Center for Justice and Accuntability Seeks Truth, Justice, Redress for Victims of Torture, Human Rights Violations

"The administration of Salvador Sanchez Ceren has the obligation and opportunity to make a difference, to improve the lives of the people of El Salvador – the people th ey fought for – and ensure that they see justice."  Center for Justice and Accountability

Several thousand people participated in a candlelit procession through the campus of the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), the scene, 25 years ago, of one of the most infamous episodes in El Salvador’s dozen-year civil war (1980-1992): the predawn murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and and the housekeeper's daughter.  This week's issue of NotiCen examines some of the issues surrounding the anniversary, including efforts to overturn a blanket amnesty approved in El Salvador in 1993, which allows the perpetrators to remain unpunished.

 

Photo: Center for Justice and Accountablity

Among those participating in the procession in San Salvador on Nov. 18 was Almudena Bernabeu, an attorney and rights advocate at the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) in San Francisco, California. The CJA has played a leading role in recent years in efforts to prosecute the authors of the UCA massacre

The CJA is an international human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world. The organization also advances the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress, which applies directly to its work in El Salvador. 

CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law, and advance the rule of law in countries transitioning from periods of abuse.
The case of the murdered Jesuits is just one of seven active cases in El Salvador.  The center is  involved in human-rights-related litigation in seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  In addition to El Salvador, the CJA is involved in cases in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Peru (as well as the United States).  The other five countries where the CJA is involved in human-rights-related cases are Bosnia, Cambodia, China, Somalia, and Timor-Leste.

The CJA was founded in 1998 with support from Amnesty International and the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture to represent torture survivors in their pursuit of justice. The center is part of the movement for global justice for those who have been tortured or have suffered other severe human rights abuses.

"CJA is one of the few international human rights NGOs with a base of clients who speak out publicly against mass atrocities from a survivor's perspective," said the organization.  "At the heart of CJA’s mission is the belief that survivors themselves are the most effective spokespeople against torture, genocide and other abuses. CJA devotes resources to supporting clients who, as a result of participating in our litigation, are galvanized to dedicate more time and energy to anti-impunity efforts within their communities."

-Carlos Navarro 

Also in LADB on Dec. 10-12 

• Mexican Supreme Court to Elect New President, Welcome New Justice in 2015
• Tabaré Vázquez Back as Uruguay’s President, Reflecting Region’s Progressive Trend
• In Push To Spur Investment, Peru Weakens Environmental Protection
• Guatemalan Government Mired in Financial Problems
• Mexico Welcomes US President Barack Obama’s Executive Order on Immigration

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Farming Communities, Environmental Groups Continue Fight to Save Intag Region in Northwest Ecuador

 “Yesterday I was running down the path to bathe in the waterfalls, and passing a pile of leaves they turned into butterflies and flew away. This is a magical place. Thank you for sharing it.” Despite gains in corporate incursion, many Intag residents are hoping that this “magic” can continue to be their largest export to students and tourists from the US, Europe and Japan.  -Carlos Zorilla, organizer, Intag Cloud Forest Reserve & Education Center

Photo: Dina M - Flickr

Imagine an environmental paradise in northwest Ecuador, where the local farming communities are self-sustaining. This paradise is known as the Intag reegion, an area blessed with a microclimate diversity. As a result, local growers have produced a lush cast of mixed fruits and specialty crops-- from shade-grown coffee to papayas, blackberries and plantains, to the uncommon tree tomato. In fact, the tree tomato has been the third most valuable individual crop per hectare for small-scale family farmers, surpassed only by coffee and sugarcane. Such gastronomical specialties, along with a keen sense of self-sustaining environmental protections and local autonomy, began attracting a growing consumer base for exports, tourism and environmental activism both within Ecuador and in foreign markets.

Community farmers and land owners have benefited from a gowing market for ecotourism and specialty, fair trade and organic products, in addition to the region’s notoriety for grassroots environmental activism. The interest and foreign demand for Intag’s agricultural and cultural products is firmly evident in the Intagblog, which displays the important link between Intag community resistance, foreign environmental and human rights activists, and foreign consumer markets that specialize in organic, fair trade produce, crafts and environmental-based tourism. The area housing the Istag communities was the first region to be granted the status of an “Ecological Canton”.
 

Photo: Dawn Paley - Flickr

The problem for this community of 17,000 residents, is that the area is also attractive to the multinational mining companies, who have their eyes on the huge deposits of copper and other minerals in the area. The communities of the Intag region, operating under the defense and protection created via local resistance and organization efforts, fended off a Japanese company in the 1990s and Canadian mining concern Ascendant Copper Corp. more than a decade later.  The mining industry has not abandoned its efforts to gain access to the natural resources in the area.  This time, a mining company has obtained the support of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa's administration.  In the second half of 2013, Ecuador's  Empresa Nacional Minera del Ecuador (ENAMI) signed an agreement with the Chilean mining firm CODELCO and, without consulting local communities, reopened the project in the second half of 2013.

In this week's issue of NotiSur (as well as a previous issue in March 2014), Luis Ángel Saavedra reported that intervention of ENAMI and CODELCO in the project comes at a time when Intag is fragmented and unable to sustain its long-standing determination to defend its territories. Will the residents of Intag finally lose out to the mining industry?  Even under these adverse conditions, the resistance continues, as evidenced by the emergence of the campaign entitled CODELCO Out of Intag.

-Jake Sandler

Also in LADB on Dec. 3-5...

• Jamaica’s Plans to Decriminalize Marijuana, A Move With Regional Implications
• Densely Populated San José, Costa Rica, Neighborhood Becomes War Zone Between Local Gangs
• Political Establishment Faces Credibility Problems in Mexico
• Leftist Forces Three-For-Three In 2014’s Southern Cone Elections
• Labor, Safety Concerns Raised About Monterrey Subway System    

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Climate Change, Mining Threaten Chile's Unprotected Glaciers

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Article from NotiSur, April 11

A prolonged rain deficit and a memorable media maneuver by the high-profile environmental group Greenpeace have together sparked an upsurge in public interest regarding Chile’s world-class collection of glaciers. Chile, home to an estimated 82% of South America’s glaciers, relies on the mountaintop ice packs as a vital source of fresh water, particularly in times of drought. Right now is one of those times. The coastal country is coming off its driest year since 1998 and third driest since 1866, according to the government’s Dirección Meteorológica. Worse yet, 2013 was Chile’s fourth drier-than-average year in a row, prompting authorities to declare official states of escasez hídrica (water shortage) in numerous districts throughout the central part of the country, from the semi-arid Región de Coquimbo, approximately 400 km north of Santiago, south to the normally green Región de Maule. Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Read More

Nicaraguan Mining Boom Continues, but Who Really Benefits?

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Article from NotiCen, March 13

A leading Nicaraguan environmental group is sounding the alarm at President Daniel Ortega’s cozy embrace of metals mining, an industry that has boomed in recent years and now boasts the country’s number-one export product: gold. The sector enjoyed another banner year in 2013. Led by B2Gold, a Canadian firm, miners exported nearly US$436 million worth of gold, a new record, despite a substantial drop in the commodity’s selling price. The precious metal finished the year as Nicaragua’s leading export. And yet, for all its lustrous numbers, the resurgent industry's overall contribution to the econom is deceivingly small, and the pollution created by this economic activity is extracting a heavy toll on Nicaragua. Benjamin Witte-Lebhar Read More

Poverty, Migration in Honduras; NAFTA's 20th Birthday; Military Attacks Small-Scale Miners in Ecuador

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for January 8-10

NAFTA Completes 20 Years of Existence with Mixed Results

On Jan. 1, 2014, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) completed 20 years of existence, amid varying opinions on whether the agreement has been good for Mexico. The agreement has certainly brought significant benefits for a segment of the population, primarily middle class and wealthy Mexicans. Critics suggest the agreement has personally not benefited the majority of Mexicans. The question after two decades is whether on balance the benefits of the agreement outweigh its negative aspects, including reducing tariffs that severely harmed producers of corn and other important agricultural commodities and derailed Mexico’s efforts to attain self-sufficiency in food production. -Carlos Navarro  Read More

An Unstoppable Tide of Femicides in Dominican Republic

Femicide in the Dominican Republic is a serious problem that the authorities have failed to address. According to recent reports, the Caribbean country has the third-highest femicide rate in Latin America. In 2011, 230 femicides were recorded, according to the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), which compiles statistics from the police as well as the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Forenses (INACIF). In 2012, 103 femicides were reported, and, during the first half of 2013, 140 Dominican women died as a result of acts of violence, a figure that includes 69 cases recorded as femicides. -Crosby Girón   Read More

Ecuadoran Government Alleges Mafia Involvement In Small-Scale Mining

Early last November, an incident between a military platoon and Shuar communities living on the banks of the Río Zamora, in southern Ecuador’s Amazon region, resulted in the death of an indigenous man named Freddy Taish. Later that same day, in a nationwide broadcast, the government blamed the incident on foreign "mafias" involved in arms and drugs trafficking and money laundering. Authorities say the outside criminal groups have infiltrated the Zamora area’s artisan (small-scale) mining industry. Artisan mining is a subsistence activity traditionally carried out by local indigenous and campesino communities. Domingo Ancuash, a longtime Shuar leader, believes the crackdown resulted from his community's vocal opposition to mining concessions granted in the region to multinational mining interests. - Luis Ángel Saavedra    Read More

Tens of Thousands of Undocumented Hondurans Caught and Deported in 2013

Migrating to the US in search of finding the opportunity they lack in their country to overcome their dire socioeconomic situation is nothing new to Hondurans. Neither is the risk of being caught along the lengthy, perilous way and sent back. Some 74,000 undocumented Hondurans were deported last year, marking an abrupt end--however calculated the risk--to their quest for labor opportunities and improved income to support their families back home. -George Rodríguez   Read More

Venezuela’s Chavistas Gain Strength; Opposition Split After Elections

Following municipal elections Dec. 8 in which Venezuela’s governing party confirmed its political primacy, the right-wing opposition is reconsidering a strategy that set Henrique Capriles up as the leader of the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD). During the past five years, the opposition had focused its efforts on Capriles, a task that was not always easy. Voter turnout in the municipal elections reached a record of nearly 60%, with the governing Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) winning 79% of the mayoral races in 337 municipalities. The ruling party had nearly 5.2 million votes while the opposition’s total came in a little under 4.1 million. Although not directly comparable, the gap between December municipal elections and the April presidential contest increased by nearly 1.1 million votes. -Andrés Gaudín    Read More

Telecommunications Regulator Announces Auction of Television Frequencies

When President Enrique Peña Nieto and the Congress proposed comprehensive changes to the telecommunications sector in 2013, they promised to enact a law that would bring greater democracy to the broadcast media. The telecommunications law approved in March 2013 included the creation of an independent agency, the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFETEL), which was established to push for a more democratic broadcast sector. The IFETEL, which replaced the largely ineffective Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones (COFETEL), is taking its constitutionally mandated mission seriously, and this was reflected in the institute’s first major action. In early January, the agency announced the auction for 246 digital television frequencies around the country and in the process indicated that the two existing networks would not be eligible to participate. -Carlos Navarro  Read More 

Mexican Congress Approves Energy Reform; Peru Cracks Down on Social Protests; Costa Rica Spots Illegal Helicopter Landing Sites

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for December 18-20

CARICOM Nations Intensify Push for Slavery Reparations

Member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continue to press their case for indemnities from European nations that engaged in the transatlantic slave trade following a Dec. 9 meeting of the CARICOM Reparations Commission. This meeting followed the international attention achieved by Caribbean heads of state during their September addresses to the UN General Assembly. Both Prime Ministers Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda and Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines used the UN bully pulpit to state their case. The latter will assume the rotating presidency of CARICOM in January 2014 and intends to make the reparations issue a cornerstone of his agenda.Fourteen countries have signed on to CARICOM’s position, which will focus on the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. Several Anglophone Caribbean nations, Haiti, and Suriname, all CARICOM member states, were the respective colonies of the aforementioned European countries.  -Gregory Scruggs   Read More

Congress Easily Approves Energy Reform Plan; PRI, PAN Majorities Key to Passage

A little more than a year after taking office, President Enrique Peña Nieto has succeeded in reaching one of his most important goals: pushing through an overhaul of the energy sector, particularly the state-run oil company PEMEX . The reforms, which would allow increased private participation in Mexico’s energy sector, were approved by an overwhelming 353-134 in the Chamber of Deputies and 95-28 in the Senate. In gaining easy passage for his initiative, Peña Nieto benefited from strong numbers in both chambers of Congress, including legislators from the governing Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the conservative Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), and their allies the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM) and Partido Nueva Alianza (PANAL). The parties formed enough of a majority to overcome strong opposition from the center-left parties--the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), and Partido del Trabajo (PT). -Carlos Navarro   Read More

Crackdown On Peru’s Social Protests Intensifies Under President Ollanta Humala

Opposition to Peru's extractive industries, particularly mining, has resulted in a steady increase in socioenvironmental conflicts since President Ollanta Humala came to power. Authorities have countered by criminalizing social protests as a way to neutralize the people who are speaking out and weaken their social movements. During the Humala administration’s two-and-a-half years in power, nearly 700 people involved in social conflicts have been criminalized, meaning they have been formally accused of various crimes and subjected to judicial proceedings, according to the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDDHH). -Elsa Chanduví Jaña    Read More

Chile’s Once And Future President Michelle Bachelet Wins Election Runoff In A Landslide

If ever there was a case of victory foretold, this was it. On Sunday, Dec. 15, former President Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010)--the hands-down favorite long before she even announced her candidacy--completed her re-election bid with relative ease, besting her rightist rival Evelyn Matthei by nearly 25 percentage points in Chile’s presidential runoff election. Bachelet, 62, made history eight years ago when she beat current President Sebastián Piñera to become the country’s first female head of state. With her 62% to 38% triumph over Matthei, Bachelet’s name will now go down in the history books again--this time as the first president since Chile returned to democracy in 1990 to win a second term in office. -Benjamin Witte-Lebhar   Read More

Costa Rican Authorities Spot Illegal Airfields for Helicopters; President Says Finding Makes Organized Crime Nervous

Within a month's time, six clandestine airfields for helicopters were discovered during police operations next to makeshift camps inside sprawling rural properties in a mountainous sector in Costa Rica’s northeastern Caribbean area, close to the border with Nicaragua. Costa Rican authorities said investigations are focused on the structures being a part of an international organized-crime network’s operation in Central America--trafficking drugs northward, money and weapons southward. The findings took place from Oct. 8 through Nov. 8, after members of communities in the area reported having repeatedly sighted at least one helicopter, flying just above treetops, coming from the border area. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said organized crime has thus been exposed in this country, and it makes them nervous. -George Rodríguez   Read More

Mexico, Turkey Commit to Negotiate Free-Trade Agreement in 2014

Mexico and Turkey have signed a memorandum of understanding to boost cooperation in trade, finance, security, and other areas including negotiating a free-trade agreement (FTA) and developing a joint strategy to combat organized crime. The two countries announced their new cooperation efforts in Ankara in mid-December following a series of meetings between Presidents Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico and Abdullah Gül of Turkey. This was the first-ever state-level visit by a Mexican president to Turkey. During the meeting, which came at Gül’s invitation, the two countries signed 12 cooperation agreements. Leading the list of agreements was the commitment to work toward an FTA in 2014. -Carlos Navarro    Read More

Zetas Leader Captured; El Salvador NGOs Seek Permanent Ban on Mining; Left Seeks Unity in Peru

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen and NotiSur for July 24-26

Lawsuits, Closed Trial, Threaten Documentary that Exposed Corruption in Judicial System

The producer and the director of the highly successful movie Presunto Culpable (Presumed Guilty) are facing a host of lawsuits that threaten to dilute the impact of their highly successful documentary and threaten freedom of speech in Mexico. Furthermore, the lawsuits are generally supported by many members of the judicial branch, including the judge hearing the case, which has led director Roberto Hernández and producer Layda Negrete to predict that they will not receive a fair trial. -Carlos Navarro   Read More

El Salvador Mining Opponents Determined Not To Let Guard Down

Anti-mining activists have enjoyed a fair share of success in El Salvador, where a five-year-old moratorium on metals extraction continues to keep would-be miners at bay. But, rather than rest on their laurels, organizations like La Mesa Nacional frente a la Minería Metálica, an influential umbrella group, remain active and alert, lobbying hard for policy changes that, in their opinion, would better protect the country from the still clear and present danger posed by corporate mining interests. For starters, argue industry opponents, the government would do well to replace the moratorium with an all-out mining ban. -Benjamin Witte-Lebhar   Read More

In Bold Operation, Government Arrests Top Leader of Zetas Cartel

In what could have been a scene from a movie thriller, the Mexican military conducted a bold operation to capture the leader of the notorious and brutal drug-trafficking organization known as the Zetas. The detention of Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, also known as Z-40, is a major blow to one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, but the jury is still out on what impact the arrest will have on the overall drug-interdiction campaign. For now, the arrest leaves the Zetas without one of its top leaders.  -Carlos Navarro   Read More

The Peruvian Left Unites Once Again

After 24 years, the Peruvian left has, once again, regrouped in a new coalition, the Frente Amplio de Izquierda (FAI), through which it will participate in the 2014 municipal and regional elections and the 2016 presidential balloting. On June 4, at a tribute to the leftist leader and congressional deputy Javier Diez Canseco on the one-month anniversary of his death, leftist organizations promised to make the legislator's challenge to them--a united left--a reality. On June 26, six leftist organizations announced the formation of the FAI. The coalition held its first action against the administration of President Ollanta Humala; it was the only political group that participated in a massive mobilization rejecting measures supported by the central government. -Elsa Chanduví Jaña  Read More

Belize's Supreme Court Finds Offshore Oil Contracts Null and Void

Six oil-prospecting companies suffered a major setback when Belize's Supreme Court ruled on April 16 that all offshore oil contracts issued by the Belizean government in 2004 and 2007 and extended in 2009 are null and void. The decision, handed down by Justice Oswell Legall, was highly critical of the government’s actions, saying that "allowing oil exploration before any assessment of its effects on the environment is not only irresponsible but reckless, especially in a situation where Belize may not be fully capable of handling effectively an oil spill." -Louisa Reynolds  Read More

Uruguay's Right Fails to Overturn Law Decriminalizing Abortion

Uruguay's most conservative sectors and the Catholic Church tried to abolish a law that decriminalized abortion under certain conditions, but society rebuffed the efforts. The law's opponents resorted to a provision of the referendum statutes, but found extremely low support. For the law to be put to a plebiscite in October 2013, supporters had to collect 252,000 signatures, 25% of the electorate. When they failed to gather the required number of signatures, they resorted to a second constitutional provision, known as a prior consultation. If 25% of the electorate agreed, then a formal plebiscite would be held. The result--only 8.8% support in the June 23 consultation--left opponents far from their dream of abolishing the law. -Andrés Gaudín  Read More -

Parguay's Upcoming Election: Mexico Telecom Reform; Nicaragua Gold Mining Controversy

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Articles in SourceMex, NotiCen, and NotiSur for March 27-29

Lima Mayor Wins Partial Victory in Recall Referendum

Mayor Susana Villarán, the first woman to govern Peru's capital city, emerged victorious from a March 17 recall referendum, but several members of her coalition on the metropolitan council were ousted by the voters. About 82% of eligible voters participated in the recall of Villarán and 39 council members. Preliminary results show that 21 of those councilors will be recalled, most of them from the leftist coalition Fuerza Social (FS).     Elsa Chanduví Jaña    Read More

UN Rebuts Allegations Its Nepalese Blue Helmets Brought Cholera to Haiti

Despite the dire poverty of its population, Haiti had not been hit by cholera until nine months after the January 2010 earthquake ravaged this French-speaking Caribbean island nation. The outbreak has since killed some 8,000 people and affected hundreds of thousands more, dramatic figures that add to the 230,000-300,000 killed by the quake, which also left around 1.5 million homeless. About 300,000 are still lodged in tent towns in this country of 9.1 million people--described as the poorest in the Americas--where daily income for 78% is less than US$2       George Rodríguez    Read More 

Chamber of Deputies Approves Comprehensive Reforms to Telecommunications Sector

The Chamber of Deputies set in motion major reforms to Mexico’s telecommunications and media industries with the overwhelming approval of a version of the Telecommunications Reform Law proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto. The measure, approved by a 393-98 vote, still requires approval by two-thirds of the Senate because at least part of the initiative requires amendments to Mexico’s Constitution. The Senate, which will consider the measure after the Mexican Congress returns from the Easter recess, is likely to approve the reforms, but only after extensive debate.  -Carlos Navarro  Read More

Nicaraguan Gold Rush Spells Profits, Protests, And Police Repression

A recent police crackdown on protesting guiriseros (artisan miners) in the central Nicaraguan town of Santo Domingo has raised new questions about the government’s "come-on-down" approach to foreign gold-mining firms, which have been raking in riches of late thanks to increased production and soaring prices. Early on the morning of Feb. 9, several hundred anti-riot police confronted a group of guiriseros at a roadblock the latter had erected months earlier at the entrance of Santo Domingo, roughly 190 km east of Managua. The artisan miners had been using the barrier to block the passage of vehicles and equipment owned by Canadian mining company B2Gold, which--through the acquisition of new government concessions--has expanded operations in recent years and begun exerting control of areas traditionally mined by guiriseros.     Benjamin Witte-Lebhar  Read More

Paraguay's Partido Colorado Likely to Return to Power in Upcoming Elections

On April 21, ten months after the June 22, 2012, coup that toppled democratically elected President Fernando Lugo and installed the de facto government of Federico Franco (NotiSur, July 13, 2012), Paraguayans will return to the ballot boxes. They will do so with the certainty that the Partido Colorado (Asociación Nacional Republicana, PC), in power from 1947 to 2008, including throughout the dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), will return to power and that the new president will be Horacio Cartes. Cartes is a powerful businessman with no political past but with alleged links to the smuggling, drug trafficking, and laundering money of the mafias. Moreover, this will be the first time in his life that the 56-year-old Cartes will vote.    Andrés Gaudín Read More

Despite Six-Month Investigation, Mexican Authorities Have Not Determined Motive for August 2012 Attack on U.S. Diplomatic Vehicle

The case involving the attempted murder of two members of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a Mexican Navy captain in Morelos state last summer remains only partially resolved despite intensive investigations conducted by the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) during the past six months. The armored sports utility vehicle came under attack as it traveled on a dirt road to a military installation in Morelos state. Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam confirmed that 14 assailants who participated in the attack were taken into custody, but investigators have not been able to determine a motive.  Carlos Navarro Read More