Discover 'The Disappeared' Human rights exhibition opens Tuesday in NDMA

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Nicolas Gaugnini's father was a journalist who disappeared. Marcelo Brodsky lost his brother, Juan Manuel Echavarria had experienced an unprecedented number of kidnappings and killings in his immediate family and several artists had been forced into exile.

These artists have lived through the horrors of the military dictatorships that rocked their countries in the middle of the 20th century, Reuter wrote in her notes about the exhibit. Some worked in the resistance. Some had parents or siblings who were disappeared and others were forced into exile.

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The word "disappeared" was newly defined during the mid-20th century by the military dictatorships in Latin America. "Disappear" evolved into a noun, describing those members of the resistance who were kidnapped, tortured and killed by the military, especially in the 1970s, in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela. Colombia, with its 50-year civil war, and Guatemala, with its 37-year civil war, further expanded the meaning of "disappear."

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The exhibition includes work by Oscar Muñoz, Colombia; Daniel Ontiveros and 12 fellow artists from Argentina; Juan Manuel Echavarría, Colombia; Nicolas Guagnini, Argentina (lives in New York); Luis Camnitzer, Uruguay (lives in New York); Ana Tiscornia, Uruguay (lives in New York); Marcelo Brodsky, Argentina; Luis Gonzáles Palma, Guatemala (lives in Argentina); Fernando Traverso, Argentina; Sara Maneiro, Venezuela; Ivan Navarro, Chile (lives in New York); Virginia Martinez, Uruguay; and Nelson Leirner, Brazil.
more
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/entertainment/11224948.htm

For Negroponte's comfirmation hearings, and the suits against Riggs Bank for hiding away Pinochet's ill-gotten billions.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Herman%20/Condor_Herman.html

In 1976 six National Security States of Latin America- Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay- entered into a system for the joint monitoring and assassinating of dissident refugees in member countries. The program was directly initiated under the sponsorship of Chile and its head of the secret police (DINA), Manuel Contreras. Chile provided the initial funding, organized a series of meetings in Santiago, and provided the computer capacity and centralized services. However, the United States deserves a great deal of credit for this important development, partly as the sponsor and adviser to DINA and other participating security services, but also because Operation Condor represented a culmination of a long sought U.S. objective-coordination of the struggle against "Communism" and "subversion." In 1968, U.S. General Robert W. Porter stated that "In order to facilitate the coordinated employment of internal security forces within and among Latin American countries, we are...endeavoring to foster inter-service and regional cooperation by assisting in the organization of integrated command and control centers; the establishment of common operating procedures; and the conduct of joint and combined training exercises." Condor was one of the fruits of this effort.
Under Operation Condor, political refugees who leave Uruguay and go to Argentina will be identified and kept under surveillance by Argentinian "security" forces, who will inform Uruguayan "security" forces of the presence of these individuals. If the Uruguayan security forces wish to murder these refugees in order to preserve western values, Argentine forces will cooperate. They will keep the Uruguayans informed of the whereabouts of the refugees; they will allow them to enter and freely move around in Argentina and to take the refugees into custody, torture and murder them; and the Argentinians will then claim no knowledge of these events. Under this system, two former Uruguayan Senators, one a former President of the Senate, Zelmar Michelini and Hector Gutierrez Ruiz, were kidnapped and murdered in Buenos Aires. We also note, just to keep the reader abreast of the quality of this cooperative enterprise, that both Michelini and Ruiz were tortured before being murdered, and that Michelini's daughter Margarita was also seized and "disappeared.

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ARGENTINE MILITARY BELIEVED U.S. GAVE GO-AHEAD FOR DIRTY WAR

New State Department documents show conflict between Washington and US Embassy in Buenos Aires over signals to the military dictatorship at height of repression in 1976

Washington, D.C., 21 August 2002 - State Department documents released yesterday on Argentina's dirty war (1976-83) show that the Argentine military believed it had U.S. approval for its all-out assault on the left in the name of fighting terrorism. The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires complained to Washington that the Argentine officers were "euphoric" over signals from high-ranking U.S. officials including then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The Embassy reported to Washington that after Mr. Kissinger's 10 June 1976 meeting with Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Guzzetti, the Argentine government dismissed the Embassy's human rights approaches and referred to Kissinger's "understanding" of the situation. The current State Department collection does not include a minute of Kissinger's and Guzetti's conversation in Santiago, Chile.

On 20 September 1976, Ambassador Robert Hill reported that Guzzetti said "When he had seen SECY of State Kissinger in Santiago, the latter had said he 'hoped the Argentine Govt could get the terrorist problem under control as quickly as possible.' Guzzetti said that he had reported this to President Videla and to the cabinet, and that their impression had been that the USG's overriding concern was not human rights but rather that GOA 'get it over quickly'."

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COMING OUT OF THE DARK: ACHIEVING JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY SOUTH AMERICAN MILITARY REGIMES

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/journals/bciclr/25_2/11_TXT.htm

Abstract: The military regimes of the countries of the Southern Cone of South America cooperated under Operation Condor to eradicate all political opposition throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The military leaders of these regimes are only now being brought to justice for their crimes, which include widespread killing and “disappearances” of political opponents and, in Argentina, the stealing of babies born to doomed political dissidents. It is only in the last decade that these crimes have been brought to light so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice and nations deeply wounded can begin to heal.

<snip>

In the 1970s, military regimes took control of several South American countries.11 The military governments came into power under the guise of protecting national security and to replace weak and corrupt governments, often in the face of violent left-wing guerrilla movements.12 The regimes’ common thread was the use of a pervasive sense of terror to fortify their rule, along with the elimination of basic human rights.13

In addition to this common technique of terror, the military regimes solidified their connections through a program called “Operation Condor.”14 Operation Condor (Condor) was the code name for a system of cooperation between the military regimes of the Southern Cone countries, including Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay.15 Under Condor, allegedly named for the national bird of Chile,16 the regimes would collect and exchange information about leftists in their countries.17 When a person from one Condor country tried to escape by fleeing across the border, the country to which he fled would abduct him and turn him over to his birth country’s security force.18

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:kick:

needs more attention :)

Why are there women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can't see what it is that they dispise
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone

It's the only form of protest they're allowed
I've seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words they'd go missing too
Another woman on a torture table what else can they do
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone

One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance
One day we'll dance on their graves
One day we'll sing our freedom
One day we'll laugh in our joy
And we'll dance

Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus pardres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas

Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you

One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns

Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
They're anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone

sting

Salvador Allende's last words to his beloved people. Tuesday morning September 11 1973

"This will surely be the last time I speak to you, Magallanes Radio will be silenced, and the reassuring tone of my voice will not reach you.

It doesn't matter. You will continue hearing it. I will always be with you. At the least, your memory of me will be that of a man who was loyal to the country. . .

Placed in this historical transition, I will pay with my life the loyalty of the people. I say to you that I am sure that the seed that we now plant in the dignified conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans cannot be forever blinded. They have the power, they can smash us, but social processes are detained, neither through crimes nor power. History is ours, and the people creates it…

In this moment of definition, the last thing I can say to you is that I hope you will learn this lesson: foreign capital and imperialism united with reactionary elements, created the climate for the Armed Forces to break with their tradition…

I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other people will overcome this gray and bitter moment where treason tries to impose itself. May you continue to know that much sooner than later the great avenues, through which free people will walk to build a better society, will open …

Long live Chile!
Long live the People!

Long live the Workers!

These are my last words. I am sure that my sacrifice will not be in vain; I am sure that it will at least be a moral lesson which will punish felony, cowardice and treason."

Still, MOST Americans either don't know a thing about this, or they simply don't give a damn.

Stubborn, wicked ignorance. Surely a bit of the truth slips through to them, occassionally, you'd think.

Maybe their great grandchildren will tell them all about it some day.







http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2004/03/14/RVGVQ5DN7N1.DTL&o=0