Honor memory of loss by upholding “principles of freedom and equality democracy represents” ─ Garzón

Two Nine Elevens in the Americas: Remembrance, Echoes

Excerpt, minor edit, end comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

Baltasar Garzón is a Spanish jurist formerly on Spain’s central criminal court and well-known for securing  in 1998 (London) the arrest of U.S. Government-allied Augusto Pinochet, Chilean torturer and commander of a military junta that on September 11, 1973, overthrew Chile's head of state, Salvador Allende.

Jurist Baltasar Garzón

Baltasar Garzón’s involvement in international cases

Pinochet: Baltasar Garzón came to international attention on October 10, 1998, when he issued an international warrant for the arrest of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet for the alleged deaths and torture of Spanish citizens. The Chilean Truth Commission (1990–91) report was the basis for the warrant, marking an unprecedented use of universal jurisdiction to attempt to try a former dictator for an international crime. Eventually it was turned down by British Home Secretary Jack Straw, who (on health grounds) rejected Garzón's request to have Pinochet extradited to Spain.

Kissinger: Garzón asked for permission for cross-examination of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in connection with a plot in the 1970s known as Operation Condor.

Argentine Genocide: Garzón filed charges of genocide against Argentine military officers on the disappearance of Spanish citizens during Argentina’s 1976–1983 dictatorship. Eventually Adolfo Scilingo and Miguel Angel Cavallo were prosecuted in separate cases. Scilingo was convicted and sentenced to over 1,000 years incarceration for his crimes.

Donald Henry Rumsfeld, Defense
George Walker Bush, U.S. President 43rd
Richard Bruce Cheney, Vice President

Guantanamo: Garzón issued indictments for five Guantanamo detainees, including Spaniard Abderrahman Ahmad and United Kingdom resident Jamil El Banna. Ahmad was extradited to Spain on February 14, 2004. El Banna was repatriated to the United Kingdom and in 2007 Garzón dropped the charges against him on humanitarian grounds.

George W. Bush Six: In March 2009, Garzón considered whether Spain should allow charges to be filed against former officials from the United States government under George W. Bush for offering justifications for torture. The six former Bush officials are:

Alberto Gonzales, former Attorney General;

Gang of Eight
International Outlaws

John Yoo, of the Office of Legal Counsel;

Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy;

William Haynes II, former general counsel for the Department of Defense;

Jay Bybee, also at Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel; and

David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff.

T

oday in The Guardian, Baltasar Garzón writes this.

Before September 11, 2001, in the United States became universally identified as the date of an attack on democracy, that date in 1973, four decades ago, was when Augusto Pinochet [supported by the United States Government] led a bloody military coup in Chile that ended hope of a progressive, socialist and pacifist democracy in Latin America.

The brutal attack on the citizenry of the small nation entailed a sustained period of violence during which Pinochet’s regime employed

…torture, disappearances, and

…the systematic and selective death of thousands of people –

…all the while touting messages of reform and progress

By contrast, the attacks of 9/11 2001, “were an indiscriminate massacre by foreign terrorists and [the U.S.] response was as swift and powerful as one might expect from the world’s most potent military superpower. The message was clear: actions against the United States have dire consequences.

“But the reactive ‘war on terror’ has had many consequences of its own,

U.S.
Abduction
Unlawful detention
Torture

…ushering in an era of great restriction on rights and civil liberties, and

…making commonplace the use of torture, renditions, and other perverse tactics.

Far from contributing to safety, these actions have jeopardized the manifold achievements in international human rights laws and norms from the last century that serve to protect the global public.

 

“This same two-dimensional mentality was evident 40 years ago in the U.S. government’s support of the Chilean coup d’état.

“…And, as the security state tightens its grip, the war purportedly waged in defense of democracy now finds itself as the foremost contributor to the erosion of democratic ideals.

“Rather than learn from the example of the Chilean struggle, and accept its responsibility for the suffering it brought, America’s warmongering and its many violations of international law fly in the face of the hard-fought victories of Chile’s victims and their supporters.

U.S.
Global
Wars of Terror

“As we approach 40 years since the devastating events in Chile ─ and a dozen years since the horrific attacks of 2001 ─ we must remember that to truly honor the memory of all those who lost their lives in the fight for democracy, we must uphold the principles of freedom and equality that democracy represents.”

I

n remembering two Nine Elevens and considering the work of Baltasar Garzón, an important thought arises. High level officials will not forever escape justice. They can and must be brought to account before an impartial court of law.

American Presidents’ agents, proxies, partners, military and other co-conspirators' decades-long reign of violence, their unconscionable cruelty must end; and in order for it to end, these men (mostly men) who still live, in or out of office, must be arrested, prosecuted, made to stand and be judged before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Richard Nixon
U.S. President 37th
J. Edgar Hoover
FBI Chief for life

Barack Obama
U.S. President 44th
Commander in
Illegal Drone attacks

Inside the United States, Americans must put aside ideology, partisan and other tribal politics and make a decisive effort to end the carnage and correct the character of impunity.

If this does not happen, the global reign of violence and violation of

International Criminal Court

human rights, the deterioration of law, domestic and international, the disunion of the state and destruction of all trust between government and governed, and the abolition of democracy will surely continue.

Sources and notes

“Remembering Chile's 9/11: democracy’s final triumph over General Pinochet ─ Forty years after the bloody U.S.-backed coup, it is Salvador Allende’s vision of peace, justice and solidarity that has prevailed” by Baltasar Garzón, theguardian.com, Monday September 9, 2013 10.30 EDT,

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/chile-911-pinochet-baltasar-garzon

Baltasar Garzón brief profile at The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/profile/baltasar-garz-n

Baltasar Garzón bio brief Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltasar_Garz%C3%B3n

Cont’:

Baltasar Garzón Real (b. October 26, 1955, in Torres, Jaén) is a Spanish jurist who formerly served on Spain’s central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional; and was the examining magistrate of the Juzgado Central de Instrucción No. 5, which investigates the most important criminal cases in Spain, including terrorism, organized crime, and money laundering. He is currently head of Julian Assange’s legal team.

Garzón is a 1979 graduate of the University of Seville and in 1988 was appointed to the Audiencia Nacional.

  

Augusto Pinochet

As commander of the armed forces until 1998, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte frequently thwarted human-rights prosecutions against members of the security forces.

After stepping down, he became a senator-for-life, a post granted to former presidents under the 1981 constitution.

• Later in 1998, while visiting London, he was detained by British authorities after Spain requested his extradition in connection with the torture of Spanish citizens in Chile during his rule. 

• The unprecedented case stirred worldwide controversy and galvanized human-rights organizations in Chile. 

• The United States and other countries were prompted to release formerly classified documents concerning Chileans who had ‘disappeared’ — were kidnapped and presumably killed by the Pinochet regime. 

• The disclosures brought to light details of Operation Colombo, in which more than 100 Chilean leftists had disappeared in 1975; and Operation Condor, in which several South American military governments coordinated their efforts to systematically eliminate opponents in the 1970s and 1980s. 

• In January 2000, Pinochet was allowed to return home after a British court ruled that he was physically unfit to stand trial. Nevertheless, he continued to face investigations by Chilean authorities. 

• Later in 2000, Pinochet was stripped of his immunity from prosecution—which he had enjoyed as a former president—and ordered to stand trial on charges of human-rights abuses (in Chile immunity is lifted on a case-by-case basis). 

• In 2002, the charges were dropped, after Chile’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that he was ‘mentally incapable’ of defending himself in court. 

• Soon afterward Pinochet resigned his post as a senator-for-life. 

• In 2005 he was again stripped of immunity and ordered to stand trial on charges stemming from Operation Colombo and on separate charges relating to tax evasion.

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (b. November 25, 1915, Valparaiso, Chile; d.  December 10, 2006, Santiago): leader of the military junta that overthrew the socialist government of President Salvador Allende of Chile on September 11, 1973; head of Chile’s military government (1974–90).

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