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Three articles

Brazil recognizes state of Palestine

[Translation of an article from Estadão of São Paulo for December 4. See original here.]

In a note from the Minister of Foreign Relations, Brazil announced yesterday its recognition of a Palestinian state within the borders existing before the Six-Day War of 1967. The note states that the decision was made in response to a request made in November by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

In Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he is particdipating in the Ibero-American Summit, Brazilian Chancellor Celso Amorim declared that the recognition should not alter Brazil’s relations with Israel and “the decision does not imply an abandonment of the conviction that negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are esssential, with the goal of reaching mutual concessions on questions central to the conflict.” (more…)

Social organizations repudiate Colombia’s policies, support Venezuela

[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for July 27.]

By Stella Calloni

Buenos Aires, July 26 – President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner met tonight with the president-elect of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who is on a tour of the region in the midst of a severe crisis with Venezuela and while an emergency meeting of the Unión de Naciones Sudamericanas (Unasur – Union of South American Nations) is being planned for Quito, Ecuador.

During the afternoon, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Plaza de Mayo to reject Colombia’s policies and the Colombian visitor and to support Venezuela, a country they consider to be the target of “generalized activity by the United States that threatens all of Latin America.”

The meeting between Fernández de Kirchner and Santos, which lasted an hour, included a broad review of the situation in the region. It included the participation of Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, the foreign minister designate of Colombia, María Angela Holguín and the Colombian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Álvaro Eduardo García Giménez. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Clarín of Argentina for May 6. The Malvinas Islands, in the South Atlantic off the Argentine coast, have long been the subject of dispute between Argentina and Great Britain, where they are known as the Falklands. In 1982, the two countries fought a 74-day war over the Malvinas and the nearby South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, resulting in the deaths of 255 British troops and 649 Argentines. The British won a military victory but Argentina still claims sovereignty, as stated formally in its 1994 constitution.]

The British firm Rockhopper announced today that it has discovered petroleum in the northern basin of the Malvinas Islands, where it had begun exploring toward the end of last month in the midst of a dispute between Argentina and Great Britain over sovereignty of the islands and the rights to resources in the archipelago. The Argentine foreign office issued a statement warning London and the privately owned company that it “would take all necessary measures within the framework of international law to prevent these illegal acts.” (more…)

Bignone to spend 25 years in a common jail

[Translation of an article from Página/12 of Argentina for April 20.]

The First Federal Hearings Tribunal has pronounced sentence for crimes committed at the clandestine detention and torture center that once operated at the Campo de Mayo military garrison. The last de facto president of the dictatorship, Reinaldo Bignone, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, as were the former head of the Campo de Mayo intelligence department, Exequiel Verplaetsen, and the former chief of the Military Institutes Command of the base, Santiago Omar Riveros. “Nobody could question that it was a war,” Bignone said during his final argument in defense of his actions. The nation’s Human Rights Secretary, Eduardo Luis Duhalde, and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo President Estela de Carlotto expressed satisfaction with the ruling and praised the work of the court.

Also sentenced were the former head of Intelligence Batallion 601 of the general staff of the army, Carlos Alberto Tepedino (20 years), the former director of the General Lemos Combat Support Services School, Eugenio Guañabens Perelló (17 years) and the former head of the Campo de Mayo infantry school, Jorge Osvaldo García (18 years). The former head of the Germán Montenegro Bella Vista commisary, meanwhile, was acquitted. (more…)