week Thursday and has left for Spain. Meanwhile, the Miami Herald talks with Cuban dissident Oscar Elías Biscet who calls for the Castro brothers to step down from power. As Phil Peters notes, Biscet says nothing – at least in the piece – about such a move being needed to “avoid a civil war” on the island, although that is the quite provocative way in which the Herald piece begins.
· Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, meanwhile, went free Friday. The National Security Archive’s Peter Kornbluh talks to Democracy Now yesterday morning about the El Paso court’s decision to acquit Posada Carriles of perjury charges, obstruction of justice, and immigration fraud.
· And the Latin Americanist Right has launched a new news blog: “Inter-American Security Watch.” It’s unclear from the site who the minds behind the new site are but there’s a rumor that it may be Roger Noriega. In any case, one of Noriega’s recent contributions is a piece yesterday on Chavez’s “proxy political wars.”
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