Tag: dirty war

Chilean state launches search for ‘disappeared’

Chile 1973The families of the men, women and children killed or disappeared during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet will finally have the official support of the state in their search for their missing kin. As Chile prepared to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the military coup on Sept. 11, President Gabriel Boric presented the country's first National Search Plan, aimed at finding and identifying the remains of those who are still missing. So far only 307 sets of remains have been found and identified out of 1,469 officially listed as having been "disappeared" or murdered by the dictatorship. (Photo via BBC News)

Mexico
desaparecidos

Mexico: 60,000 ‘disappeared’ in drug war

Summer of LuddWith the CounterVortex website debilitated by Chinese state-sponsored hackers, chief blogger and ranter Bill Weinberg takes heart in the vibrant scene unfolding this summer in the Lower East Side's Tompkins Square Park—which was kicked off with the anti-tech fest Summer of Ludd. In an historical comparison, Weinberg reads from the December 1966 issue of Paul Krassner's The Realist, in which Robert Anton Wilson wrote on the "cybercultural revolution," and from the Winter 2025 issue of Berkeley anarchist zine Slingshot, in which Anthony Moser rants against Artificial Intelligence. Moser notes how Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki dissed AI-generated anime as "an insult to life itself"—only to have ChatGPT retaliate by targeting his Studio Ghibli for appropriation. In Episode 343, the CounterVortex podcast offers a vigorous defense of authentic human culture, the material world, and real life. (Photo: CounterVortex)

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Montevideo protest

Uruguay: mass march against militarization

No WordsHundreds of Danish veterans and supporters staged a silent march from the historic Kastellet fortress to the US Embassy in Copenhagen as part of a "No Words" mobilization to protest recent US rhetoric that organizers said demeans Denmark's combat contributions alongside American forces. Organizers also linked the march to the status of Greenland, upholding the right of self-determination for the Danish island territory. Recent demands by President Donald Trump for US annexation of Greenland, and comments seeming to question the courage of Danish soldiers, have stirred a sense of betrayal for many in Denmark, particularly those who fought alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Image: No Words)

Southern Cone

Italy hands down sentences in ‘Operation Condor’

DaryaA court in St. Petersburg sentenced 19-year-old activist Daria Kozyreva to two years and eight months in prison for "discrediting the armed forces" by publicly posting 19th-century Ukrainian poetry in protest of Russia's war in Ukraine. On the second anniversary of the start of invasion last February, Kozyreva taped a piece of paper bearing a quote from Testament, by Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko, onto his statue in a St. Petersburg park. The excerpt read: "Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants' blood / The freedom you have gained." (Photo: Mediazona via Novaya Gazeta)

The Andes

Peru: Fujimori pardon revoked; struggle continues

Hugo BustíosPeru's Supreme Court revoked the pardon of ex-dictator Alberto Fujimori, ordering him back to prison. His supporters in Congress are drafting a law to make the pardon permanent, but this is on dubious constitutional grounds and violates international human rights treaties. Meanwhile, survivors of the Fujimori-era "dirty war" continue to seek justice for the crimes of that period. One campaign is to block right-wing candidate Daniel Urresti, accused in the assassination of journalist Hugo Bustíos, from running for mayor of Lima. (Photo: Diario Uno)

Southern Cone

Argentina: 48 ex-officers sentenced in ‘dirty war’

ArgentinaAn Argentine judicial panel sentenced 29 former officials to life in prison, and 19 to between 8-25 years for murder and torture during the military junta's 1976-1983 "Dirty War." The sentencing concluded a five-year trial and represented Argentina's largest verdict to date for crimes against humanity. Collectively, the 48 defendants were charged with the deaths of 789 victims. The crimes were mostly committed at the notorious Higher Naval Mechanics School (ESMA).

Southern Cone

Argentina: protests over ‘disappeared’ activist

ArgentinaTens of thousands of Argentines held protests across the country, demanding answers one month after the disappearance of an indigenous rights activist. Demonstrators held photos of Santiago Maldonado, who was last seen when border police evicted a group of indigenous Mapuche from lands in the southern Patagonia region. In Buenos Aires, protesters converged on the Plaza de Mayo, iconic for its role in the struggle to demand justice for the "disappeared" under the military dictatorship.

Southern Cone

Argentina: ex-judges get life for crimes against humanity

Plaza de MayoA court in the Argentine province of Mendoza sentenced four former federal judges to life in prison for crimes against humanity carried out during the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship. The judges were originally tried as accomplices for failure to investigate the abduction, torture and murder of dissidents. The prosecutors eventually charged the judges as principals, arguing that their inaction led to more disappearances.