CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Human Rights in Argentina – Progress and Pending Tasks

Identified with a generation hit hard by Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship, former president Néstor Kirchner won the respect of human rights organisations through his support of trials of military human rights abusers. Now his successor, his wife Cristina Fernández, faces new challenges on that front.

RIGHTS-URUGUAY: The Last Dictator, Behind Bars

Thanks to a 2006 law on forced disappearance, retired General Gregorio Álvarez, who played a key role in Uruguay’s June 1973 coup d’etat and ruled the country during the last stretch of the dictatorship, which ended in 1985, is now under arrest.

ARGENTINA: Human Rights Trials Dangerous for Witnesses and Accused Alike

The poisoning death of an Argentine coast guard officer who was expected to be convicted of crimes against humanity Friday once again highlighted the lack of guarantees for moving ahead with human rights trials in Argentina.

PERU: Fujimori Admits to Signing Key Documents

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori confessed that he signed two secret memos in 1991, recommending promotions and raises for army intelligence officers shortly before they were organised in a death squad that went on to kill 25 people suspected of belonging to the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.

PERU: US Gov&#39t Document Links Garcia to 1980s Death Squads

There is irony in the recent announcement by Peru's President Alan García that he would publish the names of 1,800 "freed terrorists", so that people might recognise and report them if they were participating in anti-state conspiracies. His list includes people imprisoned on false charges or never convicted or sentenced.

RIGHTS-PERU: President Brandishes His Own Terror Threat

Fear has struck again, chilling the hearts of hundreds of Peruvians who were sent to prison on false charges of belonging to the Maoist Shining Path guerrillas or the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) during Peru’s 1980-2000 civil war.

RIGHTS-EL SALVADOR: Amnesty a ‘Monument to Impunity’ Say Activists

Human rights activists in El Salvador said they were "indignant over and ashamed of" the government’s presentation to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) this week, which described the country’s peace process as a success and the amnesty law as a "contribution to national reconciliation."

RIGHTS -ARGENTINA: Twice Disappeared, Still Missing

One year after the disappearance of a former victim of abduction and torture under Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship, local human rights groups complain that the investigation into his current disappearance "is more of a formality than an effective inquiry."

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Genocide Plans May Be Declassified

Guatemala’s Constitutional Court must decide whether or not to declassify documents from 1982 and 1983 military operations commanded by then dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt that would shed light on the genocide committed in this Central American country.

RIGHTS-CHILE: Baby Steps, But Progress Nonetheless

Human rights groups in Chile are celebrating legal rulings in favour of victims of the 1973-1990 dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, and announcements by President Michelle Bachelet in the same vein. But they are critical of the slow pace of justice and the amount that still needs to be done.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Digitising Police Archives to Clarify Past Abuses

With international support, experts in Guatemala are salvaging and digitising millions of National Police records discovered two years ago in a munitions depot. Thanks to their painstaking work, light could be shed on the tens of thousands of murders and forced disappearances committed during the country’s bloody 36-year civil war.

RIGHTS-MEXICO: Truth Commission or Justice Commission?

Human rights groups in Mexico are making another effort to get a truth commission established to investigate the "dirty war," the name given to the illegal strongarm measures used against guerrillas and opponents of successive Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governments in the 1960s and 1970s.

PERU: No Peace for Living or Dead 22 Years After Massacre

Cirila Pulido and Teófila Ochoa were 12 and 13 years old when a Peruvian army patrol entered their village of Accomarca in Peru’s southern Andean region of Ayacucho on Aug. 14, 1985 and murdered 69 villagers, including the two girls’ mothers and siblings.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: 1,200 Letters Against Genocide

Guatemala's attorney general received 1,200 letters from people in 23 countries urging him to speed up the cases against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and other military officers accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.

RIGHTS-CENTRAL AMERICA: Turning Back to a Murky Past?

Social inequality is on the rise in Central America, and the region is backsliding with respect to the standards set forth in the American Convention on Human Rights, according to activists and analysts.

PERU: Fujimori Denies Knowledge of Military Abuses

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) is blaming the commanders of the armed forces during his regime for the criminal acts of which he stands accused, in an attempt to avoid extradition from Chile to Peru to face the charges against him.

EL SALVADOR: Amnesty Law Biggest Obstacle to Human Rights, Say Activists

"We searched for our loved ones everywhere: military barracks, cemeteries, prisons, but we still know nothing about what happened to them. Total impunity surrounds their disappearances," says Salvadoran activist Alicia García.

HUMAN RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Justice in Slow Motion

The slow progress that human rights cases are making as they wind their way through the courts in Argentina has awakened fears among activists of a repeat of what happened in neighbouring Chile, where former dictator Augusto Pinochet died recently without ever having been sentenced.

PERU: Former Death Squad Member Implicates President Garcia

"They already kidnapped, tortured and shot me once for informing on the (paramilitary) group that was made up of militant members of the APRA party, like me. Now that the party is once again in power, I have no doubt that they might try it again," Miguel Exebio Reyes told IPS in a clandestine interview.

RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: A Glimmer of Hope for Genocide Victims&#39 Families

One morning in 1982 the Guatemalan army descended on Pedro Santiago's village and started shooting anything that moved. Santiago, a member of the Ixil indigenous community, was wounded and his small daughter was killed. Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt stands accused of massacres like this one.

CHILE: Pinochet, Never Convicted in Court, Dead at 91

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who died Sunday afternoon in Santiago at the age of 91, will be remembered in Chile as one of the key figures of the 20th century, leaving behind a legacy in which human rights crimes and corruption overshadowed the status of statesman to which he once aspired.