Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalPeru Sentences Ex-Soldiers to Prison for Killing Villagers in 1985
Source: Reuters
Peru Sentences Ex-Soldiers to Prison for Killing Villagers in 1985
By REUTERS
SEPT. 1, 2016
LIMA, Peru — A Peruvian court on Thursday sentenced former army officers and soldiers to prison for killing dozens of peasants in an Andean village 31 years ago during the height of a conflict between the government and Shining Path rebels.
In the 1985 massacre in the town of Accomarca, 71 villagers were killed, including 23 children.
Soldiers stormed the town in search of subversive material but found no ammunition, explosives or Shining Path propaganda, according to a truth commission established by Peru.
Troops led by an officer, Telmo Hurtado, then separated men from a group of women and children, and then shot them and set them on fire. Mr. Hurtado has admitted to taking part in the massacre but has said that he was following orders.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/world/americas/peru-shining-path-massacre-accomarca.html?_r=0
Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against Dakota Access Pipeline
Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against Dakota Access Pipeline
August 30, 2016
by National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the oldest and largest human rights bar association in the United States, by its International Committee, its Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Committee and its Environmental Human Rights Committee, as well as the NLG’s Environmental Justice Committee, stands in solidarity with the sovereign Oceti Sakowin Oyate (the Great Sioux Nation), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and its people in their just opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline across their sacred and ancestral lands. The United States has failed to respect the national sovereignty and interests of the Tribe and its people, has failed to respect the nation-to-nation relationship with the Tribe established by treaties, and has failed to properly consult with the Tribe to obtain its free, prior, and informed consent for the construction of the pipeline. We stand with the great many defenders and protectors of ancestral lands, water, and spiritual, historic, and cultural resources at the Camp of the Sacred Stones currently blocking construction of the pipeline across the Missouri River near the Tribe’s land and territory. We applaud the indigenous youth who ran 2,200 miles to Washington, DC, to deliver to the United States government a petition signed by 160,000 people in opposition to the pipeline’s construction.
The 30-inch diameter, 1,172-mile pipeline is proposed by Dakota Access, LLC, to connect the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa to other pipelines in Illinois for the transport of approximately 470,000 to 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It has been estimated that the Bakken oil reserves, the largest in the United States, hold in excess of 5 billion barrels of oil and are producing over a million barrels per day. In April of this year, researchers at the University of Michigan found that the Bakken field is emitting about 2 percent of the world’s ethane, about 250,000 tons per year into the air, directly affecting air quality across North America. These emissions, combined with combustion of Bakken oil, are major contributors to the Global Climate Crisis that threatens the well-being of our environment, future generations, and the Earth.
The proposed pipeline route crosses ancestral lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Missouri River. The Missouri River is a major source of water for the Tribe. The ancestral lands and water are sacred to the Tribe and its people, and they possess a responsibility to Mother Earth and to future generations to protect these ancestral lands and water.
Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, and its affiliated entities, have a long history of violations of environmental laws including pending lawsuits by the states of New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of Breau Bridge in Louisiana over MTBE contamination of groundwater, as well as citations for releases of hazardous materials from its pipelines and facilities in Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. Pipelines leak and spill. In one year alone, there were over 300 pipeline breaks in North Dakota. Numerous pipeline spills of millions of gallons of oil and contaminants into the Missouri River and its tributaries have already occurred. In January, over 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana. Oil from the Bakken field is more volatile than other crudes.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/30/solidarity-with-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-against-dakota-access-pipeline/
Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, a Woman of Honor, Confronts Senate of Scoundrels
Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, a Woman of Honor, Confronts Senate of Scoundrels
August 31, 2016
by Pepe Escobar
Dilma Rousseff entered the Senate and calmly stared down her accusers. She left with her head held high after exhorting those Senators to vote with their conscience.
Most of those politicians present probably had no idea what conscience means; they’re no more than corrupt messenger boys. But the Brazilian collective unconscious – Jung to the rescue – will be marked.
President Dilma Rousseff, in a detailed, occasionally emotional speech, defended herself with honor and dignity from accusations she committed a “crime of responsibility”. She was not actually facing a political cesspool, but that ‘Angel of History’ so beloved by Walter Benjamin. History will judge her kindly.
Meanwhile, it ain’t over till a dodgy politico sings. As I write, Rousseff is on the way to be stripped from the presidency of the world’s 8th largest economy by a bunch of scoundrel-cum-coward politicos. Her only fear, she said, was the “death of democracy”. Rousseff’s impeachment means in practice that democratic voting in one of the world’s largest democracies will be cancelled by a parliamentary coup remote-controlled by oligarchic interests. This is not, and never was, about justice; it’s about dirty, nasty politics.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/31/brazils-dilma-rousseff-a-woman-of-honor-confronts-senate-of-scoundrels/
Mexico’s Disappeared Who Won’t Disappear
Mexico’s Disappeared Who Won’t Disappear
September 1, 2016
by Kent Paterson
As in previous years, Mexicans commemorated August 30, the International Day of Victims of Forced Disappearance. Marches, protests, masses and meetings were held by relatives of the disappeared and their supporters in different regions of the country, including the states of Chihuahua, Jalisco and Guerrero, where the numbers of forcibly disappeared persons keeps climbing into the thousands.
In Chihuahua City, a downtown march focused renewed attention on the disappeared, including seven communications technology workers who went missing on August 22, 2015, in the northwestern part of the state. Ranging from 17 to 55 years of age, the men were reportedly installing an antenna for an anti-drug national telecommunications system financially supported by the U.S. government’s Merida Initiative.
In a communique, the Chihuahua City-based Women’s Human Rights Center criticized the state government’s response to the disappearance of the men, alleging that justice officials argued they were hampered from progressing in the investigation because “they don’t have money for gasoline.” The Galeana 7 is among the “1,799 disappeared persons in the state of Chihuahua who are not looked for,” the civil society human rights organization contended.
Four hours to the north in Ciudad Juarez, human rights organizations “symbolically closed” the local headquarters of the Chihuahua State Prosecutor in a protest against the unresolved disappearances of both men and women. Among the participants in the action were Father Oscar Enriquez, director of the Paso del Norte Human Rights Center; Imelda Marrufo, founder of the Ciudad Juarez Women’s Roundtable; parents of feminicide victims; and other civil society groups.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/01/mexicos-disappeared-who-wont-disappear/
Dakota Access Pipeline Tribal Liaison Formerly Worked For Agency Issuing Permit
Dakota Access Pipeline Tribal Liaison Formerly Worked For Agency Issuing Permit
August 31, 2016
by Steve Horn
The Standing Rock tribe has filed a lawsuit against the U.S Army Corps of Engineers for using the controversial Nationwide Permit 12 to fast-track authorization of the hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline.
Slated to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin to Patoka, Illinois, the plaintiffs say not only was the Army Corps’ permitting of the Energy Transfer Partners and Enbridge Corporationjointly owned pipeline a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act, but also a violation of the National Historic Preservation Act’s (NHPA) Section 106.
A review of court documents for the case currently unfolding in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. has revealed that the tribal liaison for Energy Transfer Partners tasked with abiding by Section 106 passed through the revolving door and formerly worked for the Army Corps. The finding also raises key ethical questions in the field of archaeology.
That liaison — Michelle Dippel — technically works for a Dakota Access LLC contractor named HDR, a company which helps pipeline companies and other oil and gas industry infrastructure companies secure permits for their projects. Dippel, the South Central Region Environmental Services Lead for HDR, began her career as a project manager for the Army Corps’ Fort Worth District and also formerly worked for the natural gas pipeline company Spectra Energy.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/31/dakota-access-pipeline-tribal-liaison-formerly-worked-for-agency-issuing-permit/
Brazil's Michel Temer inherits presidency on shaky ground
Source: Associated Press
Brazil's Michel Temer inherits presidency on shaky ground
Peter Prengaman, Associated Press
Updated 10:19 pm, Thursday, September 1, 2016
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The permanent ouster of deeply unpopular President Dilma Rousseff by Brazil's Senate means that a man who is arguably just as unpopular is now faced with trying to ease the wounds of a divided nation mired in recession.
Long known as an uncharismatic backroom wheeler-dealer, Michel Temer inherits a shrinking economy, a Zika virus outbreak that has ravaged poor northeastern states and political instability fed by a sprawling corruption probe that has tarred much of the country's political and business elite — himself included.
. . .
Three of Temer's ministers had to quit within days of being named because of corruption allegations. And so far he has struggled to build consensus around key reforms, such as slimming the country's pension system.
. . .
Although Rousseff has never been personally implicated, many blame her for the graft because much of it happened while her party was in power. Temer, on the other hand, has been directly implicated: In a plea bargain, former Sen. Sergio Machado said that Temer asked him to channel $400,000 in Petrobras kickbacks to 2012 Sao Paulo mayoral candidate in Temer's party. Temer denies wrongdoing and has not been charged.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Brazil-s-Michel-Temer-inherits-presidency-on-9196750.php
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