Tag Archives: Dictatorship

Paramilitary Gangs Join UN Force in Preying on Haitian Population

avatarPosted on by January 3, 2019

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. It is hardly worthwhile to entertain some notion that the U.N. force MINUSTAH and the new paramilitary gangs are somehow at odds with each other. Both are supported by the U.S. and France, and both prey on the Haitian population and National Police. MINUSTAH’s abuses are given as the reason why a Haitian army is needed to defend the national sovereignty, and the threat of abuse by paramilitaries serves to justify MINUSTAH’s continued stay.

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Argentina Remembers Children Stolen During Dictatorship: Trial Finally Under Way | Memorias de la dictadura argentina: las pruebas sobre el robo de bebés

avatarPosted on by February 21, 2018

By Marcela Valente, IPS | Staff, Cuba Debate. The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are finally getting heard in court after 35 years of demanding their stolen grandchildren. Eight former officials of the brutal Argentinian dictatorship that began on March 24, 1976 and lasted 7 years, are accused of “taking, retaining, hiding and changing the identities of” 34 children born to political prisoners held in clandestine prisons during the dictatorship. UPDATE on Mar 27th: Closing arguments. (English | Spanish)

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Brazilians Push to Prosecute Military Junta’s Human Rights Crimes, Pushed Back by Judge | Crece movimiento jurídico para burlar ley de amnistía en Brasil | Cresce movimento jurídico para evitar a lei de anistia no Brasil

avatarPosted on by January 3, 2019

By Fabiana Frayssinet, IPS | Colin M. Snider, Americas South and North. In the first serious move by Brazil to confront the horrors of its junta years, Transitional Justice plans to prosecute the forced disappearances during the 1964-1985 dictatorship. Brazilian federal prosecutors announced they would first try retired Col. Sebastião Curió Rodrigues de Moura for aggravated kidnapping for his alleged role in five enforced disappearances in Pará state in 1974. (English | Spanish | Portuguese)

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6,060 Years for Guatemalan Ex-Soldier Who Massacred Indigenous and Fled to California

avatarPosted on by December 22, 2018

By Staff (sc/jg/jsr/mgt/jf), Prensa Latina | By Rachel Rickard Straus, Daily Mail. Pedro Pimentel, a former instructor of an elite Guatemalan military force called kaibiles, extradited from the US last July, has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in killing 201 indigenous people in the Dos Erres massacre of December 6 to 8, 1982.

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Haiti’s Elected Mayors Dismissed, Illegally Replaced by Presidential Appointees | Prefeitos Eleitos do Haiti Demitidos, Substituídos Ilegalmente por Nomeados pelo Presidente

avatarPosted on by December 12, 2018

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirteen Haitian mayors were dismissed and replaced on February 18, 2012 by presidential decree. In a press conference, one mayor said that a new individual recently arrived claiming to be his municipality’s new mayor, and two days later he got a letter telling him to assist this person in taking inventory of the region’s heritage. Another mayor wrote in open letter on February 3 that his life is under threat. Secretary of the Interior Georges Racine is thought to be behind the wave of illegal dismissals. (English | Portuguese)

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Former Guatemalan Dictator Rios Montt to Stand Trial for Genocide

avatarPosted on by February 26, 2019

By Danilo Valladares, IPS. A Guatemalan court has ordered former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to stand trial for genocide and crimes against humanity. If convicted, he faces 30 years in prison. Hopefully the members of the army who perpetrated the crimes will also be brought to justice. (English | Spanish)

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A Case for Baby Doc, Sweet Micky, Wycleff, Sean, and Clintons Being FaceBook Friends | Baby Doc, Sweet Micky, Wycleff, Sean, and les Clinton seraient-ils des amis FaceBook?

avatarPosted on by December 12, 2018

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Today Investigative Magistrate Carves Jean ruled that former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc to his friends) should not be tried for human rights violations but, rather, for corruption and the misappropriation of public funds. Every human rights organization is crying fowl and blaming the decision on “politics!” I blame it on Facebook friendships. (English | French)

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Frederico Garcia Lorca, Three Poems: Ditty of First Desire, Debussy, Fare Well | Frederico Garcia Lorca, tres poemas: Cancioncilla del primer beso, Debussy, El balcón

avatarPosted on by December 21, 2018

By Frederico Garcia Lorca, Casa Poema, Kempis, Everything2 | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Frederico García Lorca, one of the greatest poets and playwrights in the Spanish language, became Franco’s most famous victim at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Lorca’s remains might be in one of the unmarked graves that Judge Baltasar Garzon ordered exhumed as part of his probe into Spain’s fascist era. (English | Spanish)

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Argentina Invokes Universal Jurisdiction for Crimes Against Humanity | Argentina invoca la jurisdicción universal para crímenes contra la humanidad

avatarPosted on by December 21, 2018

By Marcela Valente, IPS, Periodistas En Español | Princeton Principles of Universal Jurisdiction, Univ. Minnesota Human Rights Library. A judge in Argentina has begun to investigate human rights crimes committed during Spain’s civil war and the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco (between 1936 and 1975). The case is invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity and has landed in Argentina because Spain’s justice system is not effectively taking action. (English | Spanish)

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Massive Rally Marks Anniversary of Aristide Landslide in Free and Fair Elections | Rassemblement de Fanmi Lavalas à l’occasion du 21ème anniversaire des élections libres et démocratiques en Haïti

avatarPosted on by December 14, 2018

By Staff, AHP | Translated by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thousands of Fanmi Lavalas supporters rallied on Friday December 16th to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the elections that brought Father Jean Bertrand Aristide to the presidency of Haiti with more votes in 1990 than both presidential candidates combined received in the 2011 2nd-round elections. (English | French)

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In Brazil, Truth Without Consequence

avatarPosted on by February 21, 2018

By Staff, MercoPress. Brazil signed into law a Truth Commission to investigate the human rights crimes during two military interventions between 1946 and 1988, but this Commission falls under a 1979 Amnesty Bill that protects torturers and guerrillas from prosecution.

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Understanding Tunisia’s Elections Results

avatarPosted on by February 28, 2018

By Esam Al-Amin, OpEd News. Nearly 90% of all Tunisian registered voters participated, with some waiting as long as four hours to cast their votes. The huge win by Ennahda, followed by Congress for the Republic (CPR), represents a total break from the parties and political movements of the corrupt and repressive era of Ben Ali.

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Honoring Baltasar Garzón

avatarPosted on by February 25, 2019

David Cole, The Nation. Judge Baltasar Garzón has reliably insisted on accountability for human rights violations, invoking the principle of “universal jurisdiction” for especially egregious crimes. He faces several politically motivated criminal prosecutions for his decisions.

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Ex-Singer Tied to Death Squads Named Winner in Haitian Vote

avatarPosted on by February 22, 2018

By Bill Van Auken, WSWS. Michel Martelly, the ex-Kompa singer who cast himself as a political outsider and champion of “change,” was named Monday as the winner of the second round of Haiti’s presidential election with 67.57 percent of the votes cast and a turnout of about 25 percent.

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