Posted on 02/11/2003 4:36:49 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Peru’s Corruption and Crisis in Human Rights
Feb. 11: Peru’s parliament recommended Monday that the Peruvian supreme court introduce an extradition request to the Japanese government demanding that former President Alberto Fujimori’s status of political refugee be suspended on the grounds of torture.
Journalist Fabián Salazar declared he was tortured by the agents of the intelligence service on May 24, 2000.
Fujimori, of Japanese descent, has been living in exile in Japan since 2001 as he fled from Peru amid a corruption scandal that toppled his presidency.
Germany, the first country to challenge his status as a political refugee, has accused him of crimes related to abusive, dictatorial and despotic exercise of power. His 10-year presidential period was marked by the dismantling of Maoist terrorist group Shining Path, as well as by radical measures such as the “auto coup d’etat” that in dissolving the Peruvian Congress allowed him to rule by decree. Shining Path terrorists killed roughly 30,000 Peruvians as they carried on a campaign of car bombings, political assassinations and mass murder of the peasant community. About 600,000 civilians were displaced as a consequence of the forced recruiting of followers, led by now-imprisoned guerrilla chief Abigail Guzman.
The extradition request project comes as part of a Human Rights Watch campaign in favor of just trials for Shining Path terrorists jump-started by the parents of American citizen Lori Berenson, arrested in 1995 for collaboration with the terrorist group.
Hooded judges at military tribunals tried 900 terrorists during the 1990s, a measure taken to carry out the long-sought trials. Most judges refused to pass verdicts in view of guerrilla reprisals. Berenson, too, was tried at a military court that sentenced her to life imprisonment and later on at a civilian tribunal that passed a verdict of 20 years of imprisonment.
Following suit, the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru ruled on Jan. 3 against unconstitutional measures taken by Fujimori’s government to try the terrorists. The tribunal alleged neglect of “a just process, respect of fundamental human rights, assumption of innocence, as well as of the guarantee of a competent, independent and impartial tribunal,” according to a high commissioner (www.elcomercio.com.pe, Feb. 8).
Peruvians, however, are less concerned with Fujimori’s disrespect for international human rights standards now that the country finally enjoys peace after 20 years of guerrilla warfare, as much as with the corruption scandals that involve him and his collaborators.
Recent polls suggest that 8 out of 10 Peruvians are skeptical of their judicial system (www.elcomercio.com.pe). Feb. 18, however, will mark the start of a trial against former Interior Minister Montesinos, who was captured by FBI agents in Venezuela in June 2001.
Montesinos, whose recordings of all governmental dealings unleashed the corruption crisis, is expected to provide important clues during the next few months.
Bush Helps Colombia Fight Terrorism
Feb. 7: One year after the halting of peace talks between former President Pastrana’s government and Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), President Uribe Velez is negotiating the handoff of politicians and military officers kidnapped by FARC, the largest guerrilla group active in the country.
The Marxist terrorist group asks to have a number of rebels released from jail in exchange. President Uribe has agreed to the handoff on condition that the U.N. is present and the rebels do not stay in Colombia once they are freed.
Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro said "negotiations are at an advanced stage but details need to be kept secret as to not raise false expectations or interrupt the process” (www.eluniversal.com, Feb. 6).
Simultaneously, Uribe has received strong backing by the U.S. government to dismantle the terrorist groups. President Bush included $$574.6 million in his 2004 budget for the fight against terrorism in Colombia.
The primary purpose of the aid package will be to destroy illicit cocaine leaf and poppy plantations, estimated to provide the guerrilla with US$8 million a month. According to the State Department, the guerrillas keep 494,210 acres of coke leaf plantations and 24,710 acres of poppy seed fields (El Tiempo, Feb. 3).
The project includes resumption of an above-ground intervention plan halted in 1995 as a consequence of the accidental crash of a Peruvian military plane into a commercial plain that killed a U.S. missionary. An additional US$10 million is being sought by the Pentagon to assist Colombian refugees.
Colombia’s Justice Minister, Marta Lucia Ramirez, has announced that the government’s plan to fight terrorism is being tested in the eastern province of Arauca, where two foreign journalists on assignment to the Los Angeles Times were released Saturday by National Liberation Army (ELN), a Cuban-inspired guerrilla group.
Arauca’s mountainous 1,375-mile border with Venezuela serves as an escape way to Colombian guerrillas sought by the armed forces.
Ramirez declared that government officials were trying to seek more cooperation from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but acknowledged that "it has so far been very difficult” (El Tiempo, Feb. 1).
The strategy to eliminate the guerrillas includes a three-month siege in Arauca. The declaration of a state of emergency allows the government to take political, military and taxation measures that would otherwise not be granted.
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