ERADICATING IMPUNITY FOR ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN DICTATORSHIPS, AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES AND ARMED CONFLICTS IN LATIN AMERICA: Challenges and good practices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru ERADICATING IMPUNITY FOR ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN DICTATORSHIPS, AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES AND ARMED CONFLICTS IN LATIN AMERICA: Challenges and good practices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru Credits Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. COORDINATION Phone José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez* y +52(55) 5564 2582 Lucía Guadalupe Chávez Vargas Email Authors [email protected] Ronald Gamarra Herrera, Nelson Camilo Sánchez, Magdalena Garcés Fuentes, Web Page Gastón Chillier, Verónica Torras, Herminia www.cmdpdh.org Saquimux Canastuj Social media Editor /@cmdpdh José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez /cmdpdh /cmdpdh Copyediting and Proofreading José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez March, 2018 Some rights reserved Text revision Printed in Mexico Natalia Báez Zamudio This book can be viewed and Translator downloaded at Lucia Duero http://cmdpdh.org/publicaciones-pdf/ cmd-pdh-eradicating-impunity-for-atroci- PHOTO CREDITS ties-commit-ted-in-latin-america.pdf Luis María Barranco DESIGN AND EDITION El Recipiente Address Tehuantepec #142, Col. Roma Sur, Del. Cuauhtémoc, C.P. 06760, CDMX, México. Total or partial reproduction of this publication is authorized, provided the source is acknowledged. This publication has been produced with the financial assistance of the Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos, A.C., and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the FGHR. * This text was made within the framework of the project “Strategies available to address impunity in Mexico” associated with the Academic Body ‘International Justice, local contexts of injustice and human rights’ belonging to the Faculty of Law, Political Sciences and Criminology of the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala ERADICATING IMPUNITY FOR ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN DICTATORSHIPS, AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES AND ARMED CONFLICTS IN LATIN AMERICA: Challenges and good practices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru Directory Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos, A.C. Board of Directors Communication Coordination Ximena Andión Ibáñez Luis María Barranco Soto PRESIDENT COORDINATOR Alejandro Anaya Muñoz Daniela Michelle Caballero García Beatriz Solís Leere Efraín Tzuc Salinas Jacobo Dayán Karina Álvarez Medrano José Luis Caballero Ochoa Luis González Plascencia Institutional Development Coordination Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi Rodolfo Franco Franco Miguel Concha Malo COORDINATOR Susana Erenberg Rotbar Paulina Daniela Romero López Executive Director José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez Administration Coordination Eduardo Macías Sánchez Legal Defense Coordination COORDINATOR Nancy Jocelyn López Pérez COORDINATOR Lizbeth Montessoro Elías Héctor Adrián Avendaño Cortez Anahí Adriana Ruelas Orozco Carla Sofía Loyo Martínez Forced Internal Displacement Carolina Hernández Nieto Coordination Daniela Gutiérrez Escobedo Brenda Gabriela Pérez Vázquez Federico Manuel Rodríguez Paniagua COORDINATOR Mariana Teresa Peguero Moreno Natalia Pérez Cordero Montserrat Castillo Portillo Research Coordination Psychosocial Support Coordination Lucía Guadalupe Chávez Vargas Valeria Patricia Moscoso Urzúa COORDINATOR COORDINATOR Ana Lucía Juárez Armenta Norma Isabel García Flores Jorge Luis Amaya Lule Marion Jullie Rouillé International Justice Consultant Montserrat Martínez Téllez Paulina Vega González Natalia Báez Zamudio Forced Internal Displacement Consultant Advocacy Coordination Laura Gabriela Rubio Díaz Leal Olga Guzmán Vergara Lígia De Aquino Barbosa Magalhães COORDINATOR Jürgen Moritz María Corina Muskus Toro CONTENT Introduction 9 Strategies Against Impunity In Relation To Crimes Of State Terrorism In Argentina 13 Eradicating Impunity For Severe Human Rights Violations In Latin America: Chile 63 Fight Against Impunity And The Penal System In Colombia 137 Genocide In Guatemala, Eradicating Impunity 193 Eradicating Impunity For Severe Human Rights Violations In Latin America: Peru 257 INTRODUCTION1 Over the last decades, Latin America has witnessed several armed con- flicts, authoritarian regimes and dictatorships that have left a great num- ber of victims of serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by State agents or individuals acting with or without the authorization, support or acquiescence of public servants. For many years, those responsible for committing these crimes enjoyed a high level of impunity. Nevertheless, the institutions, policies, as well as informal agreements from different social strata and the internation- al community have increasingly given way to the victims’ demands for justice. The obstacles and challenges that have arisen along the way in the quest for justice in these Latin American countries have been immense, such as amnesty laws, intimidation and threats, litigation abuses and lack of re- sources, to name a few. However, thanks to some articulated strategies, such as the unprecedented judicial creativity of lawyers and activists, and, above all, the tenacity and perseverance of survivors, court rulings have been issued, a recovery of certain historical memory has been enabled and important steps towards the achievement of truth and justice have been taken. Based on the analysis of events occurred in these countries, this book intends to contribute to the continued fight against impunity in other countries and regions in the world that tackle this challenge. Countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru are highly relevant for having implemented legislation, policies and mecha- nisms that have allowed their societies to begin to comprehend the mag- 1 The authors appreciate the work of Natalia Baez Zamudio, Naomi Wilhurst, Hannah Töpler, Jared Green, Isabel del Toro, Olivier Keller for the help in the review of the translation of the text. 7 nitude of crimes committed during authoritarian or dictatorial regimes or armed conflicts. In most of the cases, the transition from a system that granted impunity to a system that was able to prosecute those respon- sible for committing gross human rights violations came into existence due to the establishment of popular representation and the rearrange- ment of power distributions as well as the renewal of the justice systems. The Colombian case is different since the proceedings and trials initiated when the armed conflict was still ongoing. In fact, these changes paved the way for the prosecution, trial and sen- tencing of those responsible for committing atrocious crimes, including high commands, and in some cases the execution of trials years after the perpetration of the crimes. The cases of Argentina, Chile, Colom- bia, Guatemala and Peru demonstrate the importance of confronting impunity with great determination and from different fronts, including the political, social and legal spheres of the problem. The texts included in this publication show that these countries share various strategies and determining factors that enable to break the sys- tems that granted impunity. One of these factors is the leading role of victims and civil society organi- zations in the fight against impunity. Survivor organizations, family mem- bers, human rights organizations and the church itself have shown an im- pressive perseverance in the face of countless challenges during armed conflicts, authoritarian regimes and dictatorships, but also during demo- cratic transitions. For example, human rights organizations gathered the testimonies of survivors of torture and enforced disappearances, along with those of the family members of extrajudicial execution victims. As a result of the documentation made during the investigations and trials, these testimonies became decisive evidence in order to determine the responsibility of perpetrators even decades after the events occurred. Similarly, the testimonies collected by human rights organizations proved to be essential for the construction of collective memory, as they have been integrated into the analysis of truth commissions and other efforts to recover the historical memory in different countries. 8 The commitment of civil society organizations with a gender perspective and the recognition of the rights of women manifested in the accompa- niment to the victims of sexual violence should be particularly empha- sized. As a result of adequate psychosocial accompaniment, the partic- ipation of victims in the criminal proceedings was achieved, and crimes that had often remained unreported for cultural reasons were exposed. For instance, numerous paradigmatic condemnatory sentences of sexual crimes committed during the internal armed conflict in Guatemala were issued in 2006, thanks to the courage of the victims, the technical and professional capacity of their legal representatives, and psychosocial support, and the unbiased work of public prosecutors. The international community, including non-governmental organizations and human rights mechanisms, played a crucial role in strengthening national strategies to combat impunity. The role of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was decisive in confirming the existence of serious human rights violations and detecting policies that violated human rights