Violence in Latin America and the Alien Tort Claims Act
"One must not love oneself so much, as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life that history demands of us, and those that fend off danger will lose their lives." These words were pronouced by the Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in his last homily before he was assassinated in the church by a sharpshooter, on March 24, 1980. Romero was one of the few clergy actively campainging against the right-wing governmental and paramilitary violence and pleaded with President Jimmy Carter to cease US financial and military aid used directly to repress the people of El Salvador: the U.S. sent $1.5 million in aid every day for 12 years and many military officers were trained in Fort Benning in Georgia, USA. ('School of the Americas').
The year Romero was assasinated, 1980, the violence claimed the lives of 3,000 per month, with cadavers clogging the streams, and tortured bodies thrown in garbage dumps and the streets of the capitol weekly. Over 75,00 Salvadorans would be killed during the civil war, one million would flee the country, another million left homeless, constantly on the run from the army—and this in a country of only 5.5 million.
In 1993, the UN Truth Commission found Roberto d'Aubuisson, Death Squad Leader and founder of the right wing ARENA Party and his associate Alvaro Saraiva responsible for Romero's murder. Saraiva ontained the assassin's gun, arranged for his transportation to the chapel, and paid him afterward. The then government of El Salvador passed, in response, an amnesty law that rendered this and any other ruling void. d'Aubuisson died in 1992, but Saraiva is alive and living in California. Declassified State Department and CIA documents reveal the government was aware of Romero's involvement on Romero's murder as early as May 1980. And yet, this murderer was living peacefully in the USA.
In an odd twist, he was recently convicted of liability in Romero's murder by a Federal judge in Californian, who ruled he must pay USD$10 million to Romero's family. The ruling was possible because of the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreign citizens to to sue in civil cases people living in American courts.
The case was brought to court by the human rights group Center for Justice and Accountability, on behalf of a relative of Romero's. Saraiva went into hiding and was tried in absentia.
The Alien Tort Claims Act, an ancient law passed to protect victims of piracy and ensure that the US would not become a haven for pirates. In 1979 torture was a violation of the “law of nations.” So, the father and sister of Joel Filartiga, a seventeen-year-old who had been tortured to death in Paraguay, used the act against Joel’s torturer, who was living in Brooklyn at the time. Since then the law has been used only 25 times, largely to human rights abusers pay for their actions. Among the accused under the ATCA are Robert Mugabe and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. ATCA has also been used against corporation, such as the energy company UNOCAL accused by Burmese workers. The Bush Admnistration has struggled to limit the use of ATCA. In late June, the Supreme Court, unanimously ruled in the against the Justice Department and affirmed the aplicability of the law in the case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain against the Justice Department and affirmed the aplicability of the law in human rights cases. (Humberto Alvarez-Machain, a Mexican doctor, was kidnapped from Mexico to stand court in the US. He was acquitted.)
On Sept 6th, the Colombian attorney general's office said that Colombian soldiers assassinated three union leaders last month. This contrasts with the army's earlier contention that the three men were Marxist rebels killed in a firefight.
The year Romero was assasinated, 1980, the violence claimed the lives of 3,000 per month, with cadavers clogging the streams, and tortured bodies thrown in garbage dumps and the streets of the capitol weekly. Over 75,00 Salvadorans would be killed during the civil war, one million would flee the country, another million left homeless, constantly on the run from the army—and this in a country of only 5.5 million.
In 1993, the UN Truth Commission found Roberto d'Aubuisson, Death Squad Leader and founder of the right wing ARENA Party and his associate Alvaro Saraiva responsible for Romero's murder. Saraiva ontained the assassin's gun, arranged for his transportation to the chapel, and paid him afterward. The then government of El Salvador passed, in response, an amnesty law that rendered this and any other ruling void. d'Aubuisson died in 1992, but Saraiva is alive and living in California. Declassified State Department and CIA documents reveal the government was aware of Romero's involvement on Romero's murder as early as May 1980. And yet, this murderer was living peacefully in the USA.
In an odd twist, he was recently convicted of liability in Romero's murder by a Federal judge in Californian, who ruled he must pay USD$10 million to Romero's family. The ruling was possible because of the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreign citizens to to sue in civil cases people living in American courts.
The case was brought to court by the human rights group Center for Justice and Accountability, on behalf of a relative of Romero's. Saraiva went into hiding and was tried in absentia.
The Alien Tort Claims Act, an ancient law passed to protect victims of piracy and ensure that the US would not become a haven for pirates. In 1979 torture was a violation of the “law of nations.” So, the father and sister of Joel Filartiga, a seventeen-year-old who had been tortured to death in Paraguay, used the act against Joel’s torturer, who was living in Brooklyn at the time. Since then the law has been used only 25 times, largely to human rights abusers pay for their actions. Among the accused under the ATCA are Robert Mugabe and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. ATCA has also been used against corporation, such as the energy company UNOCAL accused by Burmese workers. The Bush Admnistration has struggled to limit the use of ATCA. In late June, the Supreme Court, unanimously ruled in the against the Justice Department and affirmed the aplicability of the law in the case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain against the Justice Department and affirmed the aplicability of the law in human rights cases. (Humberto Alvarez-Machain, a Mexican doctor, was kidnapped from Mexico to stand court in the US. He was acquitted.)
On Sept 6th, the Colombian attorney general's office said that Colombian soldiers assassinated three union leaders last month. This contrasts with the army's earlier contention that the three men were Marxist rebels killed in a firefight.
"Colombia is by far the world's most dangerous country for union members,
with 94 killed last year and 47 slain by Aug. 25 this year, according to the
National Union School, a research and educational center in Medellín. Most of
those killings were by right-wing paramilitary leaders linked to rogue army
units. Worldwide, 123 union members were slain last year, according to the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, a Brussels-based group. "
Juan Forero, NYTimes (Sept/8/04)
United Steel workers union have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal. The suit alleges that Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages, its principal bottler in Latin America, waged a campaign of terror, using paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders in Colombia. Sinaltrainal alleges that Coca-Cola bears indirect responsibility for the killing of Isidro Segundo Gil, a union leader shot dead, on 5 December 1996, at his workplace. For more on the cumplicity of Coke in union leader muders, see killercoke.org.
posted by André Levy @ 4:44 PM
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