Luis Arce Gómez, shining example of the South American dictatorships that were supported by the North

Luis Arce Gómez

So what do you call a member of the 20th century dictatorships, now in jail after evading justice for decades, who is now looking to swap details of the whereabouts of disappeared people for a reduced prison sentence? Scum of the earth? Top prize shit amongst prize shits? Ladies and gentlement of the northern industrialized countries, meet Luis Arce Gómez, a person you brought into and kept in power in Bolivia in the 1980's via your tax dollars and your governments. The report below a translation of this:

Potosí, 21 Sep (Erbol): The Ex-Minister of the Interior in the de facto government of Luis García Meza, Luis Arce Gómez, ratified on Tuesday that he is willing to reveal the whereabouts of the remains of people disappeared during the dictatorship in which he participated between 1980 and 1981 in exchange for a reduction in his sentence.

Arce reiterated his offer in a brief contact with reporters in the public attorneys office in La Paz, where had had been taken from the Chonchocoro prison to give a declaration as witness for the charges brought by ex-Congressman Bernardo Montenegro against ex-public attorney Jorge Gutiérres, who is supposed to have been an informer during the García Meza dictatorship.

"I'm going to negotiate (my possible early release from jail), if they want to know something (about the disappeared) I need to get something as well, nothing is free in this wprld and everybody benefits (from this type of information). I'm willing to speak on this and plenty of other things." CONTINUES HERE

August 30th, International Day of the Disappeared

Today is the annual commemoration of the tens of thousands of people that have been disappeared by oppressive governments over the years and around the world, though it shouldn't need much pointing out that Latin America as a region has suffered more than nearly anywhere else from this practice with the famous cases of Chile's Pinochet regime, Argentina's Dirty War standing alongside the lesser-reported cases of the thousands missing in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and many other states.

IKN publishes below the UN Human Rights Office's statement on this occasion today, available at its origin here.

Statement by United Nations Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances

Geneva (30 August 2010) -- Today the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances commemorates the International Day of the Disappeared. All over the world, events have been organized by the families and associations of victims to remember those that have suffered the terrible fate of being disappeared. Yet, the Working Group believes that this day ought to be commemorated by all. It is gratified that the Human Rights Council has accepted the recommendation of the Working Group that 30 August be proclaimed the International Day of the Disappeared. The Working Group supports the call by the Human Rights Council for the United Nations General Assembly to recognize this day annually. This would put a further spotlight on these heinous acts.

Thirty years after the Working Group’s establishment, which will be commemorated at an event to take place in Geneva on 5 November this year, it condemns the fact that enforced disappearances continue to occur all over the world. The Working Group reiterates its solidarity with victims, their families and others who work on the issue. It pays tribute to the many relatives of victims, human rights defenders, non-governmental organizations, lawyers and other individuals and groups who work untiringly and often in difficult circumstances to denounce cases of enforced disappearance, discover the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared, and work to eradicate this terrible practice. It invites all Governments to support the efforts of those working on enforced disappearances and to take all available measures to protect them and others, including witnesses to these crimes.

To end the practice of enforced disappearances States should continue promoting and giving full effect to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Defining enforced disappearance as a separate and autonomous criminal offence and bringing domestic legislation in conformity with the Declaration would significantly contribute to the prevention and eradication of this odious practice. The Working Group stands ready to assist states in their endeavors to give full effect to the Declaration.

The work of the Working Group is dependent on the cooperation of Governments. The role of states in investigating cases of enforced disappearances is essential to determining the fate or whereabouts of disappeared persons. The Working Group therefore calls upon Governments to fully cooperate with the Working Group and take all possible measures to address cases of enforced disappearances regardless of when the disappearance occurred, who the victims were or who the perpetrators are.

States should bring all those responsible for these crimes to justice; refrain from any act of intimidation or reprisals against those persons who contribute to the eradication of this crime; and fight impunity wherever it exists.

The Working Group is pleased to note that recently in a number of countries more has been done to investigate disappearances. It is also gratified that in various states there have been convictions for those who have perpetrated enforced disappearances and that in some cases reparations have been paid to victims or their families. More, however ought to be done to prosecute offenders, provide integral reparations to victims and family members, and to preserve memory.

The Working Group recalls that, as noted in its recently released General Comment on the Right to the Truth in Relation to Enforced Disappearances, the right to the truth entails the right to know about the progress and results of an investigation, the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared persons, the circumstances of the disappearance, and the identity of the perpetrator(s). The Working Group emphasizes that the right to the truth should be enjoyed by all the victims of enforced disappearances as well as others affected by enforced disappearances. Reconciliation between the State and victims of enforced disappearances and/or their families cannot happen without the clarification of each individual case.

The Working Group is gratified that, as of 30 August 2010, 83 States have signed and 19 States have ratified the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The ratification or accession of only one more State party is required before the Convention enters into force. The implementation of the Convention, and the coming into being of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance, will strengthen States’ capacities to reduce the number of disappearances and will help realize the demands of victims and their families for justice and truth. The Working Group urges States that have not yet signed and/or ratified the Convention to do so as soon as possible. It also calls upon States to accept the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals under article 31 and the inter-State complaint mechanism under article 32 of the Convention.

Now remember what they told you

Venezuela is mean and nasty and horrible and in an arms race to destabilize the whole region.

Colombia is nice and kind and soft and gentle, it's recent problems are now all gone and it's a perfectly safe and morally upstanding place to invest...for example, landgrabbing for goldmine territory in the middle of the jungle.

But wait! What's this? Why on earth is Colombia spending more on defence and security in its 2010 budget than it is on education? Click through and allow the always excellent 'Plan Colombia and Beyond' to fill you in on the details.

Bagua: 61 disappeared indigenous

The established and respected Peruvian rights group APRODEH (La Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos, or The Pro Human Rights Association) has just released a report listing sixty-one people involved in the disturbances at Bagua as disappeared. These people do not appear on the lists of the dead, the arrested, the detained, the hospitalized or the accounted-for and they have not appeared again either locally in or around Bagua or in their home towns or villages since the massacre took place, despite having been positively identified as present at the protest when the police repression began.

• Cover-up? Check
• Burn bodies? Check
• Dump in river? Check
• Media gagging? Check
• Fascist police state? Check
• All in the name of democracy? Check

Pictures worth more than their allotted thousand words

Simple but deeply moving photographs.

No long commentary on this post as the images speak for themselves. Thirteen photo pairs that explain better than a million words what the word dictatorship means and what it did to Argentina. Click on any photo to enlarge.

UPDATE: Thanks to kind readers, we now have two links for these wonderful photos. This one at Taringa and this one at UNESCO. Also, here's the link to the photographer Gustavo Germano's website.

US Homeland Security Immigrations Dep't says: "We can make a person disappear"

How to win friends and influence people.

If there's one phrase that Latin Americans do not want to hear from any sort of government authority, up to and including the people who patrol, apprehend and supposedly deport illegal immigrants into the USA, it's anything that includes the disappearance of people. After the hundreds of thousands of people disappeared from the face of the earth in LatAm's modern history you'd think that people might have got the message.

But no. We get US ICE spokespeople at official conferences proudly announcing that;

"We can make a person disappear."

Check out the full story via the evergreat Mex Files. I really feel like stringing an expletive-ridden sentence right now but let's just keep it to "Homeland Security, consider this an imperative to have auto-intercourse."

Chart of the day is......

.....the number of people "disappeared" for political motives in South America in 2008, by country.

The source is the US State Department 2008 report on Human Rights that was published yesterday.

Now that may be just another collection of numbers to you, but live in South America a while and you get to know what it means, too. During my time in Buenos Aires I was close to a person who lived through the 1970's dictatorship while at university. That person told me about how fellow students would suddenly stop coming to classes, with the more charismatic ones often the 'dropouts' (as the college authorities called them). The overriding emotion was fear and you just shut your mouth.

Remember that next time you see a band of 20something students making noise in the streets of Venezuela, because the lack of fear they have in protesting and voicing their opposition is indicative of a healthy democracy. Which reminds me; when was the last time CNN televised a student protest march in Colombia?

Only in Argentina

Disgusting news out of Argentina last night. Twenty of the worst pieces of shit that were responsible for the disappearances and hundreds (even thousands) of people via the infamous ESMA building during the military dictatorship have been ordered free.

Why? Well this is the disgusting bit; The judiciary has ruled that time is up for pre-trial custody. These people have over 800 cases to answer for, but not one of them has been moved forward sufficiently by Argentina's congress to make it to trial as yet. So the judiciary blames congress, and congress blames judiciary and the flotsam and jetsam of this world get out of jail. In the case of the most famous of the lot, Alfredo Astiz, he's been in jail since 2003 but not one case has been brought against him yet. This is worse than ridiculous. To give you an idea of the calibre of the man Astiz in a context that gringos might understand better, British war veterans of the Falklands/Malvinas conflict remember him as the guy who ordered his troops to fly white flags at Goose Green then, when the British soldiers got close enough, ordered the same soldiers to open fire. As for his exploits during the disappearances, as well as being one of the head torturers at ESMA he was the guy who condemned two French nuns to death during his undercover work, the signal for those watching being a kiss on the cheek of the nuns. Crud like Astiz, "El Tigre" Acosta and all the others should rot in jail forever, but because of the laxity and collusion from passive friends-in-high-places he'll now walk free.

UPDATE: I should have checked first. Lillie at Memory in Latin America is all over this story and does a far better job of telling it, too. Here's the link, Go see.