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http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/11/viernes-noviembre-17-2006-latin.html
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http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1295
November 17-19, 2006
Vigil to Close the SOA/ WHINSEC
Together We'll Shut it Down!
This November 17-19, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for the Vigil to Close the School of the Americas! Following on the heels of our first vote in Congress in seven years, this year's Vigil is shaping up to be a powerful time for movement building and an effective tool in the campaign to close the SOA/ WHINSEC.
2006 Schedule of Events
Read about past Vigils to Close the School of the Americas.
NOVEMBER ORGANIZING PACKET: The November Organizing Packet is a great resource for you and your community as you spread the word about the SOA/ WHINSEC and as you make plans to attend the November 17-19 Vigil to Close the SOA at Fort Benning, Georgia. In it, you'll find information about what to expect at Ft. Benning, logistical information to assist your trip planning, media, legislative, fundraising and outreach tips and resources, and flyers you can reproduce and use in your community. Click here to view or download a hard copy of the packet.
HOTELS: See a list of hotel and other accomodations in and around Columbus, Georgia. Contact Alyson Hayes at the Columbus Visitors Bureau with any questions at 1-800-999-1613.
OUTREACH: You can make a big difference by using a few simple resources at your disposal and reaching out to your local media. Taking a little time to carry out a handful of media-related tasks can profoundly impact the number of people in your area who know about the SOA/WHINSEC issue and the number of people who get involved in the work to CLOSE IT DOWN. Read about how you can Work With Your Local Media! or contact us in the SOA Watch office at 202-234-3440 or email media(at)soaw.org.
TRAVEL: See information on traveling to Columbus, whether by plane, car, bus, train or something more creative.
Click here to check the Ride Board for carpools and busses from your area.
ACCESSIBILITY & INTERPRETATION: Find out more about ASL and English<>Spanish intrepretation services, large print and Braille programs and wheelchair accessibilty.
PEACEMAKERS NEEDED:SOA Watch is looking for Peacemaker Volunteers to work at the vigil this year. Clickhere to read more about how you can participate, and to contact our Peacemaker coordinators.
LOCAL GROUPS: Do you know others in your area that are working to close down the School of the Americas? Connect with others now before heading to Georgia. Click here for a listing of SOA Watch local groups. If your group is not listed, please add your contact information.
Don't see a group for your area? Consider starting one! For more information, contact us at info@soaw.org or at 202-234-3440 or contact your regional representative for more information about those in your region working to close the SOA/ WHINSEC.
Photos by Linda Panetta, www.soawne.org
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aztlannet_News/message/26534
Fri Nov 17, 2006 3:37 pm
Posted by= "todo y nada" Email= ">y_nadatodo@hotmail.com>
MeXicano children from Chicago, IL
The March of the Children to the White House Lead by Saul Arellano
Friday November 3 2006 4PM
A delegation of US Citizen children from Chicago, IL will travel to Washington DC after last month Saulito Arellano requested and was rejected a meeting with the President George Bush. Saulito sent the message for family unity saying "I came so that the president will stop the raids and deportations and so that families will stay together." He also wrote a letter to the president explaining the reasons of the importance of having this meeting. Also notifying that if the president ignores him "the next time I will return with more children, I will bring all my friends" declared Saulito Arellano.
This trip continues the effort of a federal class action lawsuit initiated by the American Fraternity and supported by Centro Sin Fronteras in Chicago, IL. This lawsuit is in defense of the protections under the 14th amendment of the constitutional rights and family unity. This lawsuit includes US Citizen children under 21 years old and with undocumented parents under/ or not under deportation. The lead organization American Fraternity is based in Miami, Florida and its legal team has experience and has been successful with similar class action lawsuits like TPS and NACARA. This class action lawsuit initiative is extended to all local or national organization that is interested in participating. You can communicate directly with Nora Sadino
Cel. 786-287-1339 Off. 305-221-6433 o nora74@bellsouth.net or Emma Lozano cel. 773-671-1798 psf@somosunpueblo.com
URGENT ALERT:
TO ALL ORGANIZATIONS. ESPECIALLY IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Centro Sin Fronteras requests your support to participate in this action and requests your help with press contacts for the press conference.
Please call Roberto Lopez cel. 773-671-1727 or rlopez@somosunpueblo.com
To sign up for to go to Washington with the Children's March call Centro Sin Fronteras
(773) 523-8261
TRIP SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 2nd
4pm The bus is scheduled to leave after the ecumenical send off service at Adalberto United Methodist Church 2716 W. Division St., Chicago, IL.
Friday, Nov. 3rd
4pm Saul Arellano leads the march of the children to the White House
Saturday, Nov. 4th
Delegation of Children returns to Chicago, IL.
Sunday, Nov. 5th
12pm Service at the Sanctuary Church 2716 W. Division St., Chicago, IL.
1:45pm Press Conference and report back by children
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/11/17/1454233
Friday, November 17th, 2006
Acclaimed Chilean Novelist Isabel Allende on Michele Bachelet, Immigration and Chile as a "Country of Poets"
Chilean novelist Isabel Allende is a prolific writer with 15 books in just over two decades. Her works have been translated to more than 27 languages and have hit best-seller lists around the world. She joins us to discuss her latest work, "Ines of My Soul," the centuries-long struggle of the indigenous people of Chile, the significance of Chilean president Michele Bachelet, immigration and much more.
Born in Lima, Peru, in 1942, Isabel Allende traveled the world as the daughter of a prominent Chilean family. Her uncle was Chile's President, Salvador Allende. He died on another September 11th - September 11th 1973 when Augusto Pinochet seized power in a CIA-backed military coup. Afterwards, Isabel Allende's family fled to Venezuela where she continued to work as a journalist.
Her debut novel in 1982, The House of the Spirits, chronicled four generations of a Chilean family through the tumult of that country's political history. It is a history that is intertwined with Allende's own. Her latest book, "Ines of My Soul" recounts the story of Doña Inés Suárez, arguably the founding mother of Chile.
Isabel Allende, prize-winning Chilean novelist. Her latest book is titled "Ines Of My Soul."
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AMY GOODMAN: Before we formally introduce our next guest, Isabel Allende, I just wanted these two -- it's hard to say California women, given that Isabel Allende is hardly someone we think of exactly from California, but to get a chance to greet each other. Welcome, Isabel.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Welcome, Alice. It’s wonderful to hear your voice and to read your words. I think you are the person we have been waiting for, for many, many years.
ALICE WALKER: Thank you so much. And we are together.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Alice, thank you very much for having been with us, as we turn now to Chilean novelist Isabel Allende. We welcome you, here in Miami. Both of us are transplants for the hour. Isabel Allende, here for the Miami Festival of Books.
Chilean novelist Isabel Allende is a prolific writer, with 15 books in just over two decades. Her works have been translated into more than 27 languages. They’ve hit bestseller lists around the world.
Born in Lima, Peru in 1942, Isabel Allende traveled the world as the daughter of a prominent Chilean family. Her uncle was Chile’s president, Salvator Allende. He died on another September 11: September 11, 1973, when Augusto Pinochet seized power in a CIA-backed military coup. Afterwards Isabel Allende’s family fled to Venezuela, where she continued to work as a journalist.
Her debut novel in 1982, House of the Spirits, chronicled four generations of a Chilean family through the tumult of that country’s political history. It’s a history that’s intertwined with Allende’s own. Her latest book is called Ines of My Soul. It recounts the story of Doña Inés Suárez, arguably the founding mother of Chile. Isabel Allende joins us in Miami. Welcome.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: It is wonderful to have you with us. I was wondering, as we just listened to Alice reading, if you might read a short section before we talk about the novel.
ISABEL ALLENDE: It is embarrassing to read after Alice. I will read the beginning, the first paragraph. When I wrote this book, it was very easy to be Inés Suárez, to just put myself in her place and talk in first person, so this is her talking 500 years long.
“I am Inés Suárez, a townswoman of the loyal city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura in the Kingdom of Chile, writing in the year of Our Lord 1580. I am not sure of the exact date of my birth, but according to my mother I was born following the famine and deadly plague that ravaged Spain upon the death of Philip the Handsome. I do not believe that the death of the king provoked the plague, as people said as they watched the progress of the funeral cortege, which left the odor of bitter almonds floating in the air for days, but one never knows. Queen Juana, still young and beautiful, traveled across Castile for more than two years, carrying her husband's catafalque from one side of the country to the other, opening it from time to time to kiss her husband's lips, hoping that he would revive.”
AMY GOODMAN: Isabel Allende, reading the first paragraph of Ines of My Soul, her new book. She's traveling the country now talking about this work. Why don't you start off by saying why this woman, this Spanish conquistadora, as you say, why did you choose to spend the years of your life now writing about her?
ISABEL ALLENDE: I don't think I choose the characters. Sometimes they just appear in my life. And Ines is one of those characters that history has forgotten. She is mentioned once or twice in the Chilean history books as a woman, the only Spanish woman that accompanied 110 Spanish soldiers that conquered Chile. And the few things that they have to say about her are astounding. She was a dowser. She could find water where there was no water. Thanks to her, the troops were able to cross the desert of Atacama, the driest desert in the world, because she found water in every instance. She saved the city of Santiago from the first major attack of the Indians. And I’m not going to tell you how she did it, but she was there with 36 soldiers, and she saved the city. So, this is a very extraordinary person who lived to be 73 years old, which was a long life at the time.
And there are many things about her that I don't like, but those were very brutal times, and one has to see the life of Ines in its context. Today, of course, we have sympathy for the indigenous people that were massacred, and for how the Spanish invaded and occupied and destroyed civilizations in Latin America. However, that happened 500 years ago, and the clash of these two cultures was inevitable. And something happened after that, and we are the product of that time. I am a mestiza. I am the product of the Spaniards and the Mapuche Indians, so I can understand both currents, both traditions, and I feel that I can write about it, because I feel it inside. I feel the landscape also. I close my eyes, and I am in Chile, and I am in the Chile of 500 years ago, before they destroyed the forest and they polluted the waters.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Isabel Allende, greetings to you from here in New York. I would like to ask you, in terms of your being able to unearth the facts of her life in order to be able to base your novel on it, how difficult was it, in being able to uncover the trajectory of her life?
ISABEL ALLENDE: It was not that difficult, because much is known about the time of the conquest, the place where it happened, and the 110 guys that came with her. So by researching all that, her figure emerged. And the rest was a work of intuition. I imagined the kind of person she would have been, a woman of Extremadura 500 years ago, probably not very tall, because people were not very tall, but very healthy and very strong, because she survived all kinds of ordeals and lived a long life. She was a passionate woman, because she was capable of crossing the known world of the time for a man, her husband. And when she discovered that she was a widow, she turned around and fell madly in love with another man and went all the way to Chile following him. So she must have been a woman of great passion and great courage. She wasn't afraid of anything, and I can admire that.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask you, on a more current situation, we had in the headlines the statement of General Pinochet's daughter that he will not apologize to the Chilean people for what happened under his rule. Your reaction when you hear that?
ISABEL ALLENDE: Long overdue. There has not been justice in Chile. Justice is very slow and not fair, blind, deaf. And the people who suffered during that time suffered in silence. Their suffering was never acknowledged. It was denied. Then we had democracy for many years, and the idea was that in order to protect this fragile condition, democracy, that suffering had to be put aside. Those people had to sacrifice their truth and their past and their losses. And so, now it’s too late, and Pinochet will never be arrested. He lives in perfect comfort and wealth. And I don't think that by apologizing to the people that he so awfully tortured and whose lives he destroyed, he will do any good.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Isabel Allende. We're here in Miami. Juan is in New York. Here, Isabel Allende is at the Miami Festival of Books. She heads to Minneapolis tonight on a grueling book tour, but we're going to come back to her in just a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we are talking about global communications. We're talking about crossing borders. And we're doing it with Isabel Allende. I think there is no better personification of a woman of the world breaking down those borders. Her book is Ines of My Soul. It is her latest book. It’s a novel.
On a current issue, following up on Juan, I wanted to ask you about Michele Bachelet, your thoughts.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And also the fact that this new woman president of Chile has just gone to Villa Grimaldi, where she had been held, as well as her mother.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Michele Bachelet is an extraordinary person, no matter that she’s a woman. It’s wonderful that we have a woman president in Chile for the first time. And what is even more wonderful is that she has come to the government and appointed 50% of women in every level of government. So when you see a photograph of the secretaries of state or any official photograph, the caption says, “Count the women,” because 50% are women. It’s the first time in history that female energy and male energy, in equal terms, are running a country. It’s the management of the country with this female energy. And I think that it’s an extraordinary experiment. And if it works, it will be imitated, and it will open up new spaces for peace and understanding in the world.
Now, Michele's story is very interesting. She was the daughter of a general, General Bachelet, who did not comply with the coup, the day of the military coup. He was arrested by his peers, and he died in torture, tortured by his friends. And then his wife and his daughter, who was then practically a child, were also arrested, and they were tortured. Eventually they were set free, and they ended up first in Australia, then in Germany, where Michele became a doctor, a pediatrician. And as soon as she could, she returned to Chile, even in times of Pinochet, and started working to defeat Pinochet. Then she became Minister of Health, Minister of Defense, the first woman Minister of Defense, who had to deal with the same people who had killed her father and tortured her and her mother. And this woman lived in a building, where she would meet her torturer in the elevator. So this is what Chile has had to put up with.
So when General Pinochet, after 30-something years, says that he’s willing to meet the victims, it’s not enough. It’s not enough. Now, Michele has never talked about revenge. She has never talked about these things. She doesn't want to be used as an example. And she doesn't talk about reconciliation, because that is a word that she thinks is very personal. You reconcile and you forgive in the deepest of your heart, and you cannot ask that from anyone. She talks about reuniting the Chilean family, getting together and building the future together. But reconciliation, forgiveness is something that is very personal. So I have great admiration for this woman.
AMY GOODMAN: We're here in Miami, not that far from here, just outside Atlanta, this weekend will be a massive protest at what was known as the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. There are thousands who will be going there. You are the niece of Salvador Allende, who died on September 11, 1973, in the palace. Can you talk about the US role, since that’s what, coming up this weekend, people will be talking about, especially in Latin America?
ISABEL ALLENDE: The role of the United States, not only in Latin America, but in many other places in the world, is unknown by many people in the United States. People here don't know what the CIA and the American government has done abroad. And we know, because we are the ones who suffered it. The CIA was deeply involved in the military coup in Chile, deeply involved in torture and killings and disappearing people. And, of course, when Allende was elected, he was a socialist and a Marxist, democratically elected in the most solid and longest democracy in Latin America, Chile, and immediately the American government decided that that could not happen and they were willing to destroy anything in Chile to destroy Allende. And they did, eventually.
So my role, when I speak in public, when I go around this country, when I write, when I answer interviews, is tell people, because people don't know what’s happening. People don't know what’s happening in Iraq. We see stuff on TV that doesn't look real. It looks like a video game. We don't see the collateral damage. And the collateral damage on women and children, it's you and me. That's the collateral damage. Before, in a war, 90% of the casualties would be the military. Maybe 10% is civilians. Today, it’s the other way around: 10% are the military, and the rest are collateral damage, civilians, we the children, the women.
So I get very angry with this theme, and I’m sorry that I can't keep my voice cool, as I should, but I get very angry when I see what’s happening. And I am an American citizen. I love this country, and I want to change it. And this is what I think we are doing, many, many people, like Alice Walker and many others.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Isabel Allende, I’d like to ask you, getting back to a remark you made a few minutes ago about the changes in Chile and the genuine feminization of the infrastructure of the government, have you noticed the impact of that, in other words, in terms of types of policies that have been adopted that might not have been adopted in prior governments or even in other countries by overwhelmingly male leaderships?
ISABEL ALLENDE: Michele Bachelet has been accused of being weak, because her style is different from the male style. But to give you an example of something that has changed, 64% of the national budget goes to social programs. Can you imagine what the United States would be like if 64% of our budget would be for social programs?
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Isabel Allende about Michele Bachelet, about current politics from Chile to Iraq, and also about very old history, because Isabel has just written the book, Ines of My Soul. Can you talk about what the conquest was about? You talk about the blend in your own blood of -- or your own native roots. What happened to the Mapuche Native -- the Indians of Chile?
ISABEL ALLENDE: The conquest was a horrible event for the people who were in Latin America. There were some cultures, like the Aztecs in the north, in what is today Mexico, that were very brutal and very cruel. The Incas were not like the Aztecs. And then the Mapuche people were tribal people who lived in the south of Chile, from the Rio Bio-Bio south, and they were people who had -- they were warriors also, and they had come to that place also by doing war against the tribes that were there before. But they were not brutal. They didn't use torture. They were nomadic. They only had what they could carry with them. They had a great respect and love for nature and the earth. God was the mother earth, and they wouldn't bother mother earth, praying everyday and bothering her with that. Only once every four years. They left no monuments, no palaces, no temples, no ruins of cities.
The only thing they had as a form of art was language, a language that was not written, an oral language: the Mapudungu. And this language was a flowy language, that changed with the mood and the seasons and the events. And it’s poetic language. So Chile is a kind of country of poets because of that tradition.
And then the Spaniards come, and they come in armors with dogs and with horses and with weapons that they have never seen before. And they never were able to defeat the Mapuches. They fought them forever. They never surrendered. And 300 years later, there was a sort of agreement to pacify them, and there is this sort of agreement with them. But they are ready to get back in arms any moment. Now they're defending a river, and they're willing to go back to war for that. I respect them profoundly. I think they're extraordinary people. And there are 200,000, approximately 200,000 pure Mapuche in Chile still living in reservations in the south. But we all have some Mapuche blood, so -- even those who deny it. I think we all have some of it. And if we don't have the blood, we have the culture.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And in terms of how some of those natives who are living today might react to your novel, which while at the same time unearthing a genuine powerful figure that has been forgotten, is still basically a novel based on someone who participated in that genocide.
ISABEL ALLENDE: When I wrote the novel, of course, it’s written from the voice of Ines, the voice of the conquistadors, the voice of the Spaniards. However, there are certain parts in the book, several parts in the book, in which I talk from the culture of the Mapuche. And I tried very hard to be faithful to their ideology, the way they see the world, the nature, the way they lived. And I have the greatest admiration -- and I think this is very well reflected in the book -- for Lautaro, the greatest general that you can possibly imagine -- he can be compared to Napoleon in terms of, of course, given the circumstances -- a young man that was able to create weapons, strategies of war, in order to defeat the Spaniards, an extraordinary, extraordinary man.
JUAN GONZALEZ: I’d like to ask you something I’ve always wondered about. You’ve lived in the United States for many years. As you say, you're an American citizen. And yet, you still write in Spanish. And I’m wondering how that affects you, living in a milieu where everything around you is in English, yet your art is still being expressed in Spanish, so the tension that occurs in the writing process, if any.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Well, I live in Spanish, and unfortunately I live with a husband who thinks that he speaks Spanish. And that can be really dangerous for a writer, because I end up writing like Willie speaks. So then I have to clean up the mess. Also my language has changed because of the English influence. I think that my sentences are shorter, my writing is more precise, more direct. I think better, in many ways, and I like the idea of being bicultural. When I came to this country, I was willing to embrace everything that was good, fight against everything I thought was awful, and not lose what I brought with me, which is my language, my traditions, my way of living, hospitality, and many things that we Latins have.
AMY GOODMAN: Isabel, two things. One is that you were a journalist before you were a novelist, and I wanted to ask about that transition. And then another transition, and that is being an immigrant, not only into the United States, but all over, how many times you, your family has been uprooted. But start with journalist to novelist.
ISABEL ALLENDE: When I was a journalist, I was a lousy journalist. So the transition to being a writer was easy, because as a journalist, I lied all the time, I made up stories, I was never objective. So all that can be applied in literature, and nobody notices it. On the other hand, I was a journalist in Chile, but when I went to Venezuela as a political refugee, I could not work as a journalist. So, for many years, I did all kinds of other jobs. And I ended up writing because I couldn't be a journalist. I had all these stories inside that I needed to tell.
And being uprooted and moving to other places has been my fate. I really was born in Peru, because my parents were diplomats. Then my father abandoned my mother, and we ended up living with my grandfather in Chile. Then my mother married a diplomat, and we traveled all over with my stepfather. We had the military coup in Chile in ’73, and I moved to Venezuela. It’s very different when you move as a political refugee or an exile, because it’s not out of choice. You are almost forced or expelled from the place you are, and you become paralyzed by nostalgia, always looking back, always wanting to go back.
And then I became an immigrant in the United States, which is a totally different experience, because that, you do by choice, and you look at the future and not at the past. And you really want to succeed, and you really want to make it. And I go back to Chile all the time, but this is my place, and it’s clear for me, and that’s very good. I feel empowered by that.
AMY GOODMAN: And do you have any words for government officials around the issue of immigration?
ISABEL ALLENDE: What shocks me about the issue of immigration is that globally, capital has no borders. Money goes wherever money wants to go. There are no borders, no laws, nothing, for the capitalists. And yet, for labor, for the workers, there are fences, electrified fences and bullets.
I think that we should have international agreements for people to work and then go back to their places. Nobody wants to leave their village, their family, their children behind. Women who come to work in this country and leave six or seven children behind, and they don't see them for years and years, those families are broken. Do you think that they do that by choice? Because that’s the best thing? It’s because they have no other alternative.
So, we have to have a more humane approach to that. And instead of building an electrified fence, let's do international agreements. We need that labor. Otherwise, they would not come. If there were not employers willing to employ them, they would not come. So why we penalize the poor and we do not penalize the employer? It makes me very angry, the whole issue of immigration.
I think we should face it with a totally different approach. The globe, the planet, when -- I remember when the astronauts went to the moon for the first time, and they looked back at the earth, and they saw this blue shining jewel. They couldn't see any borders there. They couldn't see anything. It was just a beautiful planet. And we create the artificial borders. We create the conflict.
AMY GOODMAN: Isabel Allende, I want to thank you very much for being with us.
ISABEL ALLENDE: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Isabel Allende's book, her latest is Ines of My Soul, a novel.
c/s
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/nicaragua_abortions
Friday, November 17, 2006
Nicaraguan president signs abortion ban
By Joseph B. Frazier, Associated Press Writer
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - President Enrique Bolanos signed a bill Friday banning abortion in all cases — including when a woman's life is endangered — despite opposition from doctors, women's rights groups and diplomats.
Presidential spokesman Lindolfo Mojarretz told The Associated Press that Bolanos signed the bill Friday and that it will become law when it appears in the official register on Saturday.
Previously, Nicaragua allowed abortions if three doctors certified that the woman's health was at risk. The law signed Friday eliminates that century-old exception.
The six-year prison term for performing illegal abortions remains unchanged under the new law. There had been doubt about whether Bolanos would sign the law because he had sought stiffer sentences of up to 30 years for women who had abortions and for those who aided them.
The National Assembly passed the bill Oct. 26 despite a letter from European Union diplomats and United Nations representatives asking them to wait until after Nicaragua's Nov. 5 presidential election.
Nicaragua's medical association also asked for a delay, saying the issue had become politicized.
President-elect Daniel Ortega, who once favored abortion rights, changed his stance and supported the law after strongly embracing Roman Catholicism and winning over voters in a country with a conservative religious tradition.
Nicaragua is about 85 percent Catholic, with many of the remainder belonging to conservative evangelical churches.
Most countries in heavily Catholic Latin America permit the procedure if the woman's life is in danger but ban it in cases resulting from rape or incest. Chile and El Salvador have similarly strict abortion laws.
Cuba permits abortions within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and Colombia recently authorized them in the case of a severely malformed fetus, if rape or incest were involved or if the woman's life was in danger.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/colombia_paramilitary_scandal_1
Friday, November 17, 2006
Scandal moves closer to Colombian leader
By Joshua Goodman, Associated Press Writer
BOGOTA, Colombia - A widening scandal in which two Caribbean coast congressmen have been arrested for allegedly organizing and benefiting from murderous right-wing militias is now implicating one of President Alvaro Uribe's closest political allies.
Sen. Alvaro Araujo, brother of Uribe's foreign minister, acknowledged in a radio interview Friday that he attended a 2004 party at which one of the country's most feared paramilitary leaders was present.
Araujo denied that his "marginal contact" with Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, better known as Jorge 40, implied he had any political dealings with the paramilitary commander, who is wanted in the United States for being among Colombia's biggest drug traffickers.
Uribe sought Friday to defuse what many Colombians think could become more damaging than the scandal involving drug cartel-financing of politicians in the mid-1990s that nearly toppled then-President Ernesto Samper. He said any member of Congress found to be conspiring with illegal armed groups should be jailed and "punished with extra severity."
Earlier, Uribe called upon "all congressmen to tell the country the truth and reveal whatever contacts they had with the paramilitaries."
Evidence is mounting that politicians across Colombia's Caribbean coast funneled public funds to the paramilitaries in exchange for election wins aided by paramilitary intimidation.
Despite having disarmed as part of a 2004 peace deal, paramilitaries are still believed to hold sway over huge parts of the country after killing hundreds and forcibly displacing tens of thousand of mostly poor Colombians in a nearly decade-long reign of terror.
Evidence of a long-running paramilitary-political mafia appeared to be confirmed last week when the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of four former and current members of Congress.
All four are all solid supporters of Uribe from the northern Caribbean state of Sucre. Three have either been arrested or turned themselves over to police and a $30,000 reward has been issued for the capture of the fourth.
Araujo, whose powerful political family hails from the Caribbean state of Cesar, said he had spoken with Tovar on at least two occasions since 2002, including at the birthday party for an ex-congresswoman long suspected of paramilitary ties. But he denied any improper dealings.
"I've never made any political agreement with the paramilitaries," said Araujo, who vowed to cooperate fully with the Supreme Court investigation.
Although no charges have been filed against Araujo, opposition politicians have long tried to dig up evidence linking his fledgling Alas Equipo Colombia movement to the paramilitary groups.
In the epicenter of the scandal, Sucre, more than 2,000 friends and relatives buried on Friday lawyer Carmelo Berrios who had denounced fraud in local elections. He was shot Wednesday night by unknown gunmen in his hometown of Betulia.
Leaving the cemetery with weeping relatives, Rep. Jesus Berrios, the lone state assemblyman from the opposition Democratic Pole party, said his brother's murder shows how a dark alliance of paramilitary fighters and politicians continues to rule by terror across Colombia.
Many Sucrenos believe members of the political-paramilitary mafia running the state for the last decade killed 50-year-old Berrios to try to silence a public finally beginning to shed its fear of denouncing the state's discredited political class.
"And this mafia power quiets the voices of those who are against it," said Jesus Berrios, who was assigned a police bodyguard after his brother's killing. "Here in Colombia to think differently means a death penalty."
Uribe's administration has been conducting a peace process with the far-right paramilitaries that has seen more than 30,000 fighters disarm. Most of the leaders, including Tovar, are now in a specially created jail awaiting trial in which they face a maximum of eight years in prison for their role in some of the country's worst civilian massacres.
The paramilitaries surged in the 1980s as landowners created private armies to fight leftist rebels and extend their control across much of Colombia's countryside, but they quickly became corrupted by the nation's lucrative cocaine trade.
The U.S. government lists the paramilitaries as a "foreign terrorist organization" and is trying to extradite several of its leaders on drug trafficking charges.
++++++++++
Associated Press Writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Betulia, Colombia
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/obit_brent
Fri Nov 17, 2006
Former Black Panther dies in Cuba at 75
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA - William Lee Brent, a Black Panther who hijacked a passenger jet to communist Cuba in 1969 and spent 37 years in exile, has died on the island, his sister said. He was 75.
Brent died Nov. 4 from bronchial pneumonia, Elouise Rawlins said in a telephone interview from her home in Oakland, Calif. Rawlins said she learned of her brother's death through telephone calls and messages from friends and acquaintances, but has not received official word from the U.S. or Cuban governments. Rawlins said she had not seen her brother since he used a handgun to hijack TWA Flight 154 from San Francisco to Havana on June 17, 1969, but said they stayed in contact through e-mails and telephone calls.
"We didn't even know he was ill," Rawlins said. "I don't know about the burial or anything — just that he passed away."
The telephone rang unanswered Friday at Brent's Havana home, which he shared with his wife, travel writer Jane McManus, until her death last year. They had met and married in Cuba.
Brent lived a relatively isolated life during his nearly four decades in Cuba, spending much of his time in his later years listening to his beloved jazz music collection in his apartment.
In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, he said he missed the United States and the American black community. But he was unwilling to return home to face certain life imprisonment for aircraft piracy and kidnapping, and had resigned himself to never seeing his country again.
"I miss my people, the struggle, the body language," Brent told the AP. "The black community in Cuba is very different."
Still, he said he had no regrets about hijacking the plane. "I was a soldier in the war for black liberation," he said.
A decade ago, Times Books published his memoirs, "Long Time Gone," which told of his coming of age on Oakland's streets and of joining the Black Panthers when he was 37, rising to become a bodyguard for leader Eldridge Cleaver.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. They called for an end to police brutality in the black community, and carried guns as they patrolled the city documenting police behavior.
In his book, Brent chronicled a July 1968 police shootout in which two police officers were critically wounded. Cleaver ordered him kicked out of the revolutionary group.
To avoid trial the following year, Brent used a .38-caliber handgun to hijack the plane to Cuba, where he believed he would be treated sympathetically as a militant black leftist. None of the 76 people aboard the Boeing 707 was harmed. He also told of stepping off the plane in Cuba to be immediately hustled away by Cuban police.
Although never formally convicted, he spent 22 months in an immigration jail while Cuban authorities tried to figure out what to do with him. Eventually they let him stay to live out his exile.
Brent earned a Spanish literature degree from the University of Havana and taught English at junior and senior high schools, but he never became a Cuban citizen.
"I am an American, an African-American, a black man," he said in the 1996 interview with the AP. "And my fight was always in the United States."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6157418.stm
Published: 2006/11/17 15:16:45 GMT
Uruguay's ex-president arrested
Former Uruguayan President Juan Maria Bordaberry has been arrested in connection with four political killings during military rule in the 1970s.
The former foreign minister, Juan Carlos Blanco, has also been detained.
The two men are accused of involvement in the killing of two congressmen and two left-wing militants in 1976.
Elected in 1971, Mr Bordaberry went on to govern with military leaders, closing congress and banning parties, before being ousted himself in 1976.
As civilians, Mr Bordaberry and Mr Blanco are not protected by an amnesty passed after the end of military rule in 1985. Mr Bordaberry presented himself to the authorities at the central prison in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, on Friday, a day after his judge ordered his arrest.
He and Mr Blanco, also now in custody, are accused of involvement in the abduction and killing of two lawmakers, Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutierrez, who had fled the military dictatorship, and two rebels, William Whitelaw and Rosario Barredo.
Secret co-operation: The politicians were kidnapped from their homes in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires in May 1976. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found several days later along with those of the two guerrillas. Some 180 Uruguayans were killed during military rule, many of them in neighbouring Argentina.
Human rights groups say the killings were the result of secret co-operation between the military governments in power at the time in Uruguay and Argentina.
The current left-wing government of President Tabare Vazquez has made the investigation of human rights abuses committed by the Uruguayan military a major priority.
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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/16/1451253
Thursday, November 16th, 2006
Argentine Torture Survivor Patricia Isasa Returns to Police Station Where She Was Imprisoned and Abused
Patricia Isasa was 16 years old in 1976 when she was kidnapped by Argentine police and soldiers. She was tortured and held prisoner without trial for two and a half years. Before she joins thousands heading to Fort Benning, Georgia to protest what used to be called the School of the Americas, Isasa joins us in our firehouse studio to tell her story and of her lifelong campaign to bring her torturers to justice. [includes rush transcript]
Thousands are expected to converge in Fort Benning, Georgia this weekend for the annual protest calling for the closure of the School of the Americas. The school - now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - was created sixty years ago as a military training facility for Latin American military and police.
There have been hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school. In 1996, the Pentagon released school training manuals that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Despite this, there has never been an independent investigation of the school.
In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would no longer send soldiers to train at SOA. Earlier this year, the governments of Uruguay and Argentina followed suit. Argentina in particular has a sordid history with the school. When SOA graduate Leopoldo Galtieri headed Argentina's military during the country's dictatorship, thirty-thousand people were killed or disappeared.
One of those who was disappeared and lived to tell her story is Patricia Isasa. She was only sixteen in 1976 when she was kidnapped by police and soldiers, tortured and held prisoner without trial for two and a half years. One of Patricia's torturers was Domingo Marcelini. He is a graduate of the SOA.
A documentary about Patricia's ordeal and her subsequent investigation to bring her torturers to justice - premiered on Argentinean television last May. It is called "El Cerco" and it features interviews with some of her torturers, who are now in prison awaiting trial. In the film, Patricia Isasa revisits the sites where she had held and describes her torture.
* "El Cerco" - excerpt of documentary about Patricia Isasa.
Nine of Patricia Isasa’s torturers are in prison awaiting trial. In September, Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner ordered her into a witness protection program. This was after the disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez - another torture survivor who had recently testified against his abuser. Patricia is scheduled to testify against her torturers in the coming months. She joins us in our firehouse studio.
* Patricia Isasa, Argentine torture survivor.
AMY GOODMAN: One of those who disappeared but lived to tell her story is Patricia Isasa. She was only 16 in 1976, when she was kidnapped by police and soldiers, tortured and held prisoner without trial for two-and-a-half years. One of Patricia’s torturers was Domingo Marcelini. He’s a graduate of the School of the Americas.
A documentary about Patricia’s ordeal and her subsequent investigation to bring her torturers to justice premiered on Argentine television last May. It's called El Cerco, and it features interviews with some of her torturers, who are now in prison awaiting trial. In the film, Patricia Isasa revisits the sites where she was held, and she describes her torture. This is an excerpt.
PATRICIA ISASA: I arrived here for the first time when I was 16 years old, July 30th at noon. They forced me through this hallway. This place was empty. First, they slammed me against the wall. They dragged me across the floor. They beat me. Then they tied my feet to my hands, which were already handcuffed. I was kept like this for one week. Two men appeared, and one of them told me that I had to talk. He said that the other guy was crazy and that I should talk for my own good. This crazy guy was Eduardo Ramos.
EDUARDO RAMOS: I entered the police force in 1973. While I was working for the police as an analyst, the government was overthrown. My job was to monitor terrorist groups in universities. Some people call it “going undercover.”
PATRICIA ISASA: After two days, they took the hood off me. They gave me water, a lemon, and they took me to the bathroom. Then Ramos and the other guy came back playing good cop and bad cop. I was told that Ramos was going to kill me and that I’d better talk.
EDUARDO RAMOS: I was not a typical policeman. I was more of a secret agent than a regular cop.
PATRICIA ISASA: I was thrown here. Ramos gave me a warning. He was insinuating that I would be raped. He said, “Tell me if anyone touches you, because we are the only ones that can touch you.” I was 16 years old. I couldn't believe it. Ramos was telling me, “You are my property. If I want, I can rape you.”
Ramos was a spy at this law school. He turned in a lot of students here while pretending he was a law student.
My next step was to reconstruct my captivity at Police Station #4, where I learned what it was like to be tortured. This was a camp for torture and extermination run by Mario Jose Facino in 1976. Over here. This is it. It’s this place and this here. It’s both of these. These are the places where they tortured us. We’re looking at them from the outside, but I’m convinced, I’m telling you.
No, I can't talk. Look, this is it. This is the place. They were over here. On this floor and at this window. This is where I spent the worst days of my life, simple as that. This was stuck, but I managed to open it. And through here, you could see, as you can now, the school. I could manage to see the school. These cracks -- if you excuse me -- this was stuck. You couldn't open it. But to be able to see the school, I could suspect what street I was on and where I was being held. After talking with other detainees, we figured out that we were being held at Police Station #4.
I never thought that I would be standing in front of the bench that I was locked to. It's incredible. 20, 25 years have passed. The bench that I was locked to when I was 16 is still here, same as ever. No one came to look at this place. There's a case in Spain, a case in Argentina, and a case in Santa Fe fifteen blocks away from here, and no one was capable of coming over to look at this. I have to be the one to show it to you.
This is where I had to force myself not to use the bathroom. I was sent to an absolutely filthy room to pee. This was the only place where you could drink a little bit of water, and it’s all still here. Everything is still here, because no one has been held accountable.
And there, you could clearly see the cells. They were three feet by four feet. You couldn't even lay down inside the cell. This was the central area where they tortured us. In 1976, the man responsible for the torture was Facino.
MARIO FACINO: I was not involved in any repressive group or anything like that. I was the supervisor of Police Station #4 in Santa Fe. I had an important job. My job was to detain people, who at that time were called subversives. Subversive delinquents.
PATRICIA ISASA: They put a hood on my head and tied my wrists to a rickety old bed. First, I remember feeling something cold on my stomach, and then I felt it. I felt the first electric shock. You feel this burning pain. It's a horrible thing. They also humiliated me. They were laughing at me. They ejaculated onto me. They were enjoying themselves.
MARIO FACINO: She says they tortured her there. She says that they would lift off her hood and rape her. I doubt all of it.
PATRICIA ISASA: I recognize this place. This is it. I won’t ever forget it. I mean, this was the floor, I’m totally sure. And I was here three days. The worst three days of my life.
MARIO FACINO: A minor detained for subversive activities. No, no. It's a lie. The woman, Patricia Isasa, says that the police detained her and she knows who detained her and where. Why she says it was at Police Station #4, I don't know. I honestly don't. But I can't recall whether we detained her or not. But if we look at her records, it has to be recorded, where she was detained, when she was detained, and who detained her.
VICTOR BRUSA: I started working at the federal court as a student. When the government was overthrown, I was an employee of the court. I was 27, 28 years old. As a secretary for the judge, I would take statements in the office of the police station. The head of the police station had us take statements. Nothing more!
PATRICIA ISASA: They would hit you. They would torture you. They would hound you. Then they would pick you up and open this door for you. You would go through this door. And whom would you find on the other side? Brusa. This man was on the other side of the door. He would be writing, and he would take out a sheet of paper. You would be all beaten up, bleeding, naked. He’d throw you some clothes, and then he’d say, “Here, sign this.” Brusa!
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of El Cerco (The Circle), produced by the Argentine television station Telefe. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. When we come back, Patricia Isasa joins us live in studio. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Nine of Patricia Isasa's torturers are in prison awaiting trial. In September, the Argentine President Nestor Kirchner ordered her into a witness protection program. This was after the disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez, another torture survivor who had recently testified against his abuser. Patricia is scheduled to testify against her torturers in the coming months. She joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome, Patricia.
PATRICIA ISASA: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you doing in the United States?
PATRICIA ISASA: Well, I’ve been here, because I received some threatens and --
AMY GOODMAN: Some death threats?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. In my house and in my office. I’m better here. And I came here, because tomorrow I will stay in the demonstration to try to close the School of America, because it’s a school with assassins, in general, but special. It’s the school who give the training with the most responsibility person in my case. The name of this person is Marcelini, Domingo Marcelini.
He received training in School of America, a terrible training, you know, in the School of America. When you come in, you are a soldier, but you came out, you became an assassin, because they train about torture. They have different techniques about torture, and this is terrible. It’s terrible -- it’s not only for me -- it’s terrible for a lot of people.
The School for America begin, start the road to Abu Ghraib. But in this road, firstly, they pass through Latin America, and in Latin America they have -- they take off -- they take away the life with a lot of people, a lot of people. And this is the point, because it is very important to close the School of America, because it’s an immoral place.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, you mentioned Domingo Marcelini.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, he was one of the people, a graduate, who was actually involved directly in your torture. Could you talk about his involvement and what happened with you?
PATRICIA ISASA: Well, what happened with me, the military kidnapped me when I was 16 years old. And --
AMY GOODMAN: You were in school?
PATRICIA ISASA: I am in the high school. I was an honor student. And I involved in student activities, only this. And I represent some students. I represent my students with the school, only this.
AMY GOODMAN: The student government.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And this was in the city of Santa Fe?
PATRICIA ISASA: This is in the city of Santa Fe. And then they kidnapped me. I’ve been disappeared for three months. What is disappeared? Disappeared is when nobody knows where you are, and you don't know where you are. In fact, when I watched -- when I saw one lady who stayed disappeared, I understand where I am and what happened with me, because I understand this woman, when I watched, oh, she disappeared, but she's alive, she’s here, I’m here --
AMY GOODMAN: Because you knew before you were disappeared that this woman was disappeared, so you understood you had met the same fate.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes, yes. And the first point is, when these guys talk to you, they say, “You are murdered. Nobody know where you are. You don't know where you are. And we are God.”
AMY GOODMAN: What was happening with your family, with your dad, with your -- was your mother alive at the time?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes, yes. My mother was alive. My mother and father tried to find me for months and months and months. And finally, my father tried to find my body. And finally, I appeared.
AMY GOODMAN: How did you appear?
PATRICIA ISASA: Probably -- I don't know. I need some answers. I tried to find justice to have these answers: why they kidnapped me, why I released, why they tortured me. Why? Why? I need to know. Why exactly? I need this answer. For 30 years, I need this answer. I tried to find this answer. It’s not only for me. It’s for my family, for the memory with my mom, and for the Argentine people. We need the answer -- why they made these crimes, why they made this massacre against their own people, because Marcelini was Argentine. It’s unbelievable, but he’s Argentine.
He trained as a soldier, but he became an assassin. He fight against their own people, and he broke the honor with the military. When the military have an honor, I hope to have an honor. And what is the honor for the military? You can’t to kill other people who don't have a gun. And they killed not people who don't have a gun. They killed innocent people, undressed people. They killed a lot of people. This is -- they broke with honor.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Let me ask you, after they held you for two-and-a-half years, when they finally released you, what were the circumstances? What did they say when they released you? Where did they leave you?
PATRICIA ISASA: I remember when they say -- they told me, “If you tell this story, nobody believe you, because it's unbelievable.” But I said for myself, I am going to tell this story. It’s not only for me, because for me, it’s happened, more or less, but this happened. But to don't repeat, some people need to know what happened in Argentina and need to know what's happening in all the clandestine jails around the world, because today we have a lot of clandestine jails -- look, like Guantanamo, for example, and Abu Ghraib -- to know.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you just show up at your house after two-and-a-half years? You just show up after they released you? Your parents had been looking for you for two-and-a-half years, assumed you were dead. You just showed up on the doorstep of your house and said, “I am here”?
PATRICIA ISASA: No, no. My parents -- when they released me, my parents meet with me firstly, and it’s a special, really -- a special and unbelievable moment, because I remember I’m -- the first time only strange, because I lived in a small -- for two years and a half I stayed in a small, small place. For six months, I stayed all the time, 24 hours, with very strong lights, but strong lights 24 hours for six months. For six months. And we don’t know what day is the day, what time is it, and this is terrible.
And finally, when I release, I remember the nature. Now, the sand, the streets. When you’re released, you return to life, and the life is great. And I think probably when I lives in the concentration camp, when I have this strong experience, probably I reevaluate: what's great is the life.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Patricia Isasa, who, when she was 16, was kidnapped, disappeared, tortured, raped, released two-and-a-half years later. About ten, nine, eight years ago you began this search --
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -- for the people who tortured you.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: How did you find them? It is you who have landed them in jail and who will testify against them. Where did you start?
PATRICIA ISASA: Well, I start with a simple point, because I -- this story is in a small town. And when you live in a small town, some people know each other. And I speak. I asked questions with different people, and I speak, speak, speak. And then I have a little simple information, and I took this information. I tried to phone more and more and more, and I found one document. But when I found one document, I found another and another and another, and then I found a lot of document in different archives with the police and with -- for the justice, from different archives.
And then, I make a very big search, and I explain what happened during the repression in Argentina. because in Argentina, they tried to lie and said “Dirty War.” It is not a war, because a war is two armies fight each other. It's not a war. It's lies. Look like the war in Iraq? It's not a war. It’s invasion. What is the other army in Iraq? They don't have an army now. What is the other army? What is? Don't have! They fight against the innocent people. They kill a lot of people, a lot of innocent people, kids, old ladies, men. It's not a war. War is a problem for the humanity. War is not a solution for the humanity. We need peace. We need to think about peace. We need to give peace a chance.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Let me ask you, when you began to do this search and gather the documents, I think some things had changed in Argentina, but not everything. At least the military dictatorship was ended by then, but you had to go outside of the country first, right?
PATRICIA ISASA: Mm-hmm.
JUAN GONZALEZ: You went to the famous Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon.
PATRICIA ISASA: Si.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Could you talk about that, why you felt the need to go outside of the country?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes, because for 20 years, we have an impunity law. They stop the justice for 20 years. But it's no more different than today. Yesterday, I watch in the news one group with lawyers try to find justice against Rumsfeld, a terrible criminal, in Germany. If you don't have justice in your country, you need to find justice in any places. It's a tragedy, because I need to cross the ocean with all of my documents, and I show the documents for Baltasar Garzon. I spoke for five -- more than five hours. And finally he told me, “What can I do?” I said, “Please, request for these people.” And he did the --
AMY GOODMAN: And just to be clear, Baltasar Garzon is the famous judge who went after Pinochet, when he was in Britain, the dictator of Chile, and had him detained. So, you went to him, the documents. And so, what did he do?
PATRICIA ISASA: He request an international request for these criminals, and finally, during 2001, they stay for a short time in jail. The perpetrators in my case, they stayed for a few, few times, 39 days. And then, because to try to go to Madrid, because Baltasar Garzon give the international request to the police.
JUAN GONZALEZ: So, now, he issued an arrest order of them to be extradited to Spain?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes, to try to extradite with it. But the President de la Rua signed to don't extradite. But the point is, if you sign to don't extradite, to don't give the extradition, you need to open a trial. And you open a trial, finally. I opened a trial in Argentina in 2002. But I need to wait two, three, four years more to open finally, to really open a trial. And now, these perpetrators are in jail, and we are waiting for a -- we said “oral trial.” It's a --
AMY GOODMAN: So they haven't actually been tried. They're held in jail, and they're awaiting trial.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And we're talking about their positions today. One was a mayor of Santa Fe?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. He stay in jail. One is a mayor, another is a [inaudible]. The point is this. The boss with the concentration camps, 20 years, 25 years later became a mayor. The interrogator with the torture place, 25 years later, he became a federal judge.
AMY GOODMAN: A judge?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. Federal judge. A powerful man. The group with -- they tortured the people, who tortured you, [inaudible] who rob you, who put the [inaudible], these kind of people became very powerful people in the police, in a high position with the police.
AMY GOODMAN: And you showed, all of them, their addresses, where they were, and so they were picked up?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. They ID all. All -- and some documents -- I found some documents, which they sign to kidnap people, for example, because they have a very important bureaucracy. They are bureaucrats.
AMY GOODMAN: Bureaucrats.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. They’re bureaucrats, yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And you mentioned earlier that for 20 years, there was a law of impunity. In effect, what happened is after the military dictatorship, there was a deal made that there would not be prosecution of those who had conducted the terrorism. Was that what happened?
PATRICIA ISASA: No. In the first time, during the first time with a [inaudible], we have a trial against the high position in the military, a trial against the junta, the comandante, as we said in Spanish, but during 1987, they tried to make a coup, and then they make a deal, and it happened, impunity law. And we have this impunity law for 15 years. Last 2004, President Kirshner take away the impunity law.
JUAN GONZALEZ: So it was President Kirshner who basically paved the way for the people down the chain of command who participated in the torture to be held responsible?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. He opened the door to make trials in Argentina.
AMY GOODMAN: And Patricia, it is the president, Kirshner, who has put you under protection, ever since what happened in September. September 18th, Jorge Julio Lopez went missing, a day before the former police commissioner, Miguel Etchecolatz was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, torture and kidnapping of six people. 900 former officers and collaborators from the military dictatorship could reportedly face trial right now, face charges?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: So when you are in Argentina, you're under protection?
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: When do you testify? Are you afraid to return? You have tens of thousands of people, what, 100,000 protesters marched in the streets of Buenos Aires in October, demanding the release of Jorge Julio Lopez. But he’s gone now, went missing twice, first when he was captured in the 1970s and tortured, and now again.
PATRICIA ISASA: Yes. Probably the paramilitary killed him, suppose they killed him.
AMY GOODMAN: So, why would you return?
PATRICIA ISASA: Because it's my compromise with my life; because I need to find justice; because Argentina is my place, is my home; because I have rights to return; because I talk about the [inaudible]; because I need answers, and I tried to find this answer for the trials in my own place; because I have rights to stay in this place.
And the perpetrators will need to take away, to put in jail, with a good trial. I never have a trial. But I tried they have a trial. I never have a defense. They never showed me the proof. But I prefer, we are going to show the proof for them. They need to make a good trial, because we need justice, because we need to mark a line, a line to divide the crazy people, the bad people, the assassin people, with the normal people. The normal people would like -- we need to live in peace.
AMY GOODMAN: Patricia Isasa, I want to thank you very much for being with us, as you head now down to Fort Benning, Georgia, to join thousands of people protesting the training of Latin American officers at the Georgia base. Thank you for joining us. We'll continue to follow your story.
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=06/11/14/1517255
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
Plaintiff in Suit Against Rumsfeld Subjected to Sexual, Religious Humiliation at Guantanamo
Guantanamo prisoner Mohammedal-Qahtani is among the plaintiffs named in a war crimes lawsuit filed in Germany today against outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights accuse Rumsfeld of being directly involved in the brutal interrogation of al-Qahtani. We speak with al-Qahtani's attorney, Gita Gutierrez. [includes rush transcript]
Gita Gutierrez, attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. She represents Mohammed al Qahtani who has been detained at Guantanamo since January 2002.
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AMY GOODMAN: Well, a year ago I interviewed US Army Specialist Tony Lagouranis, an Army interrogator from 2001 to 2005, served a tour of duty in Iraq from January 2004 to January 2005, first stationed at Abu Ghraib. In the spring of 2004, he joined a special intelligence-gathering task force that moved among detention facilities around Iraq. In the interview, Specialist Tony Lagouranis described some of the interrogation techniques he used on prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
TONY LAGOURANIS: It was just like we were trained in the schoolhouse, right out of the Army field manual. We would just talk to them, ask them questions, maybe, you know, use some psychological approaches but nothing -- nothing too serious. But I knew that some interrogators there were still at that time, in January of 2004, using a little bit harsher techniques. Like, they -- if a prisoner wasn't cooperating, they could adjust his diet. People were in deep, deep isolation for months there, which I believe is illegal, according to Army doctrine. And they would also take their clothes and their mattress so that they would be cold in their cells.
AMY GOODMAN: Former US Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis speaking on Democracy Now! last year. Well, we're going to go back to Berlin right now to Gita Gutierrez. She is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who represents Mohammed al-Qahtani, one of the plaintiffs who's been detained at Guantanamo since January 2002. Gita Gutierrez, we don't have much time. You've just filed this criminal complaint against Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking US officials. Can you tell us about the client you represent, al-Qahtani?
GITA GUTIERREZ: Yes. Mohammed is the victim of what's called the “first special interrogation plan,” which was a regime of interrogation tactics that amounted to torture that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld authorized himself, passed down through the chain of command and was implemented by one of the other defendants, Major General Geoffrey Miller.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us how you came to actually meet Mohammed al-Qahtani face to face, and what he told you about what happened to him.
GITA GUTIERREZ: His father had come to the Center for Constitutional Rights seeking legal representation for his son. And we filed a petition for habeas corpus on Mohammed's behalf in October 2005. I first met with him in Guantanamo in December 2005 and have continued to meet with him for the past ten months to talk about what happened to him.
I think what's actually extraordinary about his case and the complaint we brought in Germany is that the information that we have about the interrogation tactics used against him are not simply from Mohammed's claims, but are drawn as well from government documents that established the tactics used against him. There was an interrogation log leaked from Guantanamo, as well as Freedom of Information Act documents, emails, complaints from FBI agents at Guantanamo who observed Mohammed during his interrogation and were concerned about abuse.
AMY GOODMAN: What did he say happened to him?
GITA GUTIERREZ: Specifically, he was subjected to approximately 160 days of isolation, 48 days of sleep depravation, which was accompanied by 20-hourlong interrogations consecutively. He would be permitted to sleep for four hours, between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00, in order to disrupt his sleep patterns and wear him down psychologically.
During that period of time, he was also subjected to sexual humiliation, euphemistically called “invasion of space by a female,” at times when MPs would hold him down on the floor and female interrogators would straddle him and molest him.
He was subjected to religious humiliation and was forcibly had his beard and hair shaved, which, of course, is a violation of his faith.
He was physically abused, had medical professionals in the room during his interrogations monitoring him and at times doing medical procedures on him in conjunction with the interrogation.
So, he was put through quite a number of tactics, in and of themselves which would constitute torture, but certainly in combination had a tremendous and severe psychological and physical effect on him. At one point in Guantanamo, his heart rate dropped so low that he was at risk of dying and was rushed to the military hospital there and revived, sent then back to interrogations the following day and was actually interrogated in the ambulance on the way back to his cell.
AMY GOODMAN: Gita Gutierrez, I want to thank you for being with us, attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights representing Mohammed al-Qahtani, who's been detained at Guantanamo since January 2002, speaking to us from Berlin. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We will continue to follow this lawsuit as it makes its way through Germany's courts.
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Jueves, Noviembre 16, 2006= Latin American News Report
http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/11/jueves-noviembre-16-2006-latin.html
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Lunes; Nov. 13, '06= Latin American News Report
http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/11/lunes-nov-13-06-latin-american-news.html
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Viernes, Noviembre 10, 2006= Oaxaca News Report
http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2006/11/viernes-noviembre-10-2006-oaxaca-news.html
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http://www.socialistworker.org/2006-2/609/609_04_Mendoza.shtml
November 10, 2006= A striking teacher from Oaxaca describes...
“Our fight for social and economic justice” Interview with Fernando Mendoza
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What you can do! To add your name to this letter--as well as for information on the struggle in Oaxaca and on events to honor Brad Will--visit the Friends of Brad Will Web site. @
http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/
Help the People's Media Matrix= Oaxaca Video Collective Needs Your Support.
http://elenemigocomun.net/368
Email= justin@riseup.net
BRADLEY: In Memoriam
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/11/551.shtml
Video= Mexican government killed american journalist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22L-xEVRqY
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http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3688
November 8, 2006
Oaxaca Fights Back! Laura Carlsen, IRC / Editor: John Feffer, IRC
Laura Carlsen is director of the IRC Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. The Americas Program is online @ http://americas.irc-online.org/
In regional lore, Oaxacans have a reputation for being like the tlacuache. A recurring figure in Mexican mythology, the tlacuache plays dead when cornered. But woe to the enemy who thinks the battle is over. The small but fierce creature merely awaits a more propitious moment to fight back…
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Liberation Now!!
Peta-de-Aztlan
Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
Sacramento, California, Amerika
http://picasaweb.google.com/peta.aztlan/Aztlannet_News_ALBUM
Full HTML version of stories may include photos, graphics, and related links
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Key Links=
* http://www.amlo.org.mx/
* http://www.centralamericanews.com/
* http://www.eco.utexas.edu/%7Ehmcleave/chiapas95.html
* http://granmai.cubaweb.com/ingles/
* http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/
* http://www.mexicodaily.com/
* http://www.mylatinonews.com/
* http://www.southamericadaily.com/
* http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
* http://www.vidaenelvalle.com/front/v-english/
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