Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt. (Photo: Wikipedia)

The trial of former Guatemalan dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt, for genocide faces further delays after the Court of Appeals ruled to temporarily suspend the process while the judges presiding over the case review and resolve challenges made by the defence lawyers dating back to the start of the trial, on 19th March.

On that day, Ríos Montt’s lawyer, Francisco García Gudiel, was dismissed by Judge Jazmín Barrios for attempting to delay the trial process. After an appeal, García Gudiel was later reinstated after it was decided that the trial court had violated the former dictator’s right to a defence.

Yesterday’s ruling by the Court of Appeals confirmed the reinstatement of García Gudiel, while ordering the court to consider the other defence request that judges Barrios and Pablo Xitumul be disqualified from the case. However, it rejected another request to annul the trial altogether.

The court was given 24 hours from the time of receiving the notification to define how the trial would proceed.

The trial was due to resume this morning at 7am having been suspended since 19^th April due to appeals by the defence team. A previous Constitutional Court ruling permitted the trial to resume last week.

Many have already testified against Ríos Montt, yet the trial’s progress has been slow due to the various legal challenges put forth by the defence.

Héctor Reyes, lawyer of the victims, said, “Although the defence is using delaying strategies the trial is set to resume.”

Accounts by more than 100 prosecution witnesses of massacres and other atrocities have been heard since the start of the trial. Forensic, military, and anthropological experts have also made presentations. Ríos Montt is accused of crimes against humanity including the systematic massacre of Guatemala’s indigenous population during the country’s civil war between 1981 and 1983.

The Colombian Ministry of Defence announced yesterday that they have detained three suspects in connection with the massacre that killed ten farm workers last Wednesday in Santa Rosa de Osos, in the rural zone of Antioquia.

Among the detained is Oscar Darío Barrera, alias ‘Caracho’, 27. Barrera was captured, along with two others, in the Mortinan district in a joint operation between the Armed Forces, the National Police, and the General Prosecutor.

Police also seized three guns and four grenades.

“We are going after all murderers and all those who commit these sorts of acts”, said Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón. “[…] when the Armed Forces and the State as a whole decide to act decisively to protect the lives and rights of the citizens, there is no criminal who can remain calm, sooner or later they all fall.”

It is believed that the order for the massacre was given from prison by Arley de Jesús Sepúlveda, alias ‘Jorge 18’, a leader of the ‘los Rastrojos’ gang who was arrested on 31 October. Los Rastrojos and the smaller splinter group ‘los Renacentistas’ are active in drug trafficking and extortion in the northwest of Colombia, specifically targeting farmers and agricultural workers.

The attack took place last Wednesday evening, 7 November, at the ‘La Española’ ranch. It is unclear if the massacre, which left nine men and one woman dead, was retaliation for Sepulveda’s arrest or simply an extortion dispute. One of the survivors of the ordeal, who is now under police protection, told authorities that he recognised Barrera as having worked at La Española six months earlier.

The incident, one of the most violent recently, has caused many peasants in Santa Rosa de Osos to seek refuge in urban areas. The Colombian government has stated that criminal gang activity is one of the biggest threats facing the nation.

Yesterday the human rights organisation Survival International published an article declaring their doubt of the killings in the Yanomami settlement in southern Venezuela in July.

Yanomami organisations had reported the attack on one of their communities in the Irotatheri region in Venezuela, close to the Brazilian border.

The attack was alleged to have been carried out by a group of illegal gold miners operating in the area and at least 80 people of the Yanomami were killed. Neighbouring Yanomami villages claimed to have found traces of the massacre with dead bodies and burnt huts.

Survival International now has reasons to believe that the attack never took place. The organisation’s director, Stephen Corry, said: “After having received statements from reliable sources, Survival now believes that the attack towards the Yanomami community in Irotatheri never happened.”

Venezuelan authorities have also failed to find traces of an attack. At the same time they deny mining activities in the area.

The issue with illegal mining for gold in the area has since long posed a threat towards the large indigenous group. The mining activities brought increased levels of violence, disease and contamination, and according to Survival International “tension remains high”.

Survival International continues working for the rights of the Yanomami and urges the Venezuelan government to evict illegal invaders from the country’s indigenous territories.

Outrage is spreading throughout Peru after a Supreme Court ruling has reduced the prison terms for an infamous government death squad who took part in the 1990s killings under the government of Alberto Fujimori.

The panel of Supreme Court judges said the massacre of 25 people amounted to “human rights violations” but not “crimes against humanity” for which the nicknamed Colina death squad, were originally convicted.

With the change in ruling the 15 members will be able to apply for parole. In Peru, defendants convicted of crimes against humanity are not eligible for parole. Those convicted of murder are eligible after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

The group’s leader, former military officer Santiago Martin Rivas, saw his sentence reduced from 25 to 22 years. Another member of the squad, Alberto Pinto, sentenced to 13 years, was released on Monday, while others also saw their sentences reduced. The remaining members will be eligible for reduced sentences for good behavior or working in prison.

Vladimiro Montesinos, the then-spy chief also had his sentence reduced to 20 years, from 25 years. Montesino however, will not be eligible for parole because of his numerous other convictions including smuggling guns to Colombian rebels.

Amnesty International is the latest national organisation to join a growing crowd of people and organisations speaking out against the ruling. Included is the current president of Peru, Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, who tweeted that the, “Crimes of the Colina group and their mentors must not be ignored or forgotten. [The] Court ruling stains the honour of our country!”

The Colina group committed 53 murders in total during Fujimori’s war against leftist rebels. The ruling on Monday regards the murder of 25 people including an eight-year-old boy who was killed along with his father at a barbeque.

The president of the Supreme Court Javier Villa Stein, defended the ruling, saying in a TV interview on Monday that “to kill a child is a terrible crime but that doesn’t make it a crime against humanity.”

The ruling also determined that Fujimori gave the group medical insurance, state funds, automobiles, weapons, and training.

Many worry that the decision will be used to push for the release of Fujimori, who is currently serving 25 years for crimes against humanity. He has already tried to appeal his sentence once but was unsuccessful.

The relatives of Darío Santillán and Maximiliano Kosteki, two activists assassinated in 2002, along with members of various political and social organisations, held a press conference and a “caravan against impunity” today to denounce the transfer of former Superintendent Alfredo Fanchiotti to an ‘open’ prison in Baradero. The caravan, comprised of buses and cars, set out to Baradero in order to, as Federico Orchani of the Darío Santillán Popular Front (FPDS) said at the press conference, “tell the neighbours …that an assassin will be walking through the streets of their city.”

Former Superintendent Alfredo Fanchiotti and Alejandro Acosta, who both used to work for the Buenos Aires Police, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of these two activists on 26th June 2002, during an infamous act of police repression known as the Avellaneda Massacre. The massacre occurred when militants and protesters that formed part of the piquetero movement attempted a roadblock at the Pueyrredon Bridge. At the bridge, they were met by police who opened fire and killed Santillán and Kosteki as the two men tried to run to safety to the Avellaneda Train Station.

At the press conference, activists and family members emphasised the irregular nature of the prison transfer, since criminals sentenced to life usually spend at least ten years formally imprisoned. At the institution where Fanchiotti is being transferred, prisoners have a large degree of freedom. They can leave for twelve hours at a time, during the day, and the only requirement is that they sleep in the ‘open’ prison. Usually, prisoners are transferred to such institutions right before they are released, but not if they have been convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to life imprisonment like Franchiotti was.

The Kosteki family’s lawyer Claudia Ferrero explained this morning that this “is a measure that could lead to his complete liberty… the ‘open’ prison is usually the last step before freedom.” Orchani of the FPDS said at the press conference that “the measure opens the door to impunity just a few days before the 26th June, the 10th anniversary of the assassinations of our comrades: this is a provocation.”

The Argentina Independent plans on launching a free, independent, monthly publication in June. In order to remain 100% independent, we are hoping to raise the funds to cover the initial costs of design, printing and distribution via crowdfunding platform Ideame.

And to remind you of all the good things we have done over the course of the past six years as a publication, as well as giving you a reason to support us in our bid to go into print and help us keep doing such things, we will be bringing you a taste of some of the good times each week! This week – a selection of our best content.

If you would like to support us in our fundraising campaign, please visit our Ideame page where you can either make a donation (every cent counts), or help us by spreading the word!

Endangered: Argentina’s Disappearing Languages

Every two weeks, one of the world’s languages dies out, and Argentina is not immune to this mass linguistic extinction. Kate Granville-Jones’ investigated this phenomenon and discovered of the 35 languages spoken in Argentina in pre-Columbian times, now just 15 remain, and one has only two living speakers.

Family members fight to be heard at a protest against family member's deaths in February 2010 . (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

Gatillo Facil and Deaths in Police Custory

“2009 was not just another year. It started with a new Miguel Bru that was Luciano Arruga, and finished with a new Walter Bulacios: Ruben Carballo. Police repression and violence grew to the point of taking the life of someone every 24 hours.” Any student of Argentine history is familiar with the dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s, and the thousands of students, unionists and activists that were “disappeared” by the military regime. A subject which is less-publicised, however, is that state violence and repression did not end with the return of democracy in 1983. As Daniel Edwards discoverd in his 2010 report, federal and provincial police forces continue to routinely use extreme violence and torture against suspects and detainees in their facilities, which often results in the death of the victim.

Guaraní Suicide

After a 2008 report indicated that the Guaraní indigenous group had the highest rate of suicide as a people in the world, Kristie Robinson headed up to community in Misiones, just 15km from the world-famous Iguazú Falls, to meet with Guaraní leaders to talk about the alarming rates of suicide and what is being done to tackle the issue.

Paco in the hands of an addict (Photo: Kate Stanworth)

Paco: Drug Epidemic Sweeping the Streets of Buenos Aires

Anthony Bale’s 2008 article on paco, a by-product of cocaine that is wreaking havoc on the lives of many shantytown inhabitants, brought the stark reality of life in Buenos Aires’ underclass home to many of our readers.

Secret Squats and Silent Evictions: A Response to BA’s Housing Deficit

In 2009 Harriet Hernando’s looked into Buenos Aires’ social housing crisis and the city government’s handling of the situation, highlighting mass migration to the cities and inadequate government policies, as well as violent police crackdown on illegal squatters as the main culprits in the crisis.

After a decade-long period of appeals, yesterday a judge called for the arrest of two former military police officers who were sentenced in 2002 for their roles in a 1996 massacre.

According to Reuters and Agence France-Presse, Ex-colonel Mario Colares Pantoja and former major José Maria Pereira de Oliveira were ordered arrested for their roles during the Massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás, where 19 campesinos without land were killed and 70 were wounded.

Both officers were commanding troops on the 17th April 1996, where a group of landless protesters were blocking a highway. Troops surrounded the protesters and shot them, according to Agence France-Presse.

The two officers remained free while exhausting all possible avenues of appeal.

BBC reports that while Colares Pantoja has been apprehended, Pereira de Oliveira remains at large.

A Guatemalan court yesterday sentenced five men to 7,710 years in prison each for their roles in a 1982 massacre that left at least 256 indigenous people dead.

Former civil patrollers Eusebio Grace, Julián and Mario Acoj and Santos Rosales as well as former military commissioner Lucas Tecú were found guilty for their roles in a massacre in the village of Plan de Sánchez. Each man was sentenced to 30 years per murder plus 30 years for crimes against humanity.

According to humanitarian organisation ACOGUATE, the massacre happened on July 18, 1982. Between 2 and 3pm, about 60 men dressed in military uniform with assault rifles entered the town. They separated young women and girls from the rest of the population, raping and battering them before killing them.

Amnesty International also notes that other adults were imprisoned in a house before troops fired on them indiscriminately and attacked them with hand-grenades. Some villagers were forced into straw dwellings that were doused with gasoline and set alight. Most people killed were Achí Mayans, and their bodies were dumped into mass graves.

Though a group of survivors filed a complaint in 1992, there were no developments in the case until August 2011 when the five men were captured.

“Slowly but surely, justice is beginning to prevail for these horrendous crimes that have hung over Guatemalan society for three decades,” said Sebastian Elgueta, Central America researcher at Amnesty International. “Each new verdict erodes the long-entrenched impunity in the country, and the authorities must continue to ensure that the thousands of victims and their relatives are given access to justice and full reparation as well as the truth about what happened.”

Other Cases

Amnesty International also notes that the de facto head of state at the time of the massacre, now-retired General José Efraín Ríos Montt, is currently facing genocide charges. Charges were laid in January.

On 12th March, Pedro Pimentel Ríos was the fifth person to be convicted and sentenced for crimes related to the Dos Erres Massacre, another massacre in Guatemala where more than 200 people were tortured and killed.

This Friday is also the 30-year anniversary of Ríos Montt’s rise to the head of state in Guatemala. The man came to power after a 1982 coup d’etat and stayed in power until August 1983. Half of all the documented human rights violations during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict took place in those years.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has apologised for the massacre that saw 50 people being murdered by the paramilitary 13 years ago.

The attack happened in the village of El Tigre in January 1999, when members of the United Self-Defences of Colombia (AUC) tortured and killed those suspected of supporting leftist guerrillas.

In a public statement made this Monday in Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo province where El Tigre is, Santos said: “I want to take the opportunity today, [...] to offer you my apologies as the president of the republic to all the victims. This massacre should have never happened.”

Later he added: “One shudders saying: how is it possible that a human being could do unto another such things?”

The president talked about the importance of recognising the victims as such, being that part of the healing process.

He explained that all the 140 thousand victims of violence in Putumayo will have access to financial compensation and the services of the Transitional Justice Committee, which was set up to give them assistance.

In July last year, Santos also apologised to other victims of massacres in different part of the country.

Jorge Vinicio Orantes Sosa, arrested earlier this year whilst visiting his family in Canada, is wanted by Guatemalan authorities for participating in a notorious massacre of ‘Dos Erres’, in 1982.

The war criminal is to be extradited to the United States on perjury charges, for lying about his connection to the Guatemalan military.

Lawyers Without Borders Canada and the Canadian Centre for International Justice are pressing for a trial in Canada to prosecute Sosa for crimes against humanity or to consider Guatemala’s request for extradition on equally serious charges.

Eye witness and Canadian immigrant Ramiro Cristales, who watched his whole family murdered as well as almost his entire village, requests Sosa to be prosecuted in Canada rather than the US. He is calling on the Canadian government to hold Sosa accountable for the crimes.

“There are very strong laws in Canada that allow for the prosecution of crimes against humanity and war crimes even when they’re committed overseas,” Matt Eisenbrandt, legal coordinator of the Canadian Centre for International Justice, told Fox news.

“This is a case that has a very close connection to Canada. There is a Canadian citizen who is a survivor and Mr. Sosa is himself a Canadian citizen,” he explained.

Cristales is touring Canada today, raising awareness about the events of the massacre.

“The next morning they started murdering the men and young kids from the school. When they finished with the men they started with the women in the church,” he added.

The Guatemalan civil war ended in 1996. The military army was backed by the US and claimed approximately 200,000 lives.