Aliados

Last Wednesday, the Fujimori trial got off to a dramatic start as Cesar Nakasaki, Fujimori’s defense attorney, and Ronald Gamarra, an attorney for the family members of Fujimori’s victims, debated the admissibility of an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court from George Washington University’s International Human Rights Clinic. The debate, which lasted more than two and a half hours, provoked passionate arguments from both sides on an issue that apparently had very little precedence in Peruvian jurisprudence.

Nakasaki, who claimed he had no objection to amicus curiae in general, challenged GWU’s brief because he said it was too closely aligned with the arguments and conclusions of the prosecution. According to Nakasaki, only the court has the ability to request amicus briefs from third parties in order to clear up an issue that is beyond the court's competency. To the contrary, Nakasaki argued, the admission of a partisan amicus brief would tilt the scales of justice to one side, in this case the prosecution, and compromise the impartiality of the tribunal.

Gamarra responded that amicus briefs, in the true spirit of democracy, provide a mechanism for third party actors to take part in the judicial process and communicate to the tribunal the impact of an eventual ruling. Moreover, Gamarra thanked the court for the opportunity to debate the brief’s admissibility but said that the court itself was ultimately responsible for accepting, or not, the conclusions of an amicus brief, making the question of admissibility irrelevant.

Nakasaki, who debated with a flare greater than the substance of his arguments, seemed to lose out to Gamarra’s more prosaic reasoning. In this way, the morning’s debate represented the trial in a nutshell: Nakasaki is a wily defense lawyer and an unquestionably accomplished orator, but he is bedeviled by a weak case. If the argument over the admissibility of GWU’s brief did not sufficiently demonstrate this, the afternoon’s witness, General Juan Briones Dávila, Fujimori’s former Minister of the Interior, certainly proved the point.

Briones, called as a witness for the defense, asserted that Fujimori did not give orders to the members of his cabinet like a general might do to his subordinates in the military. Rather, Briones claimed that Fujimori gave broad directives to his cabinet ministers, who then determined the optimal strategies and tactics to carry them out. As a result, his testimony nicely insulated the former dictator from the organization of the Grupo Colina death squad and the planning of their ghastly crimes.

However, under cross-examination, Briones’s credibility completely collapsed. As Minister of the Interior, he oversaw the operations of the National Police, which investigated the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta Massacres. In spite of that, he repeatedly said that he never inquired about or was ever briefed on Colina’s role in the two atrocities. According to Briones, he continued to believe that the crimes had been committed by terrorist groups within the country, despite the fact that Colina’s involvement was popularly known and widely reported in the press from 1993 on.

There can only be two possible explanations for Briones’s ignorance about Colina: 1) he was completely incompetent as Minister of the Interior, or 2) he was lying to protect his former boss. Earlier in his testimony, he had proudly stated that he served longer in Fujimori’s cabinet than any other minister, undermining the incompetence theory. For 5 years and 5 months, he said, he had served at the pleasure of the President. Given the nature of his testimony on Wednesday, it appears that he still does.

--Hayden Gore

Friday, August 22 7:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.
Jean Runyon Theater
1515 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

Aliados Con Amnesty International presents "Arriésgate – A Concert for the Women of Juárez, México". Enjoy an evening of Activism and Music with promising artist Lysa Flores with Special Guests Marco Renteria and Fred Ortiz, The Generals, Dos Tierras, Kavarzee, DJ Lil David, and Bubb C featuring Baby Huey. We will raise awareness and demand justice for the Murdered Women of Juarez, Mexico through music and activism.

Since 1993, almost 430 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, México. It is now almost 16 years since the brutal cycle of the abductions and murders of young women began in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua. Over the last few years there has been intense national and international pressure to stop violent crimes against women and to end the impunity with which these crimes have been committed.
In 2008 at least 17 women have been murdered.

Aliados con Amnesty Network invites you to attend this concert benefit at Jean Runyon Theater in Sacramento, CA - Admission $15

Premiering in Northern CA will be Amnesty International's Mujeres de Juarez photo exhibit.

map »

Enjoy an evening of Activism and Music, with promising artists!

For more information, please contact: Aliados Con Amnesty Network - aliados@aiusa.org - volunatarios@aiusa.org

Today, the International Court of Justice (aka the World Court) issued an order calling for the US to take "all measures necessary" to stay the execution of Jose Medellin and four other Mexican nationals in danger of being put to death in the near future.  In its 2004 judgment, the World Court had held that these cases must receive meaningful and effective review on the question of the right to consular assistance.  To date, no such reviews have taken place.  Jose Medellin is scheduled for execution in Texas on August 5.

This call for execution stays stems from a long-running dispute between Mexico and the US over the fact that Mexican nationals have often been sentenced to death in the US despite not having been informed of their right to seek assistance from Mexican consular officials.  The US is obligated by Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) to inform foreign nationals of this right. 

Jose Medellin was not informed of this right when he was arrested. (Few Mexican nationals on death row have been.) Texas officials acknowledge as much, but appeals courts have ruled that this treaty right cannot be invoked because Medellin never raised the issue during his original trial or sentencing. On March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that this procedural bar trumped US obligations under the Vienna Convention, arguing that Congress had to pass implementing legislation before the VCCR could be enforceable domestically. 

As Amnesty International noted in its report on March 27: "The Supreme Court has effectively passed the buck to the other branches of government to act to ensure that the USA meets its international obligations."

So what happens next?  Will Texas respect the World Court's decision and stay the execution of Jose Medellin?  Will Congress eventually pass legislation implementing the VCCR so that the US can honor a treaty it has already signed?

Well, on July 14, Congress introduced the "Avena Case Implementation Act of 2008" which would allow Federal courts to hear the Vienna Convention claims of foreign nationals who were not advised of their consular rights.  This legislation has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. 

Brian

DPAC

 Lima, Peru--On Wednesday, July 16th, the Denver Justice & Peace Committee's human rights delegation attended the trial of ex-President Alberto Fujimori during the testimony of General Nicolás Hermoza Ríos, the powerful ex-Commander General of the Armed Forces during the Fujimori regime.

In his testimony, Hermoza Ríos dismissed the prosecution's suggestion that human rights violations--in particular torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings-- formed a fundamental part of the military's counterinsurgency strategy. He insisted that the military's primary objective in the fight against the Shining Path and the MRTA was to win over the population and that massive human rights violations were antithetical to that goal.

Furthermore, he denied that the doctrine for military intelligence had changed in the early 1990s from an exclusive focus on intelligence gathering to one that included the "elimination of subversives". In reponse, the prosecution asked him to read from the military's 1991 anti-subversion operational handbook, which clearly detailed the new mission: "prevent, detect, locate, identify, neutralize, and/or eliminate subversive leaders." Interestingly, Hermoza Ríos skipped over "and/or eliminate" in his reading. The court promptly corrected his omission, saying that he had received a blurry copy of the manual.

The general then explained that "in a war, eliminate does not mean 'to kill people.'" Rather, he said eliminate meant "remove the subversives from their context" so that a compotent tribunal could charge them for their crimes. 

Asked whether military intelligence had committed excesses while implementing this strategy, he said that war itself was an excess and added somewhat disingenuously that he hoped "one day war would be unnecessary" and that we could "solve all our problems through diplomacy."

Military intelligence officers executed 25 people in the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta Massacres for which Fujimori stands trial. Hermoza Ríos is currently serving out a prison sentence for corruption and embezzzlement; he will faces charges for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta Massacres this fall.

--Photos by Jonathan Moller, text by Hayden Gore

Lima, Peru--On July 18, 1992 agents from a secret detachment of military intelligence officers, known as the Colina death squad, entered the La Cantuta University campus in a midnight raid and abducted 10 supposed "terrorist subversives"--9 university students and a university professor. The death squad agents loaded the captives into two 4x4 vehicles registered to the Ministry of Defense, took them to a field off of the highway on the outskirts of Lima, and murdered them execution style. In an effort to conceal the crime, the death squad members buried them in a shallow grave and covered their bodies with lime, a caustic substance famous among the Colina agents for "eating the flesh" of their victims.

Still nervous that the hasty execution and burial had left incriminating evidence of the massacre, the Colina agents twice returned to the scene of the crime: once to rebury their victims and a second time to disinter their remains, incinerate their bodies, and deposit their ashes in two pits dug from the desert moonscape of Lima's surrounding foothills.

Now, this Fiday, 16 years to the day of their disappearance, the remains of the La Cantuta victims will finally return home for burial from a forensic laboratory in France, where they have undegone extensive analysis as evidence in the prosecution of Alberto Fujimori, Peru's ex-president and former dictator who stands trial as a principal architect of Colina and an enthusiastic enabler of its murderous heyday.

From July 15 to 24, an 11-member delegation from the Denver Justice & Peace Committee will participate in the Fujimori trial as international observers and attend the funeral services for the La Cantuta victims at the invitation of their family members, who have fought tirelessly and heroically to bring their loved ones' perpetrators to justice for the horrific crimes committed against them.

Under international law, widespread and systematic human rights violation, such as those committed by the Fujimori regime, constitute crimes against all of humanity, not just a single individal, community, or even nation. In offering our solidarity and accompaniment to the La Cantuta family members, we aspire to give purposeful meaning to this important legal principle and send a clear message to the Peruvian government--indeed to all governments, including our own--that the practice of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture will never again be tolerated or excused as isolated incidents against anonymous, faceless victims.

When crimes against humanity occur, they imperil the rights and security of everyone. Their impact is universal. In adding our voices to the clamor for justice in Peru, we hope to demonstrate that the condemnation of mass violence is equally widespread.

--Photos by Jonathan Moller, text by Hayden Gore

(Photos taken at the 16th annual commemoration of the La Cantuta Massacre--Universidad Nacional de Educación Enrique Guzmán y Valle, "La Cantuta University". July 18, 1992.)

This is a copy of the article taken from the Newspaper Tree, the original article can be found at  http://www.newspapertree.com/features/2645-skulls-and-faces-investigations-and-the-pursuit-of-justice-for-women-in-juarez

Skulls and faces: Investigations and the pursuit of justice for women in Juarez

by Kent Paterson

After weeks in Ciudad Juarez, Bender, there to help identify victims, came to a disturbing conclusion: Chihuahua state police officers, the same public servants charged with solving the women's murders, were likely behind numerous rapes and killings.

Frank Bender once slept with the skulls of murdered women in the comfy quarters of Ciudad Juarez's Hotel Lucerna. An expert forensic artist with an international reputation for solving cold murder cases, Bender was under contract with the Chihuahua state government to reconstruct and paint the faces of anonymous female murder victims.

"I started imagining these women alive," Bender said of the skulls during a recent phone interview. "They almost started interacting to me like they were on a metro together on their way to work in the morning. They started like getting a life of their own at that point."

Invited by his friend Robert Ressler, the famed FBI serial killer profiler, Bender touched down on Mexican territory at a forensic sciences conference held in Chihuahua City in August 2003. There Bender met Jesus Jose "Chito" Solis Silva, Chihuahua's state attorney general at the time, who in turn introduced the U.S. artist to then-Gov. Patricio Martinez. A surprised Bender was asked by Martinez to come to Chihuahua to help identify femicide victims.

After some haggling, during the fall of 2003 Bender was put up in the Hotel Lucerna on Ciudad Juarez's Paseo del Triunfo de la Republica and given five skulls to work on by the Chihuahua State Attorney General's Office (PGJE), the agency in charge of investigating and solving the femicides.

Bender's Ciudad Juarez experiences are recounted in his biography, "The Girl with the Crooked Nose," written by New York City-based author Ted Botha and published by Random House. Although the book chronicles Bender's life and work in the United States, and details the veteran artist's key role in successfully indentifying murder victims and in capturing elusive fugitives, a good portion of the story deals with Ciudad Juarez.

Bender's background as a budding child artist, creative adult photographer and an astute observer of the human species made the American a promising pick for the Ciudad Juarez probe despite his lack of familiarity with Mexico and the Spanish language, according to author Botha.

To guide his work, Bender studied women he saw in Ciudad Juarez's streets -- their hair styles, make-up, skin tones and other defining traits that would assist him, in his own words, with harmonizing the face with the skull. "It's like music or dance," he said. "You get one note wrong or one step wrong, you can feel it, you can see it and you can change it to go with the flow of the others."

The Philadelphia resident had no idea what he was stepping into across the Rio Grande. Practicing a difficult trade even under the best of circumstances, Bender underwent a rude awakening in Ciudad Juarez. He soon stumbled across a Mexican police "investigation" in which recovered male and female body parts were mixed and important files missing. He even later compared the insecure evidence room in the old state police academy with a "pig sty." The building had been burgled and files stolen after Ressler was brought on the scene by Chihuahua state authorities in 1998, Bender learned.

Bender's impressions of the state of the femicide investigation were made long after former Women's Homicides Special Prosecutor Suly Ponce assured reporters that the PGJE had cleaned up its much-assailed act.

While he was in Ciudad Juarez, Bender worked closely with the PGJE's Manuel Esparza Navarette, another ex- special prosecutor who also served as the state law enforcement agency's liaison to the FBI and acted as media spokesman. Esparza was eventually named by former federal Special Prosecutor Maria Lopez Urbina as among numerous Chihuahua law enforcement officials who had been remiss in the femicide investigations.

Bender hit it off well with the English language-fluent Esparza, but the U.S. contractor quickly grew alarmed by inconsistencies and strange happenings that marked his first Ciudad Juarez stay. Early on, for example, Bender learned that the PGJE openly called supporters of victims' relatives like Amnesty International "the enemy."

Unknown to Bender as he painted evenings away with the skulls, the state police night shift commander in Ciudad Juarez, Miguel Loya, and other officers employed by the PGJE were at the height of their alleged involvement in the infamous "House of Death" ring that kidnapped and executed victims -- mainly men but reportedly a woman and a child as well -- for the Juarez drug cartel.

One evening, Bender and Ed Barnes, a reporter for Fox News, were taken by PGJE personnel to a restaurant for a dinner that turned into a vomit-filled stupor. Bender charged he and his globe-trotting buddy were drugged by an unknown sedative likely slipped into the two men's margaritas.

The incident happened at the especially sensitive moment for the Mexican government. A U.S. Congressional delegation led by Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) was in town, touring
places where women's bodies had been dumped and speaking to residents. Much to the reported dismay of Chito Solis, Barnes, meanwhile, was attempting to interview the mothers of femicide victims. In at least two instances, Barnes was informed by mothers that policemen were implicated in their daughters' disappearances.

After weeks in Ciudad Juarez, Bender came to a disturbing conclusion: Chihuahua state police officers, the same public servants charged with solving the women's murders, were likely behind numerous rapes and killings.

Bender based his hypothesis on conversations with Chihuahua state policemen who revealed to him sex parties attended by fellow officers. He heard how a couple parties were raided by Chihuahua state cops who did not know "their own people were there." No legal action resulted against the policemen, Bender said, adding the sex parties could have been initiation rites for soldiers and policemen into the ranks of organized crime.

"You got to prove yourself to work for these people," Bender contended. "So they have these wild parties and rape and kill a woman and then earn their keep in the cartel."

Bender's hypothesis has a lot in common with one propounded by Brazilian anthropologist and organized crime expert Rita Laura Segato, who observed territorial marking, cryptic messaging and criminal in-group bonding in the Ciudad Juarez femicides.

If Bender and Segato are on target, their theories could provide clues to why the bodies of murdered women were found planted near the former state police academy in Ciudad Juarez as well as in the vicinity of the Chihuahua state police headquarters outside Chihuahua City. Most recently, a murdered woman was found near the PGJE's Ciudad Juarez offices after Mother's Day this year.

Bender's sex party revelations are not entirely new. El Paso author Diana Washington Valdez and Mexico City writer Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez both have reported about the existence of such orgies in the past. But coming from an insider, Bender's information adds extra credence to an aborted line of investigation.

It could also help explain the now seemingly-forgotten Hector Lastra affair of 2004, a scandal which erupted when the official in charge of screening murder investigations for the PGJE was arrested for running a teenage prostitution ring that allegedly catered to prominent businessmen. Lastra was released on bail and disappeared from public view.

In a 2006 interview, Guadalupe Morfin, who was winding up her stint as President Vicente Fox's special anti-violence commissioner for Ciudad Juarez, said she considered Lastra affair a critical lead that needed to be thoroughly investigated. Morfin was appointed a federal special prosecutor for crimes against women and human trafficking by the Calderon administration earlier this year, but it remains to be seen if the Lastra affair will be revisited in any meaningful way. According to the Mexico City-based Cimac news service, Morfin's new mandate excludes cases defined as falling under the rubric of "organized crime."

In his biography, Bender raises questions about the role of a U.S. citizen, Stephen L. Slater, in the femicide probe. A former New Mexico state policeman and an ex-director of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, Slater had enjoyed a long relationship with Chihuahua Gov. Martinez dating back to the early 1990s. Serving as a public safety advisor for the Mexican politician, Slater was asked by Gov. Martinez to take over the femicide investigation in 2003.

Bender calls Slater "the mystery man," whom he never saw in his office.
Contacted by phone, Slater defended his work and the efforts of Chihuahua state policemen under his direction. Acknowledging he "called the shots" in the femicide investigation for several months in 2003, Slater said he was sensitive of his role as a U.S. citizen in a Mexican law enforcement issue, especially one which was receiving growing international scrutiny. Consequently, Slater tried to keep as low a profile as possible, he said.

According to the veteran ex-cop, he pulled out all the stops to get to the bottom of the femicides. For this reason, Slater enlisted the aid of Ressler and Bender, among others.

"We did our very best, I swear we did," Slater insisted. "I've spent a lot of time in my life thinking about the homicides." Now retired, Slater said the probe was making some headway before cases suddenly got "cold" or were taken out of his hands. Deciding he could make no further progress, Slater resigned and moved back to the U.S.

Bender also left Ciudad Juarez with a bitter after-taste in his mouth. Looking back, he said the professional disarray he encountered was no accident, but a system of "chaos by design" to protect the criminally powerful.

The 67-year-old artist decided he at least accomplished something positive during multiple trips: his facial reconstructions led to the identifications of three victims, he added, making the tense work worth all the trouble and danger. Especially inspiring for the American, were the ordinary women who recognized Bender from news photos and approached him in restaurants to say they were praying his work would help solve the femicides.

"It was so genuine, so from the women's hearts, I could not refuse. I mean, I could not wait to get back," Bender remembered. Asked if he would return to Ciudad Juarez to help identify other unidentified femicide victims, Bender replied with a resounding, "Yes!"

If the forensic sculptor and artist were to return to Ciudad Juarez today, he would find a city even more violent than the one he experienced during 2003-2004. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 600 people have been murdered, including at least 31 women, according to local press accounts. Women and young girls have been slain in gangland-style shootings, in acts of domestic violence and in sexual assaults.

In many ways, though, not much has changed at all in the border city. Illegal drugs flow through the neighborhoods, posters of the latest missing young woman haunt downtown and the PGJE is still in charge of a growing stack of unsolved murder cases that, with each passing year, could expire under the statute of limitations.

Biographer Botha has his own take on Bender's involvement in the Ciudad Juarez saga. Botha compares Bender to a hapless actor who walks onto a big, mean stage unprepared for the cruel drama others have cooked up. "But you know, he had this indomitable spirit and this naivete, and this kind of dedication to solving a crime if he could," Botha said. "He kind of blundered in there and did what he had to."

The Ciudad Juarez experience left an indelible mark on Bender's spirit. On the artist's website, watercolors of foreboding shadowy scenes and haunting pink crosses give the viewer a taste of Bender's memories of Ciudad Juarez.

Porque estoy una interna con Amnistía Internacional, yo tengo la oportunidad, todos los días, a participar de primera mano en acciones que confrontan muchos violaciones de derechos humanos, mundial. Esta semana pasada, sin embargo, demostró a estar el más grande empeño, cuando yo participe en el proyecto de arte aéreo global de Amnistía Internacional. Protestando el fallo de China a mejorar su ficha de derechos humanos, Washington DC y casi treinta otros lugares colaboraron juntos (para un record mundial!) a expresar condena internacional, por miles de voluntarios se acostando juntos a llevar gran símbolos de paz.

Llevando uniformemente camisetas blancas y pantalones pálidos, prácticamente todos en trabajo movilizaron en un campo herboso al lado de edificio nuestro, durante el día del evento. Nuestro proyecto fue a crear la palabra "libre," y también con un círculo que bordeo la periferia, mientras un fotógrafo sacó fotos arriba el edificio. Yo estuve un pedazo del círculo, acostando sobre mi lado al pie de la persona próximo, formando una curva sobre el césped seco y abrasivo. Fue asombroso a mí como rápidamente y fácilmente nosotros podíamos terminar el trabajo, pero cuando todos de los fotos han sacados, como innegablemente fuerte nuestro voz unificado seremos, contra China y sus violaciones de derechos humanos. Verdaderamente, esta prueba física de trabajo equipo internacional no puede estar ignorado, especialmente con la nación de China antes del mucho adelantado Olimpiadas.

-Aimee Bushman

Bilingual Campaign Intern

As an intern for Amnesty International, I have the opportunity everyday to participate firsthand in actions that confront the many human rights violations worldwide. This past week, however, proved to be the most attention grabbing, when I took part in Amnesty International's global aerial art project. Protesting China's failure to improve their human rights record, Washington DC and around thirty other locations collaborated together (for a world record!) to voice international disapproval, achieved through thousands of volunteers laying down together to convey massive symbols for peace.

Dressed uniformly in white t-shirts and light-colored pants, practically everyone at work mobilized in a grassy field outside of our building on the day of the event.  Our project was to create the word "Free," along with a massive circle bordering the periphery, while a photographer stood on the roof of the building for the perfect shot. I was a piece of the circle, lying on my side with my head to the foot of the next person, curving just a bit on the dry, scratchy grass. It was amazing to me how quickly and easily it took to get the job done, and yet once all of the photos have been taken in all locations, how undeniably strong our unified voice will be against Chinese human rights violations. Truly, such physical proof of international teamwork cannot be ignored, especially by the Chinese nation in the wake of the much anticipated summer Olympics.

-Aimee Bushman

Bilingual Campaign Intern

Hola Aliados:

It's not too late to sign up to attend the 3rd annual National Latino Congreso!

Since 2006, the National Latino Congreso has brought together Latinos from all walks of life -- from grassroots community members to national elected officials -- to create a united Latino agenda on a variety of issues.

This will be the third consecutive year, since the National Latino Congreso's inception, that Aliados con Amnesty will attend.

This year the Congresso will be held on July 18 and July 19 in downtown LA (Westin Bonaventure and LA Sheraton Hotel) . 

Please join us by signing up at: voluntarios@aiusa.org

Thank you!

http://www.amnestyusa.org/aliados

http://www.latinocongreso.org

Lima, Peru--On July 18, 1992 agents from a secret detachment of military intelligence officers, known as the Colina death squad, entered the La Cantuta University campus in a midnight raid and abducted 9 university students and a university professor. The death squad agents loaded the 10 captives into two 4x4 vehicles registered to the Ministry of Defense, took them to a field off of the highway on the outskirts of Lima, and murdered them execution style. In an effort to conceal the crime, the death squad members buried them in a shallow grave and covered their bodies with lime, a caustic substance famous among the Colina agents for "eating the flesh" of their victims.

Still nervous that the hasty execution and burial had left incriminating evidence of the massacre, the Colina agents twice returned to the scene of the crime: once to rebury their victims and a second time to disinter their remains, incinerate their bodies, and deposit their ashes in two pits dug from the desert moonscape of Lima's surrounding foothills.

Now, this Fiday, 16 years to the day of their disappearance, the remains of the La Cantuta victims will finally return home for burial from a forensic laboratory in France, where they have undegone extensive analysis as evidence in the prosecution of Alberto Fujimori, Peru's ex-president and former dictator who stands trial as a principal architect of Colina and an enthusiatsic enabler of its murderous heyday.

From July 15 to 24, an 11-member delegation from the Denver Justice & Peace Committee will participate in the Fujimori trial as international observers and attend the funeral services for the La Cantuta victims at the invitation of their family members, who have fought tirelessly and heroically to bring their loved ones' perpetrators to justice for the horrific crimes committed against them.

Under international law, widespread and systematic human rights violation, such as those committed by the Fujimori regime, constitute crimes against all of humanity, not just a single individal, community, or even nation. In offering our solidarity and accompaniment to the La Cantuta family members, we hope to give purposeful meaning to this important legal principle and send a clear message to the Peruvian government--indeed to all governments, including our own--that the practice of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture will never again be tolerated or excused as an isolated incident against an anonymous, faceless victim.

When crimes against humanity occur, they naturally imperil the rights and security of everyone. Their impact is widespread.

--Hayden Gore

Ex-Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is currently on trial for human rights violations committed during his repressive decade in power in the 1990s. In the following video blog, I provide an analysis of the Barrios Altos Massacre--one of the two massacres for which Fujimori stands accused--using the testimony of the Grupo Colina death squad members to reconstruct the crime.

--Hayden Gore