=================================================== Human Rights: How the Sandinista Record Measures Up =================================================== - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [Send the 1-line message GET FSLN H-RIGHTS ACTIV-L to ] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] --> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "The elder Somoza was shot in 1956 by a poet named Rigoberto Lopez Perez who was killed at the scene. Thousands of Nicaraguan were arrested and tortured in the post-assassination roundup, among them _La Prensa_ [the *old* La Prensa, before the CIA/Reagan funded entity it became, prompting the resignation of most of its staff] publisher Pedro Joaquin Chamorro. " ``Chamorro was lucky,'' explained author John Booth, ``for he escaped the even more diabolical tortures suffered by his companions: electrical shocks...repeated near-drowning, lifting or dragging by a cord tied around the genitals, imprisonment in a coffin-sized cell, or time in the Somoza family's private zoo. This last method incarcerated prisoners, for months in some cases, in barred cages open to the weather, next to lions and panthers, in the garden of the presidential residence'' Held in a cell at the end of the garden, Chamorro observed how ``in front of these animal cages often strolled the current president of the dynasty, Luis Somoza, and his brother Anastasio, with their wives, relatives, and children...carrying their dolls and toys.'' [18] The Somoza dictatorship lasted 43 years, until the heirs to Sandino set Nicaragua on a different course. [See Sklar, page 6 (cited below)] [18] John Booth, __The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution_ (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985, 2nd ed.), p. 72, citing Pedro Joaquin Chamorro C., _Los Somoza: Una estirpe sangrienta (Buenos Aires: El Cid Editores, 1979), p. 77. ------------------------------------------------------------------ "We have seen the joy of peasants learning to read, the improved health of children vaccinated against polio and other childhood diseases, the pride of farmers who have title to their own land for the first time... Nicaragua is one of the few Central American countries in which these efforts by the poor are echoed rather than repressed by the government. We do not deny problems, nor mistakes -- but we must not confuse mistakes with systematic repression. We know repression. In other Central American countries we have all lost friends who were killed for their work with the poor." --statement in April, 1983, by 47 U.S. clergy working in Nicaragua. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "In Honduras, plantation workers have been jailed by government troops for organizing unions. In Nicaragua, the new government is helping peasants and factory worker to set up their own organizations, with leaders elected by the members. In Guatemala an El Salvador, nuns and priests have been killed by the army after they helped villagers to organize farming cooperatives and reading classes. In Nicaragua, large number of clergy are working in government-sponsored health, literacy, and agricultural co-op programs." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Since Somoza's downfall there has been a vast improvement in Nicaragua's human rights situation. This has been documented by respected international organizations such as Amnesty International, Pax Christi, and Americas Watch. Americas Watch has written, Those forms of torture routinely practiced in other Latin American countries have been effectively eliminated by the Nicaraguan government. "Death squads like those that operate freely in Guatemala and El Salvador do not exist. Capital punishment has been abolished. Opposition parties function openly and journalists may travel where they please, except in war zones under direct attack." [From: '83-'84 Oxfam America booklet: _Nicaragua: Development Under Fire_; send the 1-line message GET OXFAM84 NICARAG ACTIV-L to LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this report] ------------------------------------------------------------------ "In Nicaragua there is no systematic practice of forced `disappearance,' extrajudicial killings or torture --as has been the case with the `friendly' armed forces of El Salvador....nor has the government practiced elimination of cultural or ethnic groups, as the [Reagan] Administration frequently claims; indeed in this respect, as in most others, Nicaragua's record is by no means so bad as that of Guatemala, whose government the Administration consistently defends" [Americas Watch Report on Human Rights in Nicaragua, July 1985, page 3. A comparative study of Central American records on human rights can be found in the more comprehensive Americas Watch report _With Friends Like These_, edited by Cynthia Brown (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), chapter 4.] [Found in: _What Are We Afraid Of? An Assessment of the ``Communist Threat'' in Central America_ by John Lamperti, for the American Friends Service Committee (published also by South End Press) $5 plus $2 shipping from: Literature Resources // American Friends Service Committee // 1501 Cherry St. // Philadelphia, PA 19102 TEL (215)-241-7048 or 7167. See AML resource files AFSCcatalog and South.end.press.] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Americas Watch repoted that "Unlike several other Latin American government that have come under harsh criticism (though not from [the Reagan] administration), the [Nicaraguan government] has responded to human rights organizations with efforts to improve the situation... In early 1984, for example, the [Nicaraguan government] conducted several investigations of abuses in remote areas, which resulted in the prosecution and appropriate punishment of members of the security forces. In the most important of these cases, forty-four security agents and civilians were prosecuted fro several cases of murder, rape, theft, and other abuses that had taken place in a border region of Matagalpa and Jinotega. Thirteen of them received heavy sentences... In April 1984, an Army sub-lieutenant was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for raping a Miskito woman in the village of Lapan..." [35] Reagan's use of human rights as an instrument of warfare has mean portraying Nicaragua as the worst violator of human rights in Central America, when, even at its low point on the Atlantic Coast in 1982, the Nicaraguan human rights situation has been far better than in El Salvador (discussed earlier) and Guatemala [see ACTIV-L resource files on the mass-murder of these regimes --HB]. Guatemala state terrorism under General Romeo Luca Garcia was discusses in the previous chapter. During the dictatorial reign of General Efrain Rios Montt, from March 1982 to August 1983, thousands more Indians were massacred (Indians make up a majority of the Guatemalan population). Even the conservative Guatemalan newspaper, _El Grafico_, denounced the "genocidal annihilation that is taking place in the Indian zones of the country." Rios Montt spoke openly of his murderous policies, announcing on Guatemalan television that he had "declared a state of siege so that we could kill legally." ... After meeting Rios Montt on December 4, 1982, Reagan called him "a man of great personal integrity and commitment" who "want to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice" and is "totally dedicated to democracy" As for human rights criticism, Reagan said Rios Montt was getting a "bum rap." [35] Brown, ed., _With Friends Like These_, galleys, pp. 145-53 Washington's War on Nicaragua, by Holly Sklar 1988, South End Press, Boston [South End Press, 300 Raritan Center Parkway, Edison, NJ 08818] [For a free catalog: 1-800-533-8478; see AML resource files] ################################################################## ================================= Reagan Revisionism and Guatemala: ================================= Edward S Herman writes: "In a visit to Guatemala in December 1982, President Reagan declared that the then head-of-state, General Ri'os Montt, was a devoted democrat getting a "bum rap." This was only two months after Amnesty International released a report detailing the massacre of over 2,600 Indians and peasant farmers in at least 112 separate incidents earlier in the year. In one of its most illuminating reports ever, _Guatemala Revisited: How the Reagan Administration Finds ``Improvements'' in Human Rights in Guatemala_, Americas Watch pointed out that the administration had first found General Lucas Garci'a to be a caring leader, very concerned to avoid civilian casualties, but that after his overthrow by Ri'os Montt the administration suddenly found that Garci'a had been a butcher, but _now_ Guatemala was in the hands of real reformers! After Ri'os Montt was overthrown by General Meji'a Victores, the State Department once again expressed deep anguish at the murders under Ri'os Montt, now replaced by a _true_ democrat. This report, which tells us so much about the Reagan administration's devotion to democracy and human rights, was ignored by the mass media." [From: _Nicaragua: The Threat Of A Good Example_ [title based on a report by Oxfam America by teh same name; use GET command (see bottom) with the file FSLN ACHIEVE], CovertAction Information Bulletin, number 29, Winter 1987, by Edward S. Herman, prof., Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania] ################################################################## To fully appreciate the Orwellian inversion, enclosed below is the archived file LAT-AMER HMNRTS90 ; dramatic comparisons can be found also in FSLN MISKITOS ; the file ACTIV-L ARCHIVE is the main listing ================================= To get a file named ABC XYZ from the archiver (all file names are two words separated by a space), one sends the 1-line message GET ABC XYZ ACTIV-L to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET ================================= ################################################################## FILE ENCLOSED: ################################################################## [Send the 1-line message GET LAT-AMER HMNRTS90 ACTIV-L to] [LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for a copy of this file. ] --> [Send GET ACTIV-L ARCHIVE ACTIV-L to above address for a ] [listing with brief descriptions of other files available] Amnesty International 1990 Report ================================= Composed primarily of "country entries" for some 150 countries. Each country report is headed by a one or several paragraph summary in bold. These are reproduced in their entirety for selected countries below. [Four countries listed; later their identities revealed] Country A: ========= At least 60 government critics, many of them prisoners of conscience, were arrested and at least 33 of them remained in prison at the end of the year. The majority were sentenced to prison terms after trials which fell short of international standards of fairness. Some detainees were held for prolonged periods without access to defense lawyers before they were charged and brought to trial. Several political prisoners, including at least two prisoners of conscience who had been detained in earlier years, were released. Four senior military officials convicted of drug-trafficking and corruption were executed in July. It was not known whether any other executions took place. Country X: ========== Trade union leaders and prominent academics were among scores of civilians who allegedly "disappeared" or were killed by military personnel often acting in the guise of "death squads." Many were killed in bomb attacks and raids by the security forces on trade union and university premises. The authorities said they would investigate these abuses, but in most cases little action was taken to bring those responsible to justice. Throughout the year there were large-scale arrests of suspected government opponents, including church workers, students and trade unionists. Torture and ill-treatment were *routinely* used to extract "confessions" from political detainees. [Emphasis added] Country B: ========== Army troops reportedly killed at least 12 peasants suspected of collaborating with armed opposition groups in some of the zones affected by armed conflict. In March the government initiated investigations into some of these cases and others dating from earlier years. Some soldiers and security personnel found responsible for abuses were convicted and sentenced to prison by military courts. The government failed to clarify the whereabouts of several prisoners alleged to have "disappeared" in 1987 and 1988. Six prisoners of conscience or possible prisoners of conscience were released after appeal hearings by civilian courts or government pardons. In March the government pardoned and released 1,649 alleged former members of the National Guard of the previous government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle; they had been convicted by special courts, many of them for gross human rights abuses. The procedures of these courts had been subject to serious irregularities. Thirty-nine alleged former guardsmen were excluded from the pardon and continued to serve their sentences. The government continued to hold 1,268 other prisoners alleged to be members or supporters of the contras. Most had also been convicted by special courts whose procedures failed to guarantee a fair trial. These were *isolated* but serious reports of ill-treatments of prisoners. Country Y: The security forces and the "death squads" linked to them were reportedly implicated in *hundreds* of extrajudicial executions and "disappearances". When bodies were found they *often* bore marks of torture. People detained for short periods and the few survivors of unacknowledged kidnap-style arrests also reported having been tortured. Scores of real or suspected government opponents faced harassment and assault by the security forces, acting clandestinely or in uniform. [A=Cuba; X=El Salvador B=Nicaragua; deleted: "armed opposition groups KNOWN AS THE CONTRAS in some of the zones..." Y=Guatemala] [1990 report covers thru end of 1989, so Nicaragua under Sandinistas] ################################################################## Another entry: "Many hundreds of people, including judicial officials investigating human rights violations, were extrajudicially executed. Scores of other people ``disappeared'' after detention. Multiple killing of unarmed civilians, attributed to army personnel, police and paramilitary groups under army or police command, continued. The government failed to disband paramilitary organizations, despite its introduction of decree laws outlawing such forces. Independent investigations uncovered further evidence of links between the regular armed forces and paramilitary groups. At least four prisoners of conscience were detained and charged under special decree laws ostensibly introduced to combat common criminals. Torture of political detainees, some of whom were prisoners of conscience, continued to be reported. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Colombia is the country in question. ################################################################## GUATEMALA: REPORT ON ABUSE OF STREET CHILDREN BY SECURITY FORCES On Feb. 18, Deputy Mario Taracena Diaz-Sol, head of a congressional commission on the protection of minors, told reporters that street children are routinely arrested, tortured and murdered in clandestine prisons in Guatemala City by Mobile Military Police (PMA) and National Police agents. According to Taracena, an average of two children are tortured and killed every week. He added that Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are aware of the situation, but not Guatemalans. According to official statistics, there are 40,000 street children in Guatemala City alone. Most are the children of parents killed in the political violence of recent years. Taracena said that the disappearance of street children is a common occurrence. Corpses bearing signs of torture are discovered days later in isolated areas. Those who escape death are beaten and tortured. One torture technique is to pour flammable glue (the poor person's narcotic) on the victim's hands, and setting the mixture on fire. The result is severe burns. President Jorge Serrano recently signed the "international declaration on survival, protection and development of children," promoted by the UN Children's Fund. (UNICEF). (Basic data from EFE, 02/18/91) [Cited in: Latin America Data Base's _Central America Update_ PeaceNet address: "ladb" [ladb@igc.org or cdp!ladb@labrea.stanford.edu] [University of New Mexico, 801 Yale NE, Albuquerque NM USA 87131] ################################################################## As a last comparison with Cuba, the following is from Amnesty International's September/October 1990 issue of Amnesty Action (can be found in most libraries, I think) Be sure to read beyond the first two paragraphs. ################################################################## C h i l d r e n o f t h e S t r e e t s LIFE AND DEATH AMONG ___'S DISPOSABLE YOUTH Even by contemporary standards of outrage, anesthetized as we have become by years of stepping over or around the growing legions of homeless people that populate most of our cities, ___ can be unsettling. Children: sleeping, living, and dying in the streets, piled like cord wood in doorways, digging through refuse for food, half dressed in a grab bag assortment of rags. They eke out a Dickensian existence on the fringes of ___ society: working, begging, pickpocketing, acting as couriers for the ubiquitous drug trade. But an even more disturbing trend is causing deep concern among ___ civil libertarians and has Attracted the attention of Amnesty International. More and more frequently these dispossesed children are becoming the targets of death squad violence. Research conducted recently by the ___, in cooperation with the National Street Children's Movement, has concluded that increasing numbers of street children are dying violently at the hand of ___ law enforcement officials engaged in a macabre ``street cleaning'' campaign. The study analyzed press reports of 624 violent killing of children in ___ during the 18 months leading up to July 1989. In 21 percent of the cases surveyed -- some 130 children -- the killings had been attributed to death squads. ___ human rights organizations believe that at least one child a day is killed by death squads. "The [government is] in effect, condoning this violence and encouraging the police to act as if they are above the law by not clamping down on the torturers and killers," Amnesty Internation said in releasing its own repot, _Torture and Extrajudicial Execution in --- --- _ [...] Police in __, ___, and ___ have admitted that many of the death squads are run by or made up of off-duty policemen (*) In fact, in April 1989 the ___ police department admitted that half the city's identified death squad members are policemen. [ (*) Send the 1-line message GET AI_REPT ELSALV ACTIV-L to LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET for Amnesty's findings that the so-called "death squads" in the more heavily backed country of El Salvador, are in fact run by the army, among other revelations --HB] "As more children are forced onto the streets to help support their families or to fend for themselves, they become increasingly vulnerable to abuse by law enforcement officials," says Amnesty International - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [Blanks: BRAZIL'S ; Rio de Janeiro ; Brazilian ; Brazilian ; Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Research ; Brazilian ; 15 Brazilian states ; Brazilian ; [Brazilian state governments are] _Torture and Extrajudicial Execution in Urban Brazil_ "Police in Rio de Janeiro, Recife, and Manaus" "In fact, in 11989 the Rio de Janeiro police department admitted..." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - An estimated seven million children currently live and work on Brazilian streets. Gilberto Girao "Beto" was one of them. He was 16 years old when he was killed. Beto worked as a shoeshine boy in Duque de Caxias and has lived on the streets since he was four. He was well known in the community to both church and social workers and the police. In April 1988 police picked up the youth for an undetermined offense and took him to the 59th police precinct where he was detained among the adult prison population in direct contravention of Brazilian juvenile offenders law. When social workers intervened on the teenager's behalf a local police chief reportedly told them: "I don't have time to waste on defenders of downs and outs." But the social workers were able to gain the intervention of a local judge who ordered the boy transferred to the State Foundation for the Welfare of Minors. When they returned to the police station to pick the boy up, the police chief issued an ominous warning. "You may have got him out of jail," he said. "But you can't save his life." [Photo: "A five-year-old girl gets a ``mug shot'' "] The boy escaped from the welfare institution weeks later and on September 4, 1988 his bullet-riddled body was found under a bridge at Duque de Caxias. In July 1989 14-year-old Marcelo Moreira Pacheco was abducted and tortured when he tried to report the kidnapping of his 13-year-old friend to the military police. Andre Leota had disappeared the previous day when two boys were assaulted by three unidentified men. Andre tried to escape the assault on a skateboard, but never returned home. The next day, as Marcelo awaited news of his friend's disappearance with Andre's family, a military police patrol arrived. [Photo: [Children]: "Searching for food in a Sao Paulo garbage dump"]] They asked Marcelo to accompany them on a tour of the area where he said the assault had taken place. But as the group drove around the police began to question the boy in a threatening manner. Finally they arrived at a remote hut on the fringe of the shantytown. They dragged the boy inside and began torturing him. Marcelo would later testify that the police took out an electric generator, applied wires to his fingers and anus, and turned on the power. They bundled him back into the car and rove him around again, handcuffed with his legs and feet bound together. The ordeal continued for 12 hours, the police requently returning to the hut. At time another police car joined in the strange convoy with the policemen in the second car also taking part in the intermittent torture sessions. The boy was released in the morning. His friend was found shot dead the next day, his body severely bruised from an apparent beating. In fact, street children are regularly picked up by the police. Beatings are routine. On September 1989 municipal social workers condemned the existence of a house in a wealthy neighborhood of Rio where street children were allegedly regularly taken and tortured. "Most of the police take us there when they pick us up," a 12-year-old boy told the social workers. In June 1990 the Brazilian press reported that more than 20 minors were being held in the Campo Grande maximum security prison in Mato Grosso do Sul "for the pleasure" of the guards. Amnesty International has compiled the testimonies of several street children who have alleged torture at the hands o the Brazilian police ... "I am 10 years old," one child testified. "I sleep in a shopping center. Every day and night around midnight, the military police come and take us inside. They hit us, make us eat cockroaches and feces. They throw hot water on us, beat us with truncheons." Another child, 14: "I have been detained many times...they burn us with cigarettes, beat us with truncheons, on the head and hands." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Amnesty International charged that, while may individual state officials, judges, and police officials deplore such abuses, the authorities, overall, have generally failed to take action to prevent them ################################################################## ============================================= T h e " N i c a r a g u a L i b r a r y " ============================================= * * ========= * Nicaragua * ========= * CONTRA TERROR Contras' origins; make-up; practices - documented FSLN H-RIGHTS Documented HRs comparison w/Somoza,Guat,ES,others FSLN MISKITOS Sandinista treatment of Miskitos;Charges & Realit FSLN NICAJEWS Debunks charges of Sandinista 'Anti-Semitism' * OXFAM84 NICARAG Oxfam America's 1984 report on Nicaragua, in full FSLN ACHIEVE Documented: achievements of the Nica. revolution * NICA-84 ELECTION Documented: Fair under Sandinistas; US subversion FAIRNESS NICA-USA Flwup:`Is Nicaragua More Democratic than the US?' NICRAGUA ELECTION Study in US subversion of '90 Nicaraguan election NOTE: ====================================== To get a file named FILE NAME from the archiver (files are two words separa- ted by a space), send the 1-line message GET FILE NAME ACTIV-L to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET ====================================== ################################################################## ############################################################### # Harel Barzilai for Activists Mailing List (AML) # ################################################################ { For more info about ACTIV-L or PeaceNet's brochure send } { inquiries to harel@dartmouth.edu / mathrich@umcvmb.bitnet } To join AML, just send the 1-line message "SUB ACTIV-L " to: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.BITNET; you should receive a confirmation message within 2 days. Alternate address: LISTSERV@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU Qs/problems: Rich Winkel, MATHRICH@UMCVMB.["MISSOURI.EDU" or "BITNET"]