Long Standing Impunity Challenges Argentina: 4 Years Without Julio Lopez

Written by Marie Trigona

Monday, 27 September 2010 Upside Down World

Julio Lopez, Luciano Arruga, Silvia Suppo – three names recently listed the doleful roll call of Argentina’s victims of state repression, a legacy left over from the bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship. These three names have left painful reminders of the paradigm of disappearances and how the social stigma of the crimes committed during the dictatorship has scarred Argentina and other nations which survived brutal military dictatorships.

Argentina recently commemorated the four year anniversary of the disappearance of Julio Lopez, to demand that the torture survivor and human rights activist be found alive. After four years of searching, marches, and impunity, the cries for justice and punishment seem to have found no response from an indifferent government which claims to defend human rights. Activists also demanded information on the whereabouts of Luciano Arruga, a 16-year-old who was forcefully disappeared in January, 2009 and investigation into the 2010 murder of Silvia Suppo, a human rights activist and torture survivor testifying in a landmark human rights trial.

4 years without Julio Lopez

Julio Lopez has been titled as the man disappeared twice. He last went missing four years ago on September 18, 2006 in his hometown of La Plata. He was disappeared on the day the that his perpetrator and former police chief Miguel Etchecolatz was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide. Julio Lopez was absent from the courtroom, to witness the historic moment in the landmark trial having been abducted hours earlier.

Lopez was a key witness in the 2006 human rights trial in which Etchecolatz was found guilty of kidnapping, torture and murder of activists during the military dictatorship. Etchecolatz coordinated kidnappings and torture sessions in a network of clandestine detention centers in La Plata, 30 miles from Buenos Aires. In one of these torture centers, Lopez first met Etchecolatz during his detention from 1976-1979.

Julio Lopez is exactly where the repressors want him, in the abyss of impunity that the military have enjoyed for the past 34 years. Julio Lopez was never able to listen to the sentence of his repressors. He was kidnapped the day before his perpetrator Miguel Etchecolatz was sentenced to life in prison and Lopez became another disappeared.

“The forced disappearance of Lopez is called impunity,” wrote the human rights group HIJOS in a press release on the fourth anniversary of Lopez’s disappearance. Impunity for human rights abuses has been Argentina’s dark legacy. Since 1999, when the human rights trials were closed due to amnesty laws, the human rights group HIJOS went out into the streets and into former military officers’ neighborhoods to let the community know that they were living next to an individual who carried out abuses such as kidnapping, rape, torture and forced disappearances. On the fourth anniversary of Lopez’s disappearance HIJOS reminded the government of the results of letting the military go about their normal lives for more than a decade following the passage of amnesty protecting the military from criminal prosecution. “It is the consequence of nasty leftovers from the dictatorship which endured in democracy, added to the government’s lack of response to the seriousness of what occurred.”

Result of impunity

Now justice is possible in criminal courts, following the 2003 abolishment of amnesty laws that protected members of the military government from prosecution of human rights abuses. Many members under arrest were released in the 80’s when the amnesty law was passed. This amnesty allowed former armed forces members to maintain power and hold powerful positions such as judges and executives at private security firms. Etchecolatz was one such repressor who was put on trial and sentenced in the 80´s for abuses, specifically for 91 cases of torture, but later released. The former police chief conspired with local policemen to form right-wing, nationalist groups. “It was foreseeable that the repressors would not stand still when their time came to sit on the court room bench and answer to the courts and the Argentine people,” said the group HIJOS.

According to the human rights group CELS, more than 1,500 former members of the armed and security forces are facing charges of human rights abuses during the dictatorship. However, only 81 people have received sentences.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the disappearance of Julio Lopez has reached a deadlock. The government waited 19 months to consider Julio Lopez a case of forced disappearance. Authorities have also delayed investigation into communication to and from the Marcos Paz jail, where more than 40 repressors are currently under arrest and held under the same roof with the liberty to communicate with one another.

“It’s a combination of lack of response, complicity and covering up,” said Adriana Calvo at the march for Julio Lopez. No one has been investigated much less detained in the police investigation of the disappearance of Julio Lopez.

Witness Safety

“Lopez reminds us that the repressive apparatus has not been dismantled and the trials progress but witnesses and survivors testifying are in danger,” said Adriana Meyer, a journalist for the national newspaper Página/12. However, the government and the media have left the issue of witness safety from public spotlight.

The recent murder of Silvia Suppo, a key witness in a human rights trial on crimes committed during the Argentine dictatorship, has sparked fears for the safety of witnesses who testify publicly in the cases. Suppo, a torture survivor, was stabbed to death on March 29 at her crafts shop in the province of Santa Fe in an alleged robbery. In 2009, Suppo testified in a human rights trial against a former judge for his role in abuses during the dictatorship. Human Rights groups suspect that Suppo was killed to send a message to those still willing to testify as human rights trials progress.

For survivors there is a way to guarantee witnesses safety, for the trials to progress and for all of the repressors. “witness protection program is a mess. Witnesses in a human rights trial in La Plata have received isolated threats.,” said Carlos Zaidman, a torture survivor. “We believe that the only way to protect witnesses is for all of the repressors to be jailed. This has made is doubly important to testify. They haven’t stopped the struggle by disappearing 30,000 compañeros or by disappearing Lopez.”

Silence is impunity

For a democracy to flourish, impunity must end. While Argentina’s government has taken the lead in supporting efforts to try former military and police for rights abuses carried out during the junta years, justice has been slow. And the issue of Julio Lopez has entered an abyss of silence from the media and president.

Lopez’s family sent a letter to the president asking her to push for the investigation into the disappearance of Lopez so that the man who disappeared without a trace twice in his life doesn’t “become the first disappeared in democracy.”

This request has come too late as Argentina has a number of disappeared and thousands of victims of a state repressive apparatus still in tact. Julio Lopez, Miguel Bru and Luciano Arruga are just three of these disappeared in democracy. For democracy to avoid being disappeared, state repression must be abolished.

Julio Lopez presente!

Impunity in Print: How Argentine Newspapers Benefited from the Dictatorship

Toward Freedom
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Since Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, the nation’s media laws and market have favored big corporations over independent media groups, leading to biased reporting. However, the wind has changed in the South American nation with the government taking on a number of initiatives to target corporate media in an attempt to democratize media ownership and access. Argentina’s government has moved to seize the nation’s only newsprint producer, Papel Prensa. The intervention into Papel Prensa is the latest in a two year old battle between the left-leaning government and the media corporation Clarín.

The clash between the government and Clarín has opened deep wounds left over from the bloody military junta which disappeared some 30,000 people. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner opened an investigation into the nation’s largest newspapers Clarín and La Nación to determine whether the newspapers should be charged with crimes against humanity. Specifically, the investigation will determine whether the news groups conspired with the military government to appropriate the newsprint company which is jointly held by Clarín, La Nación and the government.

The investigation was unveiled during a televised news conference in which President Fernandez de Kirchner broke 33 years of silence regarding Papel Prensa’s dark past and lack of government intervention. The investigation into Clarín’s purchase of a majority stake in Papel Prensa has revealed torture, arrests and other illegal actions to acquire the billion dollar company.

Human rights abuses

The controversy stems from the purchase of a majority stake in Papel Prensa from the Graiver family. The company was started up as part of a government-supported project for import substitution, a development plan to increase local production and reduce foreign dependency. During the 60’s import substitution became a regional trend, as countries wanted to rely less on imported products. Dictatorships throughout the region reversed this trend, shutting down industry and taking out heavy loans from foreign financial institutions.

David Graiver, a young businessman with ties to the left-leaning Peronist government bought 80 percent of the actions in Papel Prensa in 1973. Following the military coup on March 24, 1976 Graiver and his family left Argentina for Mexico. Graiver died in a suspicious plane accident in August 1976. Following his death, his widow Lidia Papaleo returned to Buenos Aires to organize the family assets and companies. By November of that somber year in which the systematic disappearances of dissidents grew to a head, Lidia Papaleo sold the printing press at 1 percent of its then estimated value. The dictatorship had accused Graiver and his family of having relations with the armed militant Peronist Montonero group.

According to Papaleo’s testimony in the investigation, the Graiver family sold the company in a secret meeting. Papeleo, Graiver’s brother and his mother were separated during the meeting and told to sign without consulting with one another. “The only person who I spoke to was a man from Clarín. He told me to sign the deal to protect my daughter’s life,” said Papeleo in a television interview. “I signed without knowledge of how much I was selling the company for. We didn’t know what we signed, and we never got a copy of what we were signing.”

During the following year, Lidia Papaleo and her family were kidnapped in March of 1977. The former share holder of Papel Prensa was tortured during her detention.

The family’s lawyer and right hand man of David Graiver, Jorge Rubinstein was kidnapped and tortured to death. The Human Rights Secretariat has opened charges against Dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, Former Navy Chief Emilio Massera, the former Economic Minister Jose Alfredo Martinez de Hoz and the former Industrial Secretary Raymundo Podesta who will face accusations of illegal detention, extortion, torture and murder in the case.

Clarin and the dictatorship

The director of Clarín, Ernestina Herrera de Noble inaugurated Papel Prensa along with then dictator Jorge Rafael Videla in 1978. Between sips of inaugural Champaign the military government conspired with the nation’s media to black out any reporting on the human rights abuses occurring at the time. The military guaranteed media holders record profits which in return promised support or at least silence over the matter of the kidnappings, clandestine detention centers, picana sessions on iron grids and death flights. The military government also took the silencing of the media into their own hands, disappearing 84 journalists and assassinating 12, which were among the long list of the nation’s 30,000 disappeared.

Clarín’s director Ernestina Herrera de Noble has also faced allegations that her two adopted children were born to victims of the dictatorship and appropriated by the media figure. The two children, now 34, have refused to undergo genetic testing as part of a criminal investigation opened in 2001. They are heirs to a $1 billion fortune. According to the human rights group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo they are children of one of the disappeared and were illegally appropriated by Herrera de Noble whose family was close to the regime. The Grandmothers have sought the whereabouts of 500 children who were born while their mothers were held captive in clandestine detention centers and were later appropriated by the military or families with ties to the dictatorship.

Monopoly on Paper

The Clarín group has fervently defended its acquisition of Papel Prensa, accusing the government of a witch hunt and attacking freedom of press. The recent investigation has revealed that Papel Prensa has maintained a virtual monopoly on paper production and distribution. The entity produces 170,000 tons of newspaper print annually. Papel Prensa’s only competitor, Papel del Tucuman only produces 20,000 tons a year.

Since the Clarín group acquired Papel Prensa, more than 46 local newspapers have gone out of business, unable to pay the producers high prices or inflated imported paper from Russia, Finland or Chile. Any client other than Clarín pays 50 percent more for paper. According to the testimony of a former director at Papel Prensa consequently fired, the firm would under produce so to cause a shortage of paper and increased prices for newspapers.

Impunity in print

Since Clarín and La Nación acquired Papel Prensa in March 1977, the company has operated with absolute impunity, never having to present documentation on how they purchased the company or their overpricing of paper. Human rights groups have accused the Clarín media group of acting as accomplices with the dictatorship and their crimes by refusing to report information on the human rights abuses that were reported to the United Nations. The dictatorship used a complex system of over 200 clandestine detention centers to torture and disappear dissidents before they were put on planes, drugged and dropped into the ocean in the death flights. In 1977, Clarín in its daily news paper compared the torture centers to spas.

How can the companies talk of freedom of press if there is any doubt if they conspired with the military dictatorship to build their media empires? Worse yet, the 27 thousand document investigation shows clear evidence that Clarín participated in the human rights abuses to gain control of the billion dollar paper press.

“We are a democratic country,” explained Estella Carlotto, president of the prestigious human rights group Grand Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. “We don’t have to be afraid of speaking out. The media can be voice carriers or they can hide the truth.” Freedom of press is not limited to lack of fear about reporting abuses, democracy requires media diversity and access to media outlets. Up until 2003, Clarín has benefited unrestricted media laws. As the nation revisits its painful past about how the dictatorship operated and its crimes against humanity, business owners who acted as accomplices will also undergo investigations.

Papel Prensa is a reminder that the dictatorship carried out human rights crimes not only to wipe out dissidents but also to put into place a neoliberal economic model. Clarín is just one company that benefited from market conditions which cost 30,000 activists, students, unionists, lawyers and journalists their lives. The question is how effective the human rights trials will be in ending long-standing impunity for the military but also the businesses and institutions which financed and profited from state terrorism.

Marie Trigona is an independent journalist, radio producer and translator based in Argentina. She can be reached through her blog, www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

Students rebel in Buenos Aires

Students in Buenos Aires take over schools to demand improvements to public education

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In Argentina, a student rebellion has spread throughout the nation’s capital with high-schoolers occupying more than 30 public schools. On Thursday, tens of thousands of students marched in Buenos Aires to protest deteriorating public education in the South American country. FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports.

Argentina increases public spending on poverty, education

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As the US and European nations cut government spending as part of extreme austerity measures, one Latin American country is increasing public spending. In Argentina, the spending on programs targeting poverty has revived approval ratings for the South American nation’s first woman president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires.

http://www.fsrn.org/audio/argentina-increases-public-spending-poverty-education/7432

Mujeres Libres

Argentina Passes Gay Marriage Law

Thursday, 15 July 2010 21:34 Marie Trigona
Toward Freedom

Argentina approved a gay marriage law early this morning, making the country the first in Latin America where same-sex couples can wed. Same sex couples will now be granted the same rights, responsibilities and protections that married couples have. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government supported the bill and defied the Catholic Church’s opposition to the law.

Landmark vote

The Senate voted just before 4am, after 15 hours of intense debate. The law passed with a vote 33 to 27, with 3 abstaining. Leading up to the vote, activists stood outside of Congress listening to the heated debate, applauding and booing at the respective Senator’s deliberation. The law will cover adoption rights, inheritance protection, shared custody responsibilities and recognition and coverage of social security for same sex couples.

Religious groups opposing the law have pushed for the Senate to vote on a Civil Unions bill instead. That bill would limit the rights and protections for same sex couples. Outside of Senate building, Senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto, from the President’s Peronist Party said the government wouldn’t consider that option. A week before the Congressional vote, opposition pushed through by a slim margin add-on legislation for a Civil Unions bill which would have prohibited adoption and other rights for same-sex couples. During deliberations on the Senate floor Picheto considered the oppositions’ calls for modifications to the laws that had lower house approval synonymous with a “totalitarian state.”

Gay marriage

Nine same sex couples have already wed in Argentina, after a Buenos Aires judge overturned Argentina’s ban on same sex marriage in 2009. Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello were the first gay couple to get married in Argentina. Two hours before Thursday’s pre-dawn vote, Freyre told Toward Freedom he was hopeful. “I’m here enjoying the night on which Argentina will vote in favor of judicial equality. Tonight is a fundamental step toward an end to discrimination, a law that doesn’t justify legal discrimination,” he said. “It means that our families can have peace of mind in the face of the law, especially for children who live with gay and lesbian parents.”

Gay rights advocates rallied in support of the law which now guarantees equal rights as stated in Argentina’s constitution. Alberto Rucci, lived 18 years with his partner and when his partner died 2 years ago, his partner’s ex-wife inherited the house where they lived over a decade together. Legally, he could do nothing. Maria Alejandra Aranda, says that she as a lesbian wanted to law to pass so that gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and trans-sexuals can come out and demand visibility without fear. “Now that the law is passed it is a triumph, because Argentina will truly be a progressive nation. Whether or not the law would have passed, we still would have won a cultural battle and gained support from society.” In the weeks leading up to the vote, groups held concerts and rallies throughout the nation. “We are considered second class citizens. The nation is civilized enough to guarantee equality, freedom and fraternity for everyone,” said Aranda.

Religious opposition

The legislation faced fierce opposition from the Catholic Church and Evangelicals. On the eve of the vote, tens of thousands from the religious community rallied in front of Congress to protest against the same-sex marriage law. Ninety one percent of Argentines identify as Catholic.. Maria Yrcovich, a 70-year old immigrant, opposed the legislation: “Why are we here? Because we are supporting what our Church asks us to. We are in favor of family. We are against what is unnatural. Homosexuals are people. But next, they are going to ask for a law to be able to marry an animal. It’s abnormal, it’s not normal. Marriage is for a man and women.”

The Catholic hierarchy in Argentina took a clear stance against gay marriage. The Church sanctioned a priest who defended gay marriage. Father Nicolas Alessio was sanctioned and prohibited from giving mass for his declarations in favor of equality in the sacrament of marriage. Alessio told the daily Pagina/12 that he would not accept the sanction and would continue giving mass, “this is censorship and punishment, they cannot prohibit me from exercising my calling.” The Catholic priest, Christian Von Wernich, charged with carry out human rights abuses while working in several of the clandestine detention centers used to disappear 30,000 dissidents during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship continues to give mass with the bishop’s blessing.

President Fernandez de Kirchner publically scorned the declarations from the Catholic hierarchy saying that “expressions such as ‘war of god’ or ‘devil’s law’ refer to times of the Inquisition” when rights were clearly violated. In a final attempt to gain opposition, groups held the rally under the banner, “All children deserve a mother and father.” The church paid for buses to bring people to and from the event, which evoked a natural order to marriage.

Argentina taking the lead

Argentina now joins the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Iceland as the 10th country to approve a nation-wide gay marriage law. Marcelo Torres, a public school teacher waited outside of Congress for the vote. “I’m here because I’m gay, and I support this law. I want to get my marriage just like any straight person in this country. And I’m very proud to be here. I think that this is probably one of the most important moments, because we are having great changes,” he said. “It would be like the first South American country with a gay marriage law. It would be like a revolution in South America and it will be related to other countries because they will follow us. I guess they will follow us.”

As the law passed at nearly 4am, hundreds outside of Congress celebrated, hugging each other in tears, in near freezing temperatures. For more than 10 years, gay rights activists have been working on the campaign for same-sex marriage. President of Argentina’s Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals and Trans, Maria Rachid, says that more Latin American countries may follow Argentina’s lead in granting equal rights to gay couples.

“The law was passed because of how hard we fought. We are a ton of activists, from the Federation of Lesbian, Gays, and Trans who worked for this law to be passed. Today we are a more just and democratic society. And this is something we should all celebrate. And we can be proud to be the first country in Latin America to make this progress in Human Rights,” said Rachid.

Latin America to follow lead?

Although Argentina's capital Buenos Aires was the first to legalize same sex unions, not all rights were granted under the civil union code. No other Latin American nation has a nationwide gay marriage law. However, same-sex civil unions are legal in Uruguay and in some states in Brazil and Mexico. Gay marriage is legal in Mexico City. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner backed the law and has vowed to pass the legislation.

With the gay marriage vote, Argentina transformed into a reference point for other governments in Latin America. Activists throughout South America plan to propose similar laws, in Chile and Paraguay. The Uruguayan gay community dissatisfied with limitation under the Civil Union statute also hopes to extend marriage right for same-sex couples. As activists celebrate the historic victor for equality and freedom, gay rights advocates hope that Argentina’s decision adds momentum to similar efforts around the world.

Marie Trigona is a writer, translator and radio producer based in South America. She can be reached through her blog: www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

Argentina legalizes gay marriage – a first for Latin America

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Argentina approved a gay marriage law early this morning, making the country the first in Latin America where same-sex couples can wed. Same sex couples will now be granted the same rights, responsibilities and protections that other married couples have. From Buenos Aires, Marie Trigona reports:

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Latin America: Impunity in Plan Condor’s Shadows

Toward Freedom

Argentine Activists Demand End of Impunity for Plan Condor (Photo: Andres Santamarina)

“The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.” - Dan Mitrione,United States government security advisor for the CIA in Latin America, and instructor in the art of torture teaching techniques in Uruguay during the nation's 1973-1985 military dictatorship.

US intervention continues to haunt Latin America, a region overrun with brutal military dictatorships during the 1970’s and 80’s. Dictatorships coordinated torture, assassinations and disappearances under a US-backed program in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The program, called Plan Condor, was a shared strategy in Latin America's Southern Region during the 1970s and 80s and had Washington involvement.

Human rights groups claim that tens of thousands were killed during South America’s darkest period during the 1970’s and 1980’s under the military dictatorships. Military governments came to power via well planned coups in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. In Argentina alone, an estimated 30,000 people were forcefully disappeared.

Now nearly 30 years later, long standing impunity has overshadowed efforts for regional integration and return to democratic rule. Throughout the region, the road to justice has been slow. Argentina has taken the lead in trying former military and police after amnesty laws protecting military have been overturned in 2005. However, Uruguay and Brazil still uphold amnesty laws preventing human rights trials from taking place. While in Chile justice is possible, the nation grapples with dictator supporters in government who continue to hold up legal proceedings.

Operation Condor on trial in Argentina

A human rights trial in Argentina is looking into a crimes committed under Plan Condor and sheds light into how other countries are lagging behind in looking into crimes of the past. The current trial focuses on one Buenos Aires location that served as a detention center. Six former military and police face 65 charges of kidnapping, torture and murder while they worked at a clandestine detention center called Orletti auto-garage. Inside the functioning repair shop, located in a residential neighborhood, hundreds were tortured and killed.

Human rights Lawyer Pablo Llanto says the events at the garage provide detailed information on the inter-workings of Plan Condor. “People ask how did Plan Condor operate, well, this is how it operated. It was the coordinated efforts in Orletti, in this case between Uruguayan and Argentine security forces. But in Orletti, Chileans and Cuban citizens were also detained, which demonstrates that the repressive apparatus wasn’t limited to Argentines, it targeted citizens from other nationalities in Latin America.”

Relatives and survivors waited for more than 30 years for military members to face trial, due to amnesty laws that protected the officers. The impunity laws were overturned in 2005. More than 10 high-profile trials are underway to prosecute dozens of military, police, and civilians accused of participating in the systematic plan to disappear so-called "dissidents."

Regionally, Argentina has taken the lead in revisiting these human rights abuses and bringing those responsible to justice through trials. But Giselle Temper, a human rights activist from the group HIJOS says that countries such as Chile and Uruguay have blocked all possibilities for justice for crimes committed during the nations’ dictatorships.

“Plan Condor included Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and other countries. But Argentina is the only country putting the people who carried out genocide on trial. In Chile, Pinochet died without being tried, in impunity. Uruguay didn’t win the vote to annul the amnesty for military officers. Argentina has expressed their social condemnation for what happened during the dictatorship, without that these trials wouldn’t be occurring.”

Uruguay’s ‘State of Siege’

The Orletti trial will investigate why and how Uruguayan prisoners were brought to Argentina and held at the Orletti auto-garage. However, Uruguay will not try military officers who participated in the torture and forced disappearance of dissidents during the 1973-1985 military dictatorship. Uruguay’s military junta came to power three years before Argentina’s junta. Many Uruguayan activists were exiled to Argentina before the 1976 military junta. After Argentina’s dictatorship led a coup in 1976, both regimes secretly cooperated in the torture and disappearance of each others’ citizens with CIA assistance.

This assistance came in the form of training from U.S. Department of State officials. The scene depicted in Constantin Costa-Gavra's 1972 film State of Siege, set in Uruguay in the early 1970s reflects the role the US had. In an unforgettable scene, a US official from the Office of Public Safety teaches a room full of cadets the technique of the picana or "electric prod.”

Declassified U.S. Department of State documents have provided evidence of Plan Condor's broad scope and Washington’s involvement. Stella Calloni is a leading expert on Plan Condor – she has written two books detailing Plan Condor’s scope and US participation. “The US, under the Washington consensus used criteria to unify the dictatorship in South America to prosecute important leaders. Under Plan Condor, the military could prosecute and murder dissidents. Another crime was to kidnap an activist from one country and bring them to another country to disappear them after torturing them.”

Even though documents have shed light into the extent of the crimes, Uruguayan military continue to be exempt from justice. In 2009 the country revisited the controversial Ley de Caducidad, or impunity law that protected many Uruguayan officials from prosecution for human rights abuses. Human rights groups, unions and representatives from the Frente Amplio government coalition worked to overturn the law in 2009 via a plebiscite. Nearly 46 percent of the adult population voted to overturn the law, however in order to end impunity more than 50 percent was needed. However, human rights groups continue to work to undo the amnesty law.

More than 10,000 marched in silence in Uruguay’s capital Montevideo to demand truth and justice for the crimes committed during the nation’s dictatorship. “We are looking for truth, because reconciliation is only possible when the truth is known. We’ve said it in other marches and we’ll say it again: the truth continues to be abducted while we don’t know what happened and while our relatives continue disappeared,” said Marta Passelle, leader of the Association of Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared speaking at the march.

Part of the nation’s silence is reflected in the fact that the Uruguayan state only recognizes 37 disappeared, while human rights organizations report more than 200 disappeared – all of which will never be investigated due to Uruguay’s impunity law.

Human Rights in Chile and Brazil

Human rights groups in Chile and Brazil have criticized their respective governments for obstacles and disregard of international human rights laws to carry out investigations. During Chile’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship, 3,000 disappearances took place. Augusto Pinochet, the nation’s US-backed dictator, died without standing trail and continues to cast a shadow over Chile.

As of October 2009, 559 former military personnel and civilian collaborators were facing charges for enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and torture, according to Human Rights Watch. Nearly 277 had been convicted, and 56 were serving prison sentences. Pinochet was under house arrest and faced prosecution at the time of his death in 2006, but judicial proceedings came too late and he was left unpunished.

Proceedings progressed in 2009, when a judge indicted 129 former members of the DINA, the dictator’s secret police for disappearances. In 2009, for the first time, a court declared torture a systematic practice to be a crime against humanity. This led the Supreme Court to rule that an amnesty decreed by the military government is inapplicable to war crimes or crimes against humanity. However, judges may use discretion about whether the amnesty is applicable.

“Chile hasn’t seriously progressed in the trials because there is no political compliance to do so. There haven’t been more than mere symbolic gestures,” says Leonardo Ortega, a Chilean graduate student in sociology at FLACSO. Many of the military up for trial were low-rank officers, while higher ranking officials who gave orders have been protected by the criminal code. Currently, Congress has evaluated a bill to amend the code so that crimes against humanity are not subject to amnesties or statutes of limitation, but it has been deadlocked since 2005.

Brazil’s government has faced serious criticism from international human rights organizations for its failure to convict military officials for crimes committed during the dictatorship. The 1979 amnesty law remains unchanged, blocking prosecution against former officials for human rights violations committed under the 1964-1985 dictatorship. Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court upheld the amnesty law in a decision in 2010.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded in 2009 that the amnesties and statutes of limitations cannot be applied to crimes against humanity that were committed during the dictatorship. “Brazil has had neither trials nor even a truth commission to address the very serious crimes that took place, and is lagging behind the region in accountability for past abuses,” said José Miguel Vivanco, America’s director for Human Rights Watch. “It's been nearly a quarter century since the transition to democracy. The victims and their families have waited too long for justice.”

Nunca Mas – Never Again

The slogan “Never Again” was adopted with the hope that Argentina and other countries in the region, including Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, ruled by violent military dictatorships would never repeat that dark chapter in history. Decades have passed since the end to the dictatorships in the region and much heralded “return to democracy.” But many of the old systems of repression remain. In Argentina a key human rights witness, Julio Lopez remains missing after his 2006 disappearance. Survivors in the region continue to face threats and security issues on the brink of their testimonies in trials. Much of the files and top-secret information has yet to be released about the crimes the military coups committed.

Plan Condor united the nations in a plan to wipe out dissidents regionally through state imposed terror. Now, governments in the Southern Cone have the opportunity to work together to revisit the past and investigate the crimes which continue to be a social stigma scarring the respective countries. Without justice and with outstanding impunity, history is likely to repeat itself.

Marie Trigona is a writer and radio producer based in Argentina. She can be reached through her blog www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

Argentina’s Soccer Passion

By Marie Trigona / ZNet.com / June 28, 2006 / original article

An old article, but still relevant.

The world cup is here. Until July 9th, 32 national teams will play for the Word Cup title. It is estimated that the World cup will draw five billion viewers world wide. Argentina is no exception to the frenzy. South Americans are the wildest about their soccer, with the highest TV ratings. Argentina’s passion for soccer is a cultural mainstay and part of national identity regardless of class backgrounds.

This year’s World cup tournament has brought back a wave of fervor for Argentina’s national soccer team. Argentina is expected to have a good chance at the World Cup title with super stars like Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez, young soccer magicians leading the offense.

I just returned to Argentina in the height of this year’s World Cup fever. Fans’ passion for the sport has inspired even sports nerds like myself. During the recent matches, the streets of Buenos Aires have looked like a western ghost town with everyone shut in their homes or workplaces watching the game. International and national companies like Pepsi, Quilmes beer, Adidas have featured Messi and Tevez marketing their products. Local stores, bars and citizens have been plastered with Argentina’s national colors, sky blue and white. Every news broadcast (morning, noon, evening and nightly newscasts) feature special reports on the world cup. National politics and local events seem to have been frozen in time until the world cup ends and Argentina takes home the cup. With nothing else seemingly happening in the country, it seems logical to write about what Argentine’s know best, their soccer.

Soccer as socialism

At the turn of the 20th century, Anarchists and Socialists founded many of Argentina’s first soccer clubs. They sought the need to use soccer as a social and political tool for organizing. Anarchist historian Osvaldo Bayer has written extensively on anarchism and soccer. Argentina’s large Anarchist movements in the 20th century, influenced by the influx of European immigrants, were alarmed by the working class’ drive to go to the soccer stadium on weekends rather than ideological picnics or other cultural events. The movement’s daily anarchist newspaper La Protesta wrote in 1917 compared the effects of soccer with religion, writing “church and soccer balls: the worst drug for the people.” However, anarchists soccer ideology changed quickly.

One of the first teams Chacarita Juniors was founded on May 1, 1906 in an Anarchist library in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Chacarita. Anarchists had a clear vision. “Soccer is a socialist game. Everyone plays together with the objective of making it to the goal line, that is the triumph, that is the revolution. In soccer you learn how to act in solidarity. You can’t play alone, when someone is in a better position you have to pass them the ball.” They even discussed what would happen when the sport would become professionalized. When the anarchists would win a championship, all the prizes would go toward forming schools for children to learn the sport. Other clubs followed including the “Martyrs of Chicago,” a homage to the American workers hung for fighting for a 8 hour workday. In the 30's the clubs became appropriated by capitalist interests. The “Martyrs of Chicago” later became Argentinos Juniors: “We are Argentines, not anarchists” became the new nationalist slogan erasing the team’s proletariat history. Chacarita still sports red and black uniforms even though the club is run as a commercial team.

Soccer as nationalism

Until the 60's South America’s soccer teams remained inferior to Western European teams. With the upsurge of military dictatorships in the region, Latin America also emerged as leaders in soccer. Argentina won its first World Cup championship in 1978, in the height of the military brutal dictatorship (1976-1983). The coup’s first dictator, Jorge Rafael Videla hosted the 1978 World Cup as a media stunt to show the world that the military had popular support.

The 1976-1983 military dictatorship ushered in unimaginable methods of terror–drugging dissidents and dropping them from planes into the Atlantic Ocean in the “vuelos del muerte,” using electric prods or “picana”on the genitals of men and women who entered the clandestine detention centers, raping women and forcing husbands, wives, parents, brothers, and companeros to listen tot he screams of their loved ones who were being tortured. The dictatorship disappeared 30,000 men and women to wipe out working class resistance and implement the neoliberal economic model.

By 1978, the international community had heard the accounts of the dictatorship’s human right’s violations. An international campaign gained steam thanks to the determination of groups like the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. In the midst of criticism, the dictatorship decided to host the World Cup. Anyone who opposed the dictatorship risked being disappeared themselves. The dictatorship justified the tortures, kidnaping and executions as a “dirty war” against anti-nationalist, communist opponents. The mothers of Plaza de Mayo suffered the most aggression leading up to the World Cup. Three of the founding members were disappeared and murdered following the infiltration by Adolfo Astiz, a military officer, in 1977.

The 1978 World Cup cost Videla several hundred million dollars. Business tycoons who benefitted from the dictatorship’s neoliberal policies joined in the World Cup frenzy. The BAUEN hotel (currently under worker self-management) was constructed in 1978 for the World Cup, with government loans and subsidies.

Many ex-detainees held at the ESMA (Navy Mechanics School), one of the 400 clandestine detention centers, said they could hear the cheers as Argentina won the world cup while being tortured. The River Plate Stadium is less than a kilometer away from Argentina’s infamous and largest clandestine detention center. Some detainees gave accounts that they too cheered for Argentina while tied and blindfolded.

Home players beat Holland 3-1 in the final. Holland along with many nations threatened to boycott Argentina’s World Cup, saying “you can’t play soccer a thousand meters from a torture center.” The Holland players said openly they would not accept the World Cup trophy from hands of dictator Videla. The military coup used the World Cup to launch its own counter-human rights campaign with the slogan “Argentineans are right and human.” The dictatorship’s national pride campaign overshadowed any international criticism of human rights violations.

Soccer and image

Diego Armando Maradona, by far the best soccer player in history, led Argentina in taking the title again in 1986 during the World Cup in Mexico. Maradona from the working class neighborhood Fiorito, a shanty town in a southern Buenos Aires suburb continues as a soccer god for many worldwide. During the 90's Maradona began to slip in the midst of the golden neoliberal era of former president Carlos Menem. Maradona left the soccer world in 1994 with a drug addiction and weight problem.

As part of Argentina’s image recovery from the 2001 financial and political crisis, Maradona cleaned up his act and had gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. Once again, Maradona is Argentina’s national pride. The best soccer player in history has a tattoo of Ernesto “Che” Guevara on his arm and another of Fidel Castro on his calve. Maradona hosted a weekly national talk show, which broke tv rating records in 2005. Fidel Castro gave Maradona an exclusive interview in which the best soccer player in history pridefully showed the ‘comandante’ his tattoo. During the interview Maradona also promised the ‘comandante’ that he would protest against George W. Bush’s visit to Argentina during last year’s Summit of the Americas.

In popular culture, almost noone makes reference to the 1978 World Cup victory. Fans generally cheer, “we’re going to win just like in 1986!” Soccer, like any sport can be used to uphold authoritarianism and nationalism. The political punk rock band, Las Manos de Fillippi, wrote a song about the 1978 World Cup “La Selecion Nazzional.” The lyrics go: “The World Cup is another state ministry, while the education ministry makes you stupid, the World Cup nationalizes you.” Universally, the state has coopted the World Cup for national interests.

However, sports can also bring people together. It’s no wonder that bosses often ban employees from forming sports clubs or other leisure activities. The workers from the Zanon ceramics factory, occupied and managed by its workers since 2001, launched an interesting campaign during the World Cup. They printed a special ceramics title with the slogan: “Together we are playing for the world cup, together we fight for the expropriation of Zanon.” When the former boss at Zanon prohibited the workers from talking in groups of three or more, the workers began to organize against exploitive conditions in the plant by getting together and playing soccer. Today, the Zanon workers have organized their own soccer tournament inside their factory to create a recreation space and to create unity among the workers.

Marie Trigona forms part of Grupo Alavío. She can be reached at mtrigona@msn.com. For more information visit, www.agoratv.org

US-backed torture and assassination program focus of trial in Argentina

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A human rights trial in Argentina is looking into a US-backed program that engaged in torture, assassination and disappearance. The program, called Plan Condor, was a shared strategy in Latin America's Southern Region during the 1970s and 80s and had Washington involvement. The current trial focuses on one Buenos Aires location that served as a detention center. FSRN's Marie Trigona reports.

Argentina’s Bicentennial: Indigenous Tell Another History

For Upsidedownworld Written by Marie Trigona, Photos by Francisco Ciavaglia

Thursday, 27 May 2010 07:37

Argentina is celebrating the bicentennial of a revolution that paved the road to independence from Spain with the nation’s capital transformed into a gala event. But not everyone is celebrating. The nation’s indigenous people are calling attention to a legacy of invasion and displacement that continues to this day. Nothing to celebrate As bicentennial events commenced, indigenous groups led a caravan to the nation’s capital to demand recognition of their sovereign culture and plurality, in one of the largest indigenous demonstrations in Argentina’s history. During the march thousands commemorated the nation’s non-colonial history. Santiago de la Casa, a Pilagá community member traveled from the province of Formosa to push for a law to recognize indigenous cultures, languages and territory. “We can’t be happy and celebrate the nation’s past 200 years as indigenous people. The indigenous people already existed here. The other, the Europeans who came here 200 years ago can celebrate. They can be happy because they have benefited from the waters, rivers, air, earth apt to produce. We are sad because we don’t have a specific law for the aboriginal people.” The Pilagá community has faced environmental devastation and water pollution due to the construction of public water works project which has flooded indigenous ancestral lands. Amnesty International published a report on the “systematic violation of human rights.” The Pilagá community numbering around 6,000 inhabits the bordering lands of the La Estrella wetlands. The indigenous have faced constant repression from security forces and threats, in addition to the degradation of living standards due to the pollution of the wetlands. The Pilagá face food shortages and risk losing their traditional ways of life, such as hunting and fishing which they have depended on for centuries. Genocide More than 30 indigenous nations have survived the mass immigration of Europeans to Argentina. However, the nation’s early leaders led campaigns such as the “conquest of the desert,” to wipe out indigenous communities in the Patagonia south to make room for white inhabitants. General Julio Argentino Roca led this campaign in which “30 million hectares were stolen from the indigenous and distributed among the nation’s most wealthy under what is called the campaign of the desert,” said Anarchist Historian Osvaldo Bayer. Lestuaro Newen is from the Mapuche confederation in Neuquen, one of the communities attacked in the campaign to dominate Patagonia in the 1870’s. “An essential component of the change that needs to take place in Argentina and in Latin America is that history tends to be manipulated and tries to legitimize the genocide that took place. And that history recognizes that there were pre-existing communities and that the colonialists tried to exterminate indigenous people which constitutes genocide. Our communities have a lot to contribute to history, not only the past but the future and we have hope history will change.” The lands stolen during the Campaign of the Desert were handed over to the nation’s oligarchy. One such beneficiary to the genocide of the Patagonian indigenous includes the Great Grandfather of Jose Martinez de Hoz, the former economy minister during the dictatorship and architecht of the neoliberal economic model for which the military junta needed to carry out another genocide campaign to implement and disappear 30,000 activists during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. 200 years after the supposed end to colonial rule, indigenous territory continues to be invaded by foreign economic interests. One of the largest landholders in the Patagonia, includes the Italian company Benetton which owns 2.2 million acres of land. Benetton has lead a campaign to evict families from the land which their families lived centuries ago. “Our demands include that they recognize our people, territory and our rights to natural resources,” says Newen. He adds, ““The provincial governments carries out policies that allow natural resources to be bought and sold, for lands that Mapuches have occupied for decades to be sold with the communities on the lands, and that our people along with the people from the province are being polluted from the extraction of natural resources such as petrol and mining.” Mourning Pachamama Indigenous communities have faced not only displacement but poverty and health problems due to the environmental devastation of their land by industrial agriculture, mining and dam projects. One indigenous representative from the Amayra –Quecha Andean region, Guayma Huamca, said that the Pachamama, or Mother Earth desperately needs equilibrium and harmony. “Our leaders have been dismembered and tortured during the nation’s history. To squash our consciousness and rights our communities have been terrorized so that we never raise our voices again. Years go by and centuries have passed, and the Pachamama is boiling with grief, and is crying for help.” Festivities for the May 25 independence revolution concluded, and millions have visited the art exhibits, food stalls, and didactic historic displays line the Buenos Aires major avenues. President Cristina Kirchner met a delegation of indigenous representatives. Only one law has been passed in 2006 to protect indigenous lands, and only a handful of provinces recognize the pre-existence of indigenous cultures, languages and sovereignty over territory. However, for the 8,000 indigenous who marched to the city, the May 25 bicentennial struck a deep chord for communities that face discrimination in the present and forget of the past. Throughout the city, the cries of “the stolen land will be recuperated,” the mourning of the Pachamama and the tears of genocide of indigenous peoples echoed as the nation celebrated its bicentennial. Marie Trigona is a writer, radio producer and translator based in Argentina. She can be reached through her blog www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

Argentina's indigenous continue to struggle as country marks bi-centennial

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Argentina celebrates the bicentennial of a revolution that paved the road to independence from Spain with the nation’s capital transformed into a gala event. But not everyone is celebrating. The nation’s indigenous people are calling attention to a legacy of invasion and displacement that continues to this day. FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires.

Argentina a Step Closer to Same-Sex Marriage

From Toward Freedom

Written by Marie Trigona

Thursday, 13 May 2010

Argentina's First Gay Marriage Argentina is a step closer to legalizing same sex marriage. The South American nation’s lower house approved gay marriage on May 6, and the law will now go to the Senate. If passed, Argentina will become the first country in Latin America to implement national legislation lifting a ban on same sex marriage. Gay rights advocates celebrated the House of Deputies’ decision to approve gay marriage, although they are working hard to push for Senate majority to approve the law. Landmark Legislation Five same sex couples have married following court rulings declaring the ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. Martin Canevaro and his partner tied the knot to become Argentina’s fourth gay-married couple. “I have been happily married to Carlos Alvarez, following a court ruling which declared the civil code which impedes marriage between two people of the same sex as unconstitutional.” Despite these case by case judicial rulings which could eventually be considered by the Supreme Court, Lesbian and Gay rights organizations have pushed for a national law that would allow marriage between gay couples. If approved, the law would grant the same basic rights that opposite sex married couples have – rights that are more comprehensive than those granted under civil unions. President of Argentina’s Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals and Trans, Maria Rachid, explains. “We need this law for two fundamental reasons. First to have all of the rights which marriage guarantees: sharing with your partner a social security plan, being able to leave the person you love a pension, to leave them an inheritance. Even though these rights are an important part of a person’s daily life, there’s another reason which is even more important: which is access to legal equality.” Many of the court rulings allowing gay marriages spawned from the courts’ interpretation of Argentina’s constitution which states that all citizens must have equal representation under the law and civil codes. Rachid, who was also the first woman to hold a civil union ceremony with her partner in Argentina adds, “If the State legitimizes judicial inequality, it translates to discrimination and violence against the queer community. To fight against this discrimination and violence, we need equal legal recognition from the State.” Argentina’s First Gay Marriage Two Argentine men wed on December 28, 2009 in Latin America’s first same sex marriage. Alex Freyre and Jose Maria di Bello tied the knot in a private ceremony in the Patagonian province of Tierra del Fuego, becoming Argentina's first married gay couple. However the governor of the Southern Tierra del Fuego issued a special decree allowing the two men to wed legally. Jose Maria di Bello said that gay marriage is a symbol of civil rights. “I think this marriage is going to cause a domino effect throughout Latin America. It will allow for more transformations in which all citizens’ rights will be included and respected.” Earlier in 2009 a Buenos Aires judge overturned Argentina’s ban on same sex marriage. But the day before the two men were originally set to marry, a federal judge issued an injunction that prevented the December 1st planned wedding in Buenos Aires. A supreme court appeal is still pending. The couple did not announce plans to wed to prevent further judicial roadblocks. More than 60 same sex couples have presented court appeals challenging the nation’s laws on gay marriage, while another 200 petitions are being prepared for presentation. Some of the marriages that have taken place have been overturned by higher courts. Latin America and Same Sex Marriage Until now, no Latin American country has formally recognized gay marriages, although Mexico City's legislature has approved them. Same-sex civil unions, have been approved in Buenos Aires and other places in Argentina, as well as in Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, and in one state of Venezuela. Martin Canevaro is president of the NGO, 100 Percent Diversity and Rights. He says that the Lower House’s approval of the same sex bill sends the message that Argentina, historically a conservative nation has progressed. “The message for gays, lesbians and trans-women and men for us to be able to live without fear, the parliament sent a message that we should be able to live in freedom and not in a closet.” He continues, “For gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and trans-sexuals not to have that protection is an act of discrimination and violence that we can’t allow when we are in the 21st century. This law will level the rights gay and lesbian families with the rights of heterosexual families, this law would repair decades of institutional discrimination and violence.” While the Catholic Church has branded the push for same-sex marriage as immoral, the media and public welcomed the lower-houses decision to approve the law. Increasingly in Latin America, the gay, lesbian and trans community has gained visibility and acceptance along with the trend toward progressive governments in the region. Grass roots organizations have challenged standing legislation banning same-sex marriage as well as other issues such as reproductive rights for women and gender equality. Time will tell whether Latin America’s governments will pass legislations which reflect a region rich with cultural and sexual diversity. For more than 10 years, gay rights activists have been working on the campaign for same-sex marriage. When Buenos Aires became Latin America’s first city to recognize same sex-unions in 2002, activists began the campaign for a same-sex marriage law. Argentina’s Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bi-sexuals and Trans formed in 2005 with the objective of grouping together queer advocacy groups to fight for same-sex marriage and a law that would allow trans-gender individuals to openly and legally chose their gender identity. Argentina’s annual pride march is one of Latin America’s largest, and during this year’s march thousands of lesbians, gays and trans women and men carried banners for same sex marriage as a basic right. National Law Following 12 hours of debate, the Lower House voted 126 to 110 to approve the bill. Vilma Ibarra, is a national deputy who wrote the current bill now on its way to Senate. “That today a homosexual is prohibited from accessing a civil institution such as marriage due to discrimination based on their sexual orientation is part of the struggle for equality. Argentina’s taking the forefront and pushing for the fight against discrimination which may impulse other countries to make similar laws for equal rights.” The Senate must now approve the bill. Senators allied with the president’s party pledged to pass the bill and the president vowed not to veto the measure if it reaches her desk. Law-makers and queer rights activists supporting the law hope that if same-sex marriage is approved in Argentina, other Latin American nations will follow suit to grant equal rights to sexual minorities. If passed, the law will surely bring hope to activists throughout the continent fighting for equal recognition of civil rights such as same sex marriage and end to discrimination based on sexual orientation. Marie Trigona is a writer, translator and radio producer based in South America. She can be reached through her blog: www.mujereslibres.blogspot.com

Argentina moves closer to same-sex marriage law

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A case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act began today in Boston. A federal judge heard arguments about whether the law, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages, is constitutional. Meanwhile, Argentina is a step closer to legalizing same sex marriage. The South American nation’s lower house approved gay marriage on Wednesday, and the bill will now go to the Senate. FSRN’s Marie Trigona reports from Buenos Aires.