Transitional Justice in Latin America

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Transitional Justice in Latin America

• -Are trials desirable? What are their
  limitations?
• -What are limitations of truth commissions?
• -What kinds of trials are possible?

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Orishas, Desaparecidos

• Su madre pregunta que pasó
• Fue a ver a su novia pasadas Las diez
• Desperté al sentir disparos.Mi hijo anoche no
  llegó.
• Madre no preguntes
• Que pasó lo sé
• Testigos no habrán me olvidarán
• Sigue la misma historia
• El día a día
• Sangre que corre
• Muertos por SIDA
• Guerra mundial se clona

• His mother asks what happened.
• He went to see his girlfriend after ten oclock.
• I woke up when I heard shots. My son didnt come
  home last night.
• Mother dont ask
• I know what happened
• There wont be any witnesses
• Theyll forget me
• The same history continues
• Day to day, Blood runs
• Killed by AIDS
• War gets cloned all over the world

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Orishas, Desparecidos

• Diecisiete primaverasIba a la universidadNo se
  buscaba nuncaUn problema que alguienDiga donde
  está
• Me hacías falta y túNo estabas DiosRezos fueron
  poco gritosLocos planes sueños rotosA plomo y
  sangre olían otrosFamilia como nosotros
• CoroSalió a la esquinaQuién lo vio?Mi amigo
  desaparecióNo dejó ni la sombraEl culpable sabe
  de queHablo yo

• Seventeen years old
• He went to college
• He never looked for trouble
• Someone tell me where he is.
• I needed you and you werent there, God,
• Prayers did little, yelling like crazy, plans and
  dreams broken, lead and blood, family like us
• Chorus He just went down to the corner
• Who saw him?
• My friend disappearedHe didnt even leave a
  shadow
• The guilty ones know what Im talking about

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Orishas, Desparecidos

• Anoche escuche variasExplosionesPutum patam
  putúm petéY eso es muy normal bebeLa conciencia
  de hoy en día esta al revés
• La gente no sabe dondeCoño mete el pieY además
  para los criminalesUna cena de buen provechoY
  aunque salgan por el techoCon las palabrasQue
  he dicho del dicho al hechoHay un buen trecho y
  prosigoCoro  

• Last night I heard various explosions
• putún patá putún peté
• And thats very normal baby
• Todays conscience is turned upside down
• People dont know where the theyre sticking
  their foot
• And for the criminals, its open season
• Even if they go crazy with what Im saying,
  between saying something and doing it theres a
  big difference, Ill keep going

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Orishas, Desparecidos

• En nombre de mi amigo muertoQue ya saben como
  fueronLo detuvieron, arrestaronSecuestraronLas
  ropas le quitaron fusilaronLas pruebas
  quemaronLo mismo le ocurrióA mi vecino de diez
  anosQue sus organos no encontraronOye, que
  fatiga los quemaron,E torturaronCoro

• In the name of my dead friend,
• You know how it went, they detained him, arrested
  him, kidnapped him,
• Took off his clothes, shot him,
• Burned the evidence,
• The same thing happened to my ten year old
  neighbor,
• They never found his organs, Oh, how awful, they
  burned them,
• tortured them
• Chorus

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Orishas, Desaparecidos

• Otro mas de los caidosOtra espina otro
  dolorOtro madre sin un hijoArbol que fruto no
  dioDiecisiete primaverasIba a la
  universidadNo se buscaba nuncaUn problema que
  alguienDiga donde estáA los presidentes
  asesinosA los responsablesDe desaparecidosPa'
  los que trafican con ninosEl culpable sabe de
  que hablo yo

• Another one of the fallen
• Another thorn, another pain
• Another mother without her child
• A tree that bears no fruit
• Seventeen years old
• He went to college
• He never looked for trouble
• Someone tell me where he is.
• To the presidents, murderers, To those
  responsible for the disappeared,
• To those who traffic in children,
• Those who are guilty know what Im talking about

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Orishas, Desaparecidos

• Yo yo yo seQue a mi cañón de palabrasLe
  faltaron canallasPara derribar en esta
  batallaPero la historia se encargaraDe cortar
  sus garrasHijos de asesinosDesaparecidos,Ya
  ves lo que he vividoSin rastro para poner
  floresEn mi tumbaA mi madre le han dejadoQuien
  pagado me mata no sabeQue arrebata un
  almaIndependencia

• I know that my cannon of words lacks cowards to
  knock down in this battle
• But history will take charge of cutting their
  claws
• Children of murderers
• Disappeared,
• Now you see what Ive lived, Theyve left my
  mother without a trace to put flowers on my
  grave,
• Who paid for my killing doesnt know
• That hes striking down a soul
• Independence
• Chorus

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Transitional justice debates

• What is the desired aim of transitional justice?
• Example of escraches is this justice?
• Possible aims include
• My day in court/symbolic chance to tell story
  from victims point of view
• Chance to find out truth of what happened
• Vengeance
• Deterrence
• Monetary compensation
• Societal recognition that what happened was wrong
• Not everyone agrees that trials are best way to
  achieve these aims

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Truth not trials approach

• clean slate
• Focus on societal reconciliation, truth-telling
  rather than individual accountability
• Fear of triggering authoritarian backlash
• Argentina under Alfonsin, top officers
  convicted, bu then 1986 amnesty, 4 military
  uprisings in late 1980s-gt Pres. Menem pardoned
  all military officers
• More collaboration from perpetrators
• Can allow criticism of courts themselves
• More complete social process

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Legal Accountability

• Failure to prosecute past crimes undermines rule
  of law
• Justice should not be held hostage by fear
• Reconciliation cannot happen without punishment
• Criminal trials also provide truth-telling,
  healing

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Is there a middle ground?

• Priscilla Hayner truth vs. justice is not a
  trade-off
• Truth commissions can fortify criminal
  prosecutions
• South Africa TRC is best example

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Forms of prosecution for HR crimes
CRIMINAL CIVIL
National (domestic) law
International law
Transnational law
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Forms of criminal prosecution for human rights
crimes

• Domestic courts in country of occurrence
• Limited by amnesty laws, political climate in
  country
• International (ICC, ICTY, ICTR)
• Must exhaust domestic remedies first (principle
  of complementarity)
• ICC is not retroactive
• Transnational (trials in domestic courts of a
  country other than country of occurrence)
• UN Conventions against Torture, Genocide oblige
  all subscriber states to prosecute certain types
  of crime
• Some states domestic laws particularly strong in
  this regard (e.g. Spain)
• Also must exhaust domestic remedies

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Forms of civil prosecution for human rights crimes

• Domestic courts
• Limited by amnesty, political climate
• International
• IACHR (of the OAS) can hold governments, not
  individuals, accountable
• Transnational
• 1980 Filartiga Paraguayan doctor sued former
  Paraguayan police official for torture in US
  federal courts using Alien Tort Claims Act of
  1789 (ATCA)
• Romagoza 2002- ATCA and Torture Victims
  Protection Act (1992)
• Defendant must be in USA for US courts to have
  jurisdiction
• Actions must have violated international law
• Awards monetary damages, seldom paid
• No need to exhaust domestic remedies
• Plaintiffs have greater control over case

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Cutting-edge issues in human rights law ATCA

• more than 2 dozen cases filed against US
  corporations for involvement in human rights
  abuses overseas
• Doe v. Unocal case
• Forced labor in construction of pipeline by
  Burmese military
• Company said it was a passive investor
• Plaintiffs said company delegated security to
  govt, was accountable for govt actions
• Unocal settled out of court with Burmese
  villagers 2005, right before case went to jury
  trial (after 9 years)

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ATCA

• US Justice Dept amicus curiae brief on Unocal
  case, arguing ATCA not suitable for cases outside
  USA
• National Foreign Trade Council, an organization
  of corporations, warns ATCA suits could
  seriously damage the world economy
• National Association of Manufacturers
• Private suits threaten to impose new
  liabilities on American companies arising from
  activity abroad by a foreign government. This
  risks allowing a further erosion of the
  Presidents exclusive prerogatives on foreign
  policy and his ability to develop relationships
  with foreign governments in ways that he
  determines will best advance U.S. national
  interests.

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ATCA

• Fresh Del Monte case
• Guatemalan union SITRABI in 1999 conflict with
  plantation owned and operated by Del Monte
  leaders abducted, held at gunpoint for hours,
  forced to make radio announcements to workers,
  threatened with death
• Unusual liability structure
• Union leaders filed criminal charges in
  Guatemala, attackers given nominal fines
• ATCA case sought to hold Del Monte liable for
  violations of rights to associate, organize, and
  bargain collectively
• District courts said leaders were treated
  cruelly, not tortured not egregious enough
• September 23, 2007 Marco Tulio Portela killed

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ATCA

• Drummond case 2007
• international mining company sued for involvement
  in deaths of labor leaders at mine in Colombia
• Plaintiffs alleged that company provided
  financial and other support to paramilitaries who
  eliminated union
• July 2007 jury ruled in Drummonds favor

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Greg Grandin What are some limits to
truth-telling?

• Truth com.s dual role of documenting past
  (writing history) and ushering in new era
• Competing pressures not to side w/ one side or
  another
• Usu. Depict dark period as aberration rather than
  examining it as result of politics
• Temptation to serve as watchdog
• Grounded in liberal theory of individual rights
  against state this can eclipse social context
• transition to democracy really consolidation of
  neoliberal democracy
• We run risk of celebrating end of violence
  without perceiving its political effects (also,
  is violence over?)