Q&A: The Public Image of Chile’s Post-Pinochet Military

"Chilean society does not want to forgive and forget; it wants justice" in human rights abuse cases, says historian and political scientist Claudio Fuentes, one of the authors of a new study that takes a look at how Chilean perceptions of the armed forces changed from 1991 to 2007.

CHILE: Courts Active in Human Rights Cases, but Results Mixed

A concert was held in the Chilean capital Monday to protest a judge’s decision to close the case involving the murder of folksinger Víctor Jara, who was killed by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet 35 years ago.

RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Exhuming Memory

One of the men comes across a plastic thread and stops digging. He starts to carefully remove the dirt until unearthing a piece of material that he hands to an elderly woman, who is silently observing the exhumation of the remains of victims of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war.

PARAGUAY: Torture Victim Still Fears Colorado Party ‘Mafia’

The Colorado Party has become a "criminal mafia" during its 61 years in government in Paraguay, and it will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in spite of its defeat in last month’s elections, says Anuncio Martí, a Paraguayan citizen living in exile in Brazil.

PERU: Government Lashes Out at Human Rights Groups

The Peruvian government, with the backing of the parliamentary bloc that supports former President Alberto Fujimori, has unleashed a campaign against non-governmental organisations that defend human rights, according to activists and lawyers.

RIGHTS-PERU: Fujimori Hemmed In

After 50 days of hearings, the Peruvian court trying former President Alberto Fujimori has heard virtually incontrovertible evidence that the former president was responsible for kidnappings and for two massacres of civilians perpetrated in the early 1990s, according to prosecutor Avelino Guillén.

RIGHTS: Guatemala Turns Deaf Ear to Inter-American Justice

Organisations that represent survivors and relatives of victims of Guatemala’s 1960-1996 civil war complained that the attorney general’s office has failed to fully comply with three resolutions handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

RIGHTS-PERU: Death Squad Convictions May Doom Fujimori

In a ruling that has far-reaching consequences for the trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, an anti-corruption court sentenced former chief of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) Julio Salazar to 35 years in prison for approving the operations of the Colina death squad, which killed nine students and a professor at the University of La Cantuta in July 1992.

RIGHTS: Reuniting El Salvador’s Missing Children with Their Families

Alberto Henríquez was six years old when a soldier took him away from the village of El Mozote in northeastern El Salvador, where around 1,000 children, women and men were killed in a counterinsurgency operation by the army in December 1981.

RIGHTS-PERU: Fujimori Rewarded Death Squad

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori personally encouraged and rewarded the leaders of a secret army intelligence service squad for the kidnap and murder of 25 civilians in 1991 and 1992, according to secret military documents.

Q&A: ‘I Raise My Voice in Constant Denunciation, Demanding Justice’

"As for the terrorist FARC organisation, I describe it in the terms I have just used," said Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, replying to a journalist’s question during his visit to Costa Rica.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Trial on Disappearances Marks a ‘Before’ and ‘After’

"My husband had taken a cow out to pasture when an army platoon took him away. He was missing for 25 years, until his corpse was exhumed two years ago," María Magdalena C., an indigenous woman from the village of Choatalum in the central Guatemalan region of Chimaltenango, told IPS.

RIGHTS-PERU: US Judge Awards Millions in Damages to Massacre Survivors

A U.S. federal judge ordered retired Peruvian army major Telmo Hurtado to pay 37 million dollars to two survivors of a 1985 massacre in which 69 indigenous peasants, mainly women and children, were killed in the highlands village of Accomarca.

PERU: Massacre Participant Unsuccessfully Seeking Asylum in US

In a desperate attempt to keep out of the reach of the Peruvian justice system, which is investigating a 1985 massacre of 69 highland villagers by the military, retired army captain David Castañeda is seeking - unsuccessfully so far - political asylum in the United States.

RIGHTS-PERU: Survivors Come Face-to Face with Massacre Leader

Teófila Ochoa and Cirila Pulido, survivors of a 1985 massacre in Peru, said that seeing retired Peruvian army officer Telmo Hurtado in prison-issue clothing and shackles was the closest they have come to seeing justice done.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Still Waiting for Justice, 28 Years On

"I suffer because three of my kids were murdered. One of them, who was just 17, was killed when the Spanish embassy was burnt down. I am sad because in Guatemala there is no justice," Catarina Lux, a 68-year-old indigenous woman from the northwestern province of El Quiché, told IPS Thursday.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Legal Action by Activists Against Judges Stymied

A Guatemalan court rejected accusations lodged by Coordinación Genocidio Nunca Más (Genocide, Never Again) Wednesday against the members of the Constitutional Court, which in December blocked the extradition to Spain of seven people accused of crimes against humanity.

RIGHTS-LATIN AMERICA: ‘Operation Condor’ Was No Mystery to Washington

The intelligence services of Peru and Argentina kept Washington informed in real time about a 1980 joint clandestine operation in which four alleged members of Argentina’s Montoneros guerrilla movement were "disappeared," according to documents declassified in the United States.

PERU: Operation Condor Tentacles Stretched Even Farther

Legal investigations in Italy and declassified U.S. government documents prove that Peru was also involved in Operation Condor, created by the military regimes ruling South America in the 1970s and 1980s to cooperate in the elimination of dissidents.

RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: A Blow to Impunity

"It’s a condemnation of impunity," said activist Benjamín Cuellar, referring to an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling against El Salvador for its lack of a thorough investigation of the murder of businessman Mauricio García Prieto.

ARTS-CHILE: Shedding Light on the Torturers

"Where Are They?" is the title of an installation by Chilean artist Iván Navarro, prompting visitors to pick out, from a gigantic word search puzzle, the names of 332 agents who tortured and murdered opponents of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.