Latest news with #TruthCommission
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
El Salvador holds trial for army killing of Dutch journalists
A former defense minister and two colonels went on trial in El Salvador Tuesday for the killings of four Dutch journalists 43 years ago, an NGO assisting the victims' families said. Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed in 1982 while filming a television documentary during El Salvador's civil war. The accused are General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85. In 1993, a UN-sponsored Truth Commission found the journalists had walked into an ambush planned by Reyes, who lives in the United States, and with the knowledge of other officers. The Salvadoran Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Reyes in March, but there has been no progress so far. Garcia and Moran are under police surveillance in a private hospital in San Salvador. The hearing in the northern city of Chalatenango is expected to conclude on Wednesday with a verdict from a five-member jury. If convicted, the defendants face prison sentences of up to 30 years. The trial was closed to the media, but activist Oscar Perez of the Fundacion Comunicandonos confirmed from the courtroom that it was under way. The NGO and the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights hailed the trial as a "decisive step" in the search for truth and justice. "We trust that this trial sets a historic precedent in the fight against impunity," they said in a joint statement. The Netherlands' Costa Rica-based ambassador to Central America, Arjen van den Berg, was in court. The case remained unresolved for decades after the presiding judge received threats in 1988, prompting her to seek refuge in Canada. It was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared an amnesty law for civil war crimes unconstitutional, but relatives of the victims still had to wait years for the main hearing. Evidence such as a statement from a former US military attache and a military expert's report "directly points" to the defendants' responsibility, said lawyer Pedro Cruz, who represents the victims' families. More than 75,000 people were killed in El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war pitting the military against leftist guerrillas. cmm/fj/dr/md
France 24
6 days ago
- General
- France 24
El Salvador holds trial for army killing of Dutch journalists
Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed in 1982 while filming a television documentary during El Salvador's civil war. The accused are General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85. In 1993, a UN-sponsored Truth Commission found the journalists had walked into an ambush planned by Reyes, who lives in the United States, and with the knowledge of other officers. The Salvadoran Supreme Court approved an extradition request for Reyes in March, but there has been no progress so far. Garcia and Moran are under police surveillance in a private hospital in San Salvador. The hearing in the northern city of Chalatenango is expected to conclude on Wednesday with a verdict from a five-member jury. If convicted, the defendants face prison sentences of up to 30 years. The trial was closed to the media, but activist Oscar Perez of the Fundacion Comunicandonos confirmed from the courtroom that it was under way. The NGO and the Salvadoran Association for Human Rights hailed the trial as a "decisive step" in the search for truth and justice. "We trust that this trial sets a historic precedent in the fight against impunity," they said in a joint statement. The Netherlands' Costa Rica-based ambassador to Central America, Arjen van den Berg, was in court. The case remained unresolved for decades after the presiding judge received threats in 1988, prompting her to seek refuge in Canada. It was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared an amnesty law for civil war crimes unconstitutional, but relatives of the victims still had to wait years for the main hearing. Evidence such as a statement from a former US military attache and a military expert's report "directly points" to the defendants' responsibility, said lawyer Pedro Cruz, who represents the victims' families.
CBC
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Why I'm Still Here is resonating with audiences both in Brazil and beyond
I'm Still Here is a film set in the '70s amidst a military dictatorship in Brazil. It tells the true story of Eunice Paiva, a woman whose politician husband was kidnapped and executed by the military in 1971. In 2015, her son, Marcelo Rubens Paiva, published his book I'm Still Here, on which the Oscar-nominated film is based. The film's star, Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres, has received an Oscar nod for her performance as Paiva. While her work on the film has been lauded, her campaign for the best actress award has not been without its challenges. Today on Commotion, culture critics Nicole Froio and Jackson Weaver discussTorres's Oscar-nominated performance in I'm Still Here, and how the film's chances of winning big are looking this award season. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube (this segment begins at 10:26): Elamin: Nicole, I'm going to start with you. Tell us a little bit more about the real story behind this family. Nicole: Marcelo decided to write this book because his mother — and this is something that you do see in the film — started getting dementia. The title of the book is a citation from his mother, saying that "I'm still here." Like, "I can still remember." But essentially, he realized that his mother was forgetting things because of dementia, and he wanted to write this book as a way to remember. He delved through a lot of the Truth Commission archives, which was something that came into effect in 2012, to understand where his father was taken and where his mother was taken to be tortured and questioned. So it was both, I think, a movement of interviewing his family, but also coming into contact with a history that a lot of Brazilians, especially right-wing Brazilians, would like to forget. Elamin: Jackson, what do you like about this movie? Jackson: I mean, one of the biggest narratives from this film has been Fernando Torres' amazing performance, which is undeniable. It's earned her the best actress nomination for a reason, because that kind of quiet determination — the whole film centres on how she is able to communicate that. As a kind of ant's-eye view on fascism, it has echoes towards modern-day society — democracy being stripped away, and losing liberties, I don't know if that's ringing any bells — but it's something that we can definitely see in all societies. I know that the director himself has spoken to, maybe accidentally, but he sees mirroring in Brazilian politics right now. So that performance and those messages are definitely strong enough to earn three nominations for not only best actress but best picture, for something that's really affecting people. Elamin: I really like the casual way in which you said, "Does that ring any bells to anybody? Has anybody been watching the news?" Nicole, what's the emotional impact of watching a movie like this? Nicole: I think for me it's been interesting to see outsiders' responses to it, because in Brazil … it's still something that really hits close to my heart. When I watched it the first time I cried, and the second time I also cried. I live in Rio, which is where all of this happened. So I've been to some of the places that they show in the film, and I've experienced the bohemian part of Rio, which is where a lot of intellectuals go out in the street and hang out, and have these conversations. And so, this is something that I live today. To see how that was really taken away, because one of the things that the dictatorship really wanted to do was … to take joy away. Like, it was just a very like nuclear family — no partying, no drinking, no nothing. And so we were being really stripped of pleasure as a people. I think that the movie really, really hit my heart in those ways.
