Movement News in Brief

El Salvador

  • Colombia’s police are training Salvadorans in law enforcement at the US-funded ILEA (International Law Enforcement Academy) in San Salvador. They also will train police and attorneys general from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. US instructors are from the FBI and DEA. This tactic is based on the MERIDA Initiative in Mexico (CISPES Update 9/16/11).
  • Fourteen defendants from the Mexican army were indicted on 5/11 by Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco for their roles in the Jesuit massacre of 1989. El Salvador’s Ministry of Defense has accepted this as an internal arrest (Center for Justice and Accountability. San Francisco, 8/15/11).
  • President Funes has proposed a tax on the wealthy and on corporations to fund national security programs.

Chile: On 8/9/11 over 100,000 students struck and demonstrated in the streets of Santiago, demanding free education for all. 273 were arrested. (Censa – New America Media, 8/13/11).

Nicaragua: On 7/20/11, the 32nd anniversary of the Sandinista revolution, President Ortega proposed a referendum on whether to demand $1.7 billion from the US for its role in the civil war. In 1986 the International Court of Justice ruled that the US had violated the law and should pay (but no fixed amount). The presidential  election is to be held on November 6.

Bolivia: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, welcomed an historic decision by the top court in Bolivia to convict two former ministers and five senior military officers…in the deaths of 69 people during demonstrations against a government plan to build a gas pipeline through El Alto, near La Paz.
Bolivia’s then president Sanchez and two of their ministers fled to the US and are the subject of extradition requests. Naavi Pillay said, “I hope this trend continues,” and she cited recent developments in Argentina, Uruguay, Guatemala and Colombia as examples:

  • In Argentina, by the end of 2010, 110 people – mostly military and police – had been convicted for their roles in human rights violations during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.
  • In Uruguay, on June 27, President Jose Mojica passed a decree which allows for the reopening of some 80 cases involving the violation of human rights during the 1973-85 dictatorship.
  • In Guatemala, on August 2, four former military officers were given lengthy prison sentences for 201 cases of murder during the Dos Erres massacre in December 1982.
  • In Colombia, in June 2010, a senior army officer was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the disappearance of 11 people in November 1985, after military forces stormed the Supreme court Building where guerrillas were holding hundreds of hostages. Over 100 people died as a result.

Cuba:

  1. At 4:30 am on October 14  René González, one of the Cuban  5, was freed from the Marianna, Florida, prison, although he is required to remain in the United States under the control of supervised release for three years.
  2. IFCO in NYC reported success of the 22nd Friendshipment to break the US embargo/blockade of Cuba. Of the 100 tons of aid (seven school buses, a car, solar panels and medicines) the US confiscated only seven computers (IFCO 7/21/11). IFCO has replaced the late Rev. Lucius Walker with Co-Directors Ms Gail Walker and the Rev. Luis Barrios.

US:

  • 69 members of Congress have asked President Obama to shut down the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. (SOA Watch 8/11/11).
  • The US government has dropped its case against the “White House 15” who conducted a “die-in” on the White House sidewalk during the April Days of Action, demanding closure of the SOA.
  • Roberta E. Jacobson is President Obama’s nominee for Asst. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, replacing Arturo Valenzuela. She previously served as Deputy Asst. Sec. Of State for Canada, Mexico and NAFTA.
  • On 10/6/11 Chuck Kaufman, Co-Director of the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ), announced that, “on the eve of a major anti-war protest [the Anti-War Occupation of Liberty Plaza] and in the midst of its support for the Occupy Wall Street protests, the AfGJ has endured sabotage on its internet and phone connections, as well as its system to receive donations.” The repairman said that the wire providing service to the office had been physically disconnected at the junction box (the external control box that serves various homes and businesses in the neighborhood). AfGJ has since secured release of the money donated to organizations housed there for Occupy DC.