Jorge Rafael Videla, de facto president during Argentina’s last military dictatorship and currently under trial for his part in Operation Condor, has called for “an uprising” against the current government.

Jorge Rafael Videla (Photo: wikipedia)

In a candid interview with Spanish magazine, Cambio 16, he suggested that the armed forces and the Argentine “people” would be the ones to put an end to the current government’s “perpetual power” (in reference to the president’s rumoured constitutional reforms to allow her to be elected for a third term), armed with the weight of the constitution behind them.

His proverbial call to arms was also aimed at military personnel of between the ages of 58 and 68 who are still “fit to fight”. He urged them to come to the defence of the “basic pillars of the Republic” against president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her “minions”.

He also went on to compare Argentina’s current situation with that of the conditions under the last dictatorship saying that the country is undergoing, “another war like the one that began in 1976”.

According to Videla, Kirchnerism continues to “drown the country in an anachronistic abyss of Marxism” and in a previous interview with the same magazine, he alleged that the ascendance of the Kirchner’s to power marked the country’s “worst moment” in history.

There is however, no doubting the irony of Videla’s accusations. He himself has been successfully convicted of crimes against humanity (and is serving two life sentences), and, at present, is being investigated for his role in a South America-wide illegal intelligence operation during his military rule referred to as ‘Operation Condor’ during which time between thousands of people died or were ‘disappeared’. In July of last year he was sentenced to 50 years in prison, after he was found guilty of “the abduction and detention” of 20 minors, and he is also serving two life sentences for crimes against humanity.

His dire accusations have received much attention and were criticised by a wide group of politicians and organisations. Newspaper Clarín referred to his words as a “provocation”. UCR politician Leopoldo Moreau tweeted, “Videla’s accusations deserve total repudiation… they should not be trivialised”, whilst the president of the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, Remo Carlotto, said, “Videla’s words are an offence to the memory of the victims, the fight of their families and human rights organisations, and the work of the people to create a democratic society in which human rights are freely exercised”. Human rights groups such as H.I.J.O.S, Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, and the Association of Former Detainees-Disappeared rejected the words of the former dictators, as did politicians from the government and opposition.

Yesterday, retired general and populist politician Lino Oviedo was nominated by the Partido Unión Nacional de Ciudadanos Éticos (Unace), Paraguay’s third-most influential political party, as candidate for president in the April 2013 elections.

Livestock businessman Alberto Soljancic will run beside Oviedo as candidate for vice president. Oviedo has run twice for the office, first in 1998 and again in 2008, losing the latter to recently deposed Fernando Lugo, of the left-leaning Frente Guasú coalition.

The nomination comes one week after President Federico Franco’s ruling party Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) nominated senator and ex Public Works Minister Efraín Alegre for the candidature. Businessman Horacio Cartes will represent the country’s influential Partido Colorado, which ruled Paraguay as a one-party state from 1947 to 1962 and whose 61-year reign ended only in 2008 with the election of Lugo.

Yet to nominate candidates are the Frente Guasú coalition, Avanza País, and Kuñá Pyrendá (“Women’s Platform” in the nation’s indigenous Guaraní language). The elections, to be held on 21 April of the coming year, will be monitored by the Organisation of American States (OAS), as well as representatives from the European Union and the Carter Center, and could affect Paraguay’s status within Mercosur. The nation was suspended from the economic organisation after Lugo’s deposal on 22 June.

Oviedo is a controversial figure in Paraguay. The general was named Chief of the Army in 1993. When asked to step down from the position in 1996, he allegedly threatened a coup d’état, a move which landed him in prison in the midst of the 1998 elections, in which he was running. He was pardoned by running mate Raúl Cubas and went into self-imposed exile in Argentina and Brazil.

Upon his return to Paraguay in 2004 he was once again jailed, only to be released three years later for good behaviour. He founded Unace in 2002 after splitting from the Partido Colorado.

Four out of five judges of the Constitutional Branch of the Honduran Supreme Court were dismissed this morning in what members of the opposition are calling a “technical coup”. The act signifies a deepening of the institutional crisis that has pitted the Legislative and Executive branches against the Judicial branch in the small Central American country.

The four judges had deemed unconstitutional a “purification” plan proposed by President Porfirio Lobo and aimed at the nation’s police, various segments of which have been found to have ties to organised crime. It is the seventh project to be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court recently, among them the controversial “private city” initiative that would have allowed for the creation of autonomous Special Development Regions within the country.

The dismissed magistrates include José Antonio Gutiérrez Navas, Gustavo Enrique Bustillo Palma, Rosalinda Cruz Sequeira, and José Francisco Ruiz Gaekel. Oscar Chinchilla, who voted in favour of both the ‘purification’ and private cities projects, was not dismissed by Congress.

The purging of the Honduran police force would have called for “confidence tests,” including drug testing, polygraph tests, and background checks for embezzlement to be carried out among officers. The plan was proposed by Lobo after two university students, including the son of National Autonomous University Dean Julieta Castellano, were killed by police officers in October of 2011. Investigations surrounding the case revealed that sectors of the police were involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, grand theft auto, extortion, and other crimes.

The session of Congress was called by National Congress President Juan Orlando Hernández and began at 1:30am local time. After a seven hour recess, the judges were dismissed with 97 out of 128 votes in favour of the motion, from deputies representing five parties. All four of the judges had been appointed by the opposition party, Partido Liberal.

It has been reported that members of the Honduran armed forces were in the Legislative Palace and surrounding areas when the vote took place.

Opposition deputy Wenceslao Lara called the decision a “technical coup” of the nation’s Judicial branch, as well as a “violation of the Constitution”.

According to Honduran law, the case must be brought to the Supreme Court and resolved today, as the decision was not reached unanimously.

A group of social organisations in Paraguay today presented evidence of human rights violations related to Fernando Lugo’s dismissal in June 2012. The documents were submitted to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the delegates managed to meet José de Jesús Orozco, president of IACHR.

The complaints were gathered in a document announcing that the presidential impeachment negatively affected democracy and respect for human rights in Paraguay.

For instance, representatives demanded a profound investigation into alleged persecutions of those who spoke against the parliamentary coup that had ousted Fernando Lugo as president over four months ago.

Additionally, civil society delegates expressed concerns about thousands of politically-motivated dismissals in state agencies, a budget decrease in education and health areas, and the harassment of journalists.

In the end, the organisations asked IACHR to rule against the criminalisation of protests and support the rebuilding of a state of law in Paraguay.

IACHR promised to organise another meeting with representatives of the appointed president Federico Franco and the social groups that presented the document with complaints.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

The Honduran Supreme Court ruled today that the decree that allowed the creation of ‘private cities’, with their own laws and police, was unconstitutional.

The controversial decree voted in January 2011 and supported by President Porfirio Lobo was designed to allow these private cities or Special Development Regions (RED) to have their own law enforcement, tax system and even autonomy on monetary and immigration issues.

A lower court had already ruled the decree unconstitutional on 3rd October and the Supreme Court reinforced the decision after appeal. This latest decision is final and cannot be overturned.

The spokesman for the Supreme Court, Danilo Izaguirre, told The Associated Press that with 13 votes for and two against the highest judicial authority in the country had ruled that the decree would “privatise the Honduran state and make it disappear, transforming it into a large commercial corporation.”

The actual building and development of these cities had already been granted to the American investment group MGK. Octavio Sánchez, Lobo’s chief of cabinet, had defended the decree, declaring it was the chance to “create from scratch a region in Honduras where the best practices in terms of education, healthcare, justice and security could be implemented”.

Jari Dicson, a member of the Association of Jurists for the Rule of Law under whose name the legal procedure was initiated, said he was satisfied with the court’s decision.

“This has been a fight by independent lawyers and professionals who believe in the defence of the law, when we analysed the constitutional status of the RED we understood that no government can give any type of concession to anyone for them to put in place their own government, police and judges. “

This was the case of a state within a state and that’s illegal. Those who approved this project were betraying our homeland and accepting that the Honduran people are incapable of ruling their own country” stated Dicson.

Porfirio Lobo arrived in power in 2009 following a constitutional crisis in which democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown. Human rights activists have since then reported that the government violated human rights during and after the coup.

It’s Friday again!

And I’m away for the weekend but as rumors of a possible coup continue to spread like gasoline, here I am writing this for you in order to bring you peace of mind.

God, I hate you.

Like us on Facebook and forgive any possible typos. I wrote this while riding a tour bus.

This is what you need to know:

• 

  This frigate, ironically named "Libertad," has been impounded by the Ghanaian government. I know, right? I honestly thought it was "Ghanan," but no, it's totally "Ghanaian." (Photo/Wikipedia)

  It’s a coup! It’s not a coup! It’s a coup, maybe! In case you haven’t been paying attention to the most important news of the week (shame on you), two branches of the armed forces are up in arms against the National Government and trust me, it ain’t pretty. The whole thing started on Tuesday when members of the Coast Guard (in Spanish, Prefectura Naval) decided to start protesting against the recent signing of a presidential decree that pretty much cut their salaries in half. The sight of men in military uniform standing up against the President is obviously not a pretty one, specially since it brings back memories from a past no one here wants to revisit (for all you low-information readers, I’m talking about this), but as usual, both sides of the political spectrum have been using the conflict to try and score a few political points:

• Pro-Government factions: “It’s a coup! Oh, my God, the armed forces are rising against our hard-earned democracy and are trying to topple our dear leaders!”

• Anti-Government factions: “It’s a legitimate protest by hard workers who are being exploited by the National Government.”

• The truth? Their protest is legitimate, their methodology is not. The leader of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo organization, known for her brave work during and after the last military dictatorship, offered a press conference to “bring peace of mind” to the population. Mayor Mauricio Macri did the same and urged the protesters to go home to their families, although he said “he understood their reasons to be angry since they have been mistreated by the National Government for the last ten years” (or “vote for me next time,” wink wink). The uniformed protesters have stated repeatedly that they are 100% behind democracy and that this is not a coup, they just want to be paid accordingly. But considering that several recent pseudo-coups in Latin America (this and this) began in a similar way it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.  As of today, and even though the Government has offered a solution to their demands, the protesters have said their fight would continue during the weekend until they get what they want in writing and signed.

• Sorry for the depressing, unfunny, reductionist viewpoint I just offered. I wanted you to understand. I promise the next bullet points are as stupid as usual.

• In the meantime, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was in Lima, Perú, attending the South American – Arab summit, expressing her support for the recognition of a Palestinian state and addressing the Malvinas/Falklands issue. However, the most relevant piece of information to come out of that summit was that Cristina didn’t know that alfajores were in fact an Arabic delicacy. No, I’m serious. You think I cover shitty news? Think again, the mainstream media does the same: check it here, here, here, here and here.

• Also, the president of Lebanon visited Argentina this week but no one cared.

• Youth in revolt! High-school students continue their crusade against the City Government and its plans for a syllabus reform that would reduce hours of art and lab classes in order to focus on more core subjects such as math and Spanish language. In the last three weeks, students have taken over more than 40 schools and marched to the City Education ministry in protest and now a judge has ordered Education Minister Esteban Bullrich to meet with them  so they can solve the conflict. In the meantime, it’s like spring break out there. If you walk by a school that’s been taken over, join them for a mate and stay for the protests. It could get fun.

• [UPDATE] Bullrich has said he will suspend the syllabus reform if students agree to end the takeovers. Which is a bummer because you could have had fun with them.

An independent Truth Commission has found that the current Honduran government is violating human rights.

The Truth Commission, an organisation approved and supported by 22 national and international NGOs, released a 306-page document entitled “The Most Relevant Voices Are Those of the Victims”.

The report counts 5,418 human rights violations between the military coup in June 2009 and August 2011. The report states that police, armed forces or government officials carried out 84% of these violations of which 60% occurred in the six first months after the coup.

The report also says “the effects of the coup continue, and before and after the elections carried out in October 2009 the governments have used and continue to use terror as tool for social control”. It also lays responsibility on big private companies and various actors of the financial industry that supported and facilitated the coup.

Elsie Monge, a member of the Truth Commission, said “it is unacceptable, that those responsible of these violations don’t receive any punishment while the victims, who are only fighting for their rights, are massacred, taken to court and sentenced without any evidence”.

The military overthrew democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from the centre-left Liberal Party on 28^th June 2009 and replaced him with Roberto Michelletti. Michelletti remained in power until December 2009, the period in which the report dates the majority of human rights violations.

He was then succeeded by the current president Porfirio Lobo Sosa from the right-wing conservative National Party under which human rights violations have continued according to the report released this week.

Frente Guasú, a coalition of political parties and social organisations, announced on Friday they would be restructuring the movement, and former president Fernando Lugo would become the new leader of the bloc.

In the restructuring, they reiterated that the aim of the movement would be to continue to fight against the government of current president Federico Franco, who took power after Lugo was deposed in a parliamentary coup d’êtat in June.

The impeachment process lasted less than 48 hours after Lugo was accused of not performing his duties in the aftermath of violent clashes between police and farmers that left 17 dead on 15th June. One day later, 39 (out of 45) senators supported the motion, and Lugo was removed from office.

His desposition was heavily criticised by other Latin American leaders and UNASUR, and led to the temporary suspension of Paraguay from Mercosur.

Frente Guasú is a coalition of left and centre-left parties in Paraguay that was founded in 2010. It is composed of the Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC) and the Espacio Unitario – Congreso Popular (EU-CP).

Representatives of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) are meeting today in Lima, Peru, to analyse the political situation in Paraguay after the deposition of Fernando Lugo, the country’s democratically-elected president.

According to Rafael Roncagliolo, Peru’s foreign minister, the so-called ‘High Level Group’ will present a declaration about the diplomatic missions that have been sent to Asunción since Lugo was removed from power after a parliamentary decision in July.

Besides Roncagliolo, the meeting will be attended by Unasur secretary general, Alí Rodríguez, along with representatives from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Surinam.

Paraguay was suspended from Unasur after Lugo’s deposition in an extraordinary meeting that took place in Mendoza, Argentina. The trade bloc, Mercosur, adopted a similar measure the same day.

New Paraguayan Minister of Defense María Liz García yesterday released a video that the Paraguayan government claims shows the Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, planning an uprising with the Paraguayan military in advance of the impeachment of former president Lugo.

The video shows Maduro entering and exiting a meeting with high-ranking military officials.

Ecuadorian ambassador Julio Rubo was also allegedly present.

Paraguayan officials hold that in the meeting, Maduro pressured the Paraguayan military to publically support Lugo and refuse to accept the results of the impeachment trial. The government labels these actions as an attempted uprising.

The video, which lasts just under two minutes, shows that the meeting allegedly occurred between 4:23pm and 4:33pm on 22nd June, shortly before the congressional session in which the verdict was to be delivered in the case against former President Lugo.

The video, which was edited, shows both photos and names of those pictured. The video lacked audio, and no conversations between the military and the Venezuelan official can be discerned. An unedited version was also given to the press.

The Paraguayan government alleges that the meeting was called by the head of military cabinet under Lugo, Angel Vallovera. The commanders of the three branches of the military were present, among others: army commander Adalberto Garcete, navy commander Juan Benítez, and air force commander Miguel Angel Christ.

The director of the Military Cabinet and the commanders of the army and navy have been replaced since Franco took office.

Maduro was in Paraguay in the week leading up to the impeachment as part of a Unasur mission that was in the country to monitor Lugo’s trial.

In Paraguay, the Congressional Commission of National Defense held an investigation of the accusations. They interrogated current and former military officials about the alleged meeting with Maduro.

Christ, who was questioned on Monday, told the commission that the Venezuelan official pressured the military commanders to sign a document affirming their continued support of Lugo as the president.

Parliament member Hugo Veláquez stated that the committee concluded that Maduro “tried to persuade the military not to accept what the national Congress was doing”, in reference to the impeachment of Lugo.

His counterpart José López Chávez has called for the prosecution of Maduro, Prado and former president Lugo for inciting a military uprising.

García confirmed that the videos would be passed to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, who she stated would be examining Maduro’s alleged interference with the Paraguayan military. Prosecutor Stella Mary Cano is charged with the case.

Last week, García first accused the Venezuelan government of asking the military to interfere in advance of the impeachment. Venezuela continues to deny the accusations.

The Paraguayan Minister of Defense also revealed that the Paraguayan president Federico Franco himself ordered that the video be released to the press.

In an interview with El Carabobeño, a Venezuelan website, Maduro responded that the accusations have “no grip on reality”.

Former president Lugo has also come out against the video; speaking through the website ‘Paraguay Resiste’, he stated that the video “futilely attempts to compromise foreign diplomats in maneuvers that never occurred” with the goal of “diverting attention” from the “paramilitary coup” that installed the new government.

Secretary General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza stated that it was “strange” that Nicolás Maduro, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, would have met with military commanders during a political crisis.