Ex-Boss from AUC Shot Dead; Argentinean Ex-military Official Escapes Detention; Witness Protection Program to Shield Accusers of Fascists

By Oscar J Barbosa
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

MEDELLIN, Colombia – Antonio Lopez, AKA “Job”, was killed by a motorized hitman while he was having lunch in the capital of Antioquia Region. Lopez had left the AUC and had become an active member of an NGO that works towards amnesty and protection for the demobilized members of the paramilitary group.

This assassination among others of demobilized paramilitaries brings to light a war in Medellin among mafias and paramilitary groups. It is unknown who has killed the ex-paramilitary, but the events raise the question as to whether new paramilitary forces are emerging conflicting against the groups that have left the weapons behind.

For more information, please see:

Semana - Asesinado jefe desmovilizado de las AUC – 28 July 2008

LA FM - Asesinado ex comandante político de las Autodefensas – 29 July 2008

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Lt. Col. Julian Corres escaped from detention in a jail in Bahia Blanca. He has been detained in connection to Human Rights violations committed during Argentina’s Dictatorship 1976-1983. Corres, 56, had run a secret detention facility in Bahia Blanca were dissidents might have been taken to, then tortured or disappeared.

Corres case was presided over by Judge Alcindo Alvarez. Alvarez had been accused by NGOs and leftist group of being too light with Dictatorship crimes. Other judges have been labeled to be from the times of the dictatorship still remain in the benches.

For more information, please see:

PR Inside - Federal police detained in Argentina after suspect in dirty war crimes escapes – 28 July 2008

PTS - La ciudad de la impunidad – 29 July 2008-07-29

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Julio Lopez disappeared in September 17 2006, after being a witness in trial of Former Buenos Aires Police Commissioner Miguel Etchecolatz. Etchecolatz was the first criminal judged after the amnesty laws to dictatorship criminals were passed. He received a life sentence.

Luciano Benjamin Menendez, Ex-Commander of the Third Army of Corps also received a life sentence recently, accused of kidnapping and murder of four dissidents. Menendez the commander of the third army corps which had jurisdiction over northern Argentina, including over the Perla concentration camp from which 17 of 2300 prisoners survived.

After Lopez disappearance in 2006, the Argentinean Government began a program to protect the witnesses in Human Rights cases. More than 200 individuals have been witnesses so far in July and the government has taken some initiative to protect them.

For more information, please see:

IPS - RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: No House Arrest for Elderly Former General – 29 July 2008

El Patagonico - PROGRAMA ASISTE MAS 200 TESTIGOS EN JUICIOS LESA HUMANIDAD – 29 July 2008