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Founded in 1992, The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through a combination of investigation and reporting, training citizens in the art of public advocacy, and organizing international citizen campaigns. Through all of these efforts the Center is working to help build a global citizenry that understands the public issues before it and is able to take effective public action. A special emphasis of our work is economic globalization and the movement for global democracy and justice. In 2008 The Democracy Center will publish its third book, Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization (University of California Press). Visit us at: www.democracyctr.org

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Latin Americans Challenge Impunity

posted by Jim Shultz at 15h23 GMT on Oct 17

In Latin America in the first decade of the new century, a region of the world that was once synonymous with dictatorship and repression has emerged as place of rich new democracies. Democracy is on the rise, especially here in South America. Countries that passed from authoritarian regimes, elected governments obedient to the forced economics of the Washington Consensus are paving their own way. Social movements have become a driving force – from the streets to the halls of power.

But there is one aspect of democracy in Latin America that remains a point of struggle. Former heads of state that robbed their countries through corruption and killed their peoples in their efforts to hold onto power, have been allowed to live happy lives in exile. From Pinochet to Fujimori, Latin Americans are demanding an end to impunity.

Today Bolivia, where The Democracy Center is based, marks the fourth anniversary of the ouster of its former President, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. "Goni" as he is nicknamed here, was forced to flee to the U.S. on October 17, 2003 following his brutal repression of protests challenging his market-driven economic policies. More than sixty people were killed. Today Mr. Sanchez de Lozada is under an arrest and extradition order for murder from the Bolivian Supreme Court, yet he remains in happy exile in suburban Maryland, protected by the Bush administration.

In The Democracy Center's Blog offering today, Elliot Williams and Lily Whitesell mark this date with a look at the struggle to end impunity – one of democracy's most important pillars.

Jim Shultz, Executive Director
The Democracy Center
Cochabamba, Bolivia

Four Years Later in Bolivia

This month Bolivia will commemorate the fourth anniversary of the public ouster of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. As we remember the bloody days of October 2003, the cases against its former-president and one of his top aides have also moved back into high gear, as they now face legal challenges on two fronts.

Sánchez de Lozada fled Bolivia on October 17, 2003 following his government's bloody repression of protests against his plan to export the nation's natural gas at bargain prices to the U.S. through Chile. Sixty-seven people were killed and more than 400 wounded. Since then the former head of state has been living in self-imposed exile in suburban Maryland, resisting Bolivian court orders to return for testimony and trial, and protected by the Bush administration.

The first case is a criminal prosecution through the Bolivian court system. For four years, the families of the victims of October 2003 have campaigned to extradite Sánchez de Lozada, along with two aides. In 2005 Bolivia's Congress, still controlled by the former president's own party, authorized the prosecution. Shortly afterwards the Bolivian Supreme Court issued an order commanding Sánchez de Lozada to return to Bolivia to provide testimony. Sánchez de Lozada refused, but in September of this year, the Court issued a formal request for extradition.

Bolivia's ambassador told The Democracy Center that the Embassy is meeting with the U.S. State Department to insist that the U.S. honor its international legal responsibilities and end its protection of the deposed president. However, the Bush administration is unlikely to escort Mr. Sánchez de Lozada to the airport in Miami to return to Bolivia. All of which makes a second legal challenge all the more important.

On September 24th the legal moves against Sánchez de Lozada took a new turn, one that may prove far more worrisome to the man in Chevy Chase and his former top aide. With the backing and pro bono firepower of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, civil suits were filed on behalf of the families of the victims against both Sánchez de Lozada and his former top deputy, Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, who now lives in Florida.

The civil cases charge both men with extra-judicial killings in the Black October massacres – the use of machine guns as well as government snipers against unarmed protesters and children. All ten plaintiffs in the cases are family members of those killed in the protests of October 2003. Eloy Rojas Mamani and Etelvina Ramos Mamani’s 8-year-old daughter was killed in her mother’s bedroom when a bullet came through the window. Teofilo Baltazar Cerro’s pregnant wife and unborn child were killed. Felicidad Rosa Huanca Quispe’s 69-year-old father was shot and killed along a roadside.

Among most Bolivians, Mr. Sánchez de Lozada's name has become synonymous, along with that of Mr. Sánchez Berzaín, for the smug impunity that allowed them to order the killings of their families followed by happy and wealthy lives in Maryland and Miami under U.S. protection. The civil case fills that gap in justice seeking both compensatory and punitive damages against both men. A case that seemed, just a month ago, to have fallen to the margins, is now a real threat. Judith Chomsky, an attorney from the Center for Constitutional Rights declared, “Human rights violators … can no longer assume that they will have a safe haven in the United States.”

"Sanchez de Lozada should pay for what happened in our country," Juan Patricio Quispe told the Washington Post. Mamani's brother was shot in the back by soldiers under the former President's command on Oct. 12, 2003. "We want justice." This week, he and other families are a big step closer to actually seeing that justice come to pass. For more information on the case and campaign to bring Goni to justice, check the following links: http://juiciogoniya.free.fr/ , and http://boliviasolidarity.org/index_html

A Dictator Finally Called to Justice in Peru

Giving hope to Bolivians was the recent extradition of Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori. Held in Chile since August 2005, Fujimori was extradited to Peru in September.

Elected in 1990, Fujimori was president of Peru until 2000. Under the guise of the continued fight against rebel group Sendero Luminso, Fujimori consolidated power throughout his two terms. He dissolved Congress, suspended the constitution, and is currently facing charges of human rights violations for sanctioning death squad killings. In 1991, 15 people were killed at a celebration in an apartment building, among them an eight-year-old child. In 1992, one teacher and nine students were abducted from La Cantuta University and later killed. Fujimori fled Peru for Japan in 2000 amid corruption scandals, for which he also faces charges.

The National Coordinator of Human Rights in Peru led the battle and can be accessed through http://www.fujimoriextraditable.org.pe/default.php. The human rights group Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos also played an integral role in this campaign. Their website is http://www.aprodeh.org.pe/

Continuing the Case Without the Dictator in Chile

One of the better known examples of Latin America’s struggle against impunity is that of the Chilean people against the former dictator Agusto Pinochet.

Pinochet seized power from the constitutionally elected Salvador Alllende in 1973. For 17 years his government waged a war against any and all opposition. The repressive tactics included: arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, torture, forced disappearances, collective executions, forced exiles, intimidation, attempted homicide, and death threats. Beginning in 1998, Pinochet faced numerous legal challenges for his actions. However, he was able to avoid them all, through claims of ailing health, questions of the legality of prosecuting a former president, and finally his death in 2006. He faced no more penalty than occasional periods of house arrest.

However, just this month, Pinochet’s widow, five children, and 17 others were arrested for embezzling millions of dollars during the dictator’s reign. Some suggest Pinochet and his associates laundered up to $100 million. The recent development lead Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, who herself was exiled during Pinochet’s time to remark: ''No one in Chile should think that they are above the law.''

For more information on the case go to http://www.chipsites.com/derechos/index_eng.html. The Agrupacion de Familiares de Detenidos Desaprecidos (AFDD) continue the fight for justice for the victims http://www.afdd.cl/

Argentina’s Desaparecidos

In Argentina, questions of impunity reach not only former members of the government, but the Catholic Church as well. Just last week, Roman Catholic Priest Christian Von Wernich was sentenced to jail for life. Von Wernich was the chaplain to the Buenos Aires police during Argentina’s Dirty War from 1976-1983.

The Dirty War, primarily waged by the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla, attempted to eliminate all left-wing opposition to the government. Up to 30,000 people “disappeared” during these years of torture and oppression. Von Wernich was convicted of complicity in seven murders, 31 cases of torture and 42 abductions in the Buenos Aires region. For 30 years, the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo has been fighting for justice and answers. http://www.madres.org/

Twenty-Five Years Later in Suriname

Finally, former dictator of Suriname Désiré Bouterse and 25 others will begin to stand trial on November 30. Bouterse is charged with ordering the killing of 13 dissidents in the “December Murders” of 1982. Included in this group were a newspaper editor, two human-rights lawyers, and several labor leaders. Two soldiers who refused to participate in the executions were also killed.

These murders resulted in economic collapse in Suriname with the suspension of aid by the United States and the Netherlands. This eventually led to civil war, which lasted until Bouterse ceded control of the military in 1993. An amnesty exists in Suriname for acts committed during the civil war, but because the December Murders preceded it, many have been pushing for Bouterse and the others responsible to face justice for several years.

Democracy and Impunity

Despite the progress that many Latin American nations have made, it is important to recognize that many former leaders responsible for crimes remain free. For example, Hatian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, accused of killing thousands, currently resides in France. Despite being linked with the killing of protestors during riots in 1989, former Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez lives in South Florida. Former Argentine President María Estela de Perón is in Spain fighting an extradition request. In power immediately before the Dirty War, her regime’s death squads are accused of killing at least 1,500 people. Foreign governments that harbor former heads of state and refuse to honor extradition requests serve only as a roadblock to justice.

Democracy and impunity in Latin America, however, offers lessons that we would be wise to consider.

The power of citizens to influence the policies and decisions that affect their lives is shown in many ways. The prosecution of former leaders is not the only indicator. However, equality under the law – the ability to hold people accountable for their actions, regardless of their standing in society – is a hallmark of a healthy democracy.

In Bolivia, which this year celebrates 25 years of democratic governance, and in Latin America at large, still recovering from the aftershocks of brutal dictatorships, holding these former leaders accountable is a necessary component to helping heal wounds and setting an example of justice and responsibility throughout the region. Campaigns against impunity such as those mentioned above also demonstrate the power of people to organize and affect change; the power of the once prosecuted to turn the tables on the prosecutors in a non-violent and democratic way.

About The Democracy Center

Founded in 1992, The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through a combination of investigation and reporting, training citizens in the art of public advocacy, and organizing international citizen campaigns. Through all of these efforts the Center is working to help build a global citizenry that understands the public issues before it and is able to take effective public action. A special emphasis of our work is economic globalization and the movement for global democracy and justice. In 2008 The Democracy Center will publish its third book, Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization (University of California Press). Visit us at: www.democracyctr.org

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Comments:

It is wrong to include

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/17/2007 - 23:50.

It is wrong to include Goni's name in the same league as Pinochet, the Argentinian Junta, or Fujimori.

Evo Morales had set a violent siege to the city despite being a member of congress. The measures taken by Goni to repress the marchers, who by this time started looting and burning public and private property, are no different to those currently employed by the Morales administration. Proof of that is that the death toll being suffered by the social movements is higher under Evo than under Goni.

Even the premise of the protest were nothing but a machiavellian political gambit by the opposition. The reforms enacted under the first administration were extremely succesful. Proof of that was given extensively by Evo's speech in Sucre on Aug 6th. Most of the results he took credit for were actually thanks to the capitalization. Further evidence is Evo's expansion of the Bonosol program. There extensive studies by the CAF, BID, WB, UMSA, UCB that show that Goni's other measures such as the reforma educativa, municipal decentralization, and even privatization were hugely sucessfull.

The most dammning evidence that condemns the political operatives behind the siege of La Paz is: Cochabamba's water supply is in even greater jeopardy, extreme fuel and energy shortages, lack of foreign investment.

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completely misinformed

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 12:07.

It is not clear whether the first comments ("It is wrong to include") are written by someone deliberately trying to rewrite history, or someone who is hopelessly misinformed because his/her news comes exclusively from Fox.
I am breathless with the delusions and lies that are laid out in these comments.

Not misinformed at all.

Submitted by Bolivia Libre (not verified) on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 15:02.

Living in Bolivia now and during the October revolt I can testify that the first anonymous says the truth. Regarding Evo’s current deaths, just out of my mind I can point out;
Santiago Orocondo, 22 years old, member of “Los sin techo” (People without a roof) on Pampa Ajasi, Oruro. Assassinated by a bullet from a brutal governmental repression performed by the army, why should the army police in a democracy?.
2 coca leaf peasants in the Cochabamba Tropic where brutally assassinated by Evo’s military forces, first there was an accusation, from the government, about narcotics; but at the end, the government finally said that those coca leaf plantations were illegal. Of course, they were not affiliated at Evo’s coca grower unions in el Chapare.
In Huanuni, Oruro we have 12 deaths, all attributed to Evo and his mazists branch in the miming sector in an intent for their political forces to gain lost terrain in that important segment. VP Lineras was quoted saying the regime will send the boxes for the dead instead of the police force to control the possible fights over the mine. He had to send both.
In Cochabamba, January 2007, we had bloody January under Evo and the mazist hands, 3 deaths, Christian Urresty, a teenager, was brutally beaten to death and hung from a tree in front of a church by Evo’s mazist “ponchos rojos”, a peasant paramilitary force under the command of some of the regime’s senators and ministers, currently being prosecuted by human rights groups in Bolivia.
In Camiri last April, Hernan Ruiz, 37, father and husband, was murdered by a lost bullet fired by Evo’s army, the mazist cleaned their hands saying he was in a political motivated protest. But, was not October 2003 a political motivated protest?
And fresh in the memory, this past September 2007, Flores Torrico, the 21 year old student murdered in Arani, Cochabamba by governmental forces. He was just asking to the end of corruption and better conditions to rural teachers.
This are 20 murders by Evo and his regime I can describe without going to the papers, but in reality, after Flores Torrico, there are 28.
By the way, I haven’t seen this information in Fox, I guess they care about Bolivia much less than the second anonymous think.

If Goni is to be included in

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 15:10.

If Goni is to be included in the "league" of genocidal fanatic dictators, perhaps Evo should be at least considered for a bush league or farm team position for his handling of the minor's riots in Huanuni, Oruro leaving 12 dead or the riots in Coachabamba leaving 3 dead.

Question

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 10/18/2007 - 15:25.

So if Evo is actually successful and gives lifetime monthly payments to the victims using taxpayer's money, doesn't that basically mean that the State admits guilt and therefore gets Goni off the hook?

Not a question of Evo

Submitted by Someone from Bolivia (not verified) on Tue, 10/23/2007 - 13:33.

Anyone who reads the first comments posted here ("It is wrong to include") and ("Not misinformed at all") should be aware that they are full of fallacies trying justify grave human rights abuses in light of current events such as the election of Evo Morales to the presidency or the Government's review of contracts with transnationals operating in the country.

The facts are these:

1) Following orders from "Goni", the army and police opened fire against hundreds of unarmed civilians in the streets of La Paz and in neighboring communities in 2003, killing more than fifty people, including protesters, bystanders, and relief workers, and injuring many more.

2) Following orders from "Goni", the army and police attempted to close radio stations, withdraw newspapers from circulation, and intimidate news reporters. It also raided the homes of civic and union leaders, illegally arresting and torturing several.

3) During its last days in Office, "Goni's" Government officials physically withdrew millionaire amounts of the Central Bank's funds from its vaults, which have not been accounted for since, just to name one of the legal and financial "irregularities" that occurred those days.

If you believe in democracy and human rights, I'm sure you'll agree that anyone who fits these descriptions deserves to be investigated, and the failure to clarify events such as these, punish those responsible according to their responsibility, and provide remedies for its victims should be considered - impunity.

While the following facts have nothing to do with the above conclusion, it may show how deviated the arguments:

1) Evo Morales wasn't among those that initiated the protests, and wasn't among the protest's leaders until the last days (he wasn't even in La Paz during the first days of the protests), even being criticized for being too lukewarm in his support to the protests at the beginning of the events.

2) Evo Morales did not initiate the process against "Goni", it was initiated way before he was even a presidential candidate by Carlos Mesa, who had been Vice-President under "Goni" until his resignation, and denounced his acts nationally and internationally when the situation deteriorated, first as Vice-President and then as President.

3) The demand to increase revenues from gas exports, which initiated the protests in October 2003 was not a key demand by Evo or his party until after the events took place. Until then, their agenda had been focused on the cooperation with the US for the eradication coca leaf plants.

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Fallacias

Submitted by Bolivia Libre (not verified) on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 12:02.

Let’s not attempt to cover the sun with one eye, the October 2003 protesters were by no means unarmed or pacific, as registered in multiple occasions by the media. That is why there are several policemen and soldiers among the death and injured you are mentioning. Are any of this poor people or families being compensate or any of the October riots initiators being put on trial. Not yet because they are all protected by the current regime, but the time will come.

The only tortured on those days where a young army official and his wife abducted in El Chapare, were Evo was and still is the maximum leader. The principal implicated by the police is today one of Evo’s representative in the Constitutional Assembly.

Goni should be brought to justice because he used the army without declaring “estado de sitio”; since our constitution doesn’t allow the army to police civilians without that specific declaration by the president. If you want to bring Goni under the law using that argument, I will be the first one to sign, fallowing my requirement for Evo’s trial, since he has already used the army for the same reasons Goni did. Just read on top, I even gave you some “real” people’s names.

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