IDEALS

BUENOS AIRES, (Aug. 10, 2009) IPS/GIN – Leonardo Henrichsen turned
his film camera on the soldier who was aiming at him and held it
steady until he was shot to death. But the justice system never
caught up with the killer of the Argentine journalist, murdered 36
years ago in Chile while he was filming a military uprising for
Swedish television.

Less than three months later a coup d’Çtat against socialist
President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) ushered in the 17-year
dictatorship of the late general Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

The abortive military rebellion known as the “tanquetazo” (tank
putsch) was put down in a few hours by troops loyal to the leftwing
Popular Unity government, in a battle in central Santiago close to
the presidential palace of La Moneda, where Allende died 11 weeks
later in an aerial bombardment unleashed by Pinochet’s forces.

The tanquetazo left 22 civilians dead, among them Henrichsen, a
33-year-old correspondent in Chile for Swedish Public Service
Television (SVT) who filmed the soldiers who shot him at close
range. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (Aug. 22, 2009) IPS/GIN – The ships that bring
thousands of tourists to Antarctica to take in some of the most
pristine landscapes in the world will have to adapt to new marine
environmental standards, which could be stricter than those
requested by the members of the Antarctic Treaty.

The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Marine Environment
Protection Committee proposed a change to an annex of the 1973
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
that would ban the transport and use of heavy grade oil, bitumen,
and tar by sea craft in Antarctic waters.

The Committee approved the proposal at its last meeting, held Jul.
13-17 in London. But its adoption, which could include further
modifications, will be decided at the next session, in March 2010. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (Aug. 22, 2009) IPS/GIN – Keeping a hospital
appointment in the Argentine capital is a far less fearsome ordeal
for transgender persons when they are accompanied by trained health
promoters who, like them, have chosen a different gender identity.

“It’s easier to communicate among ourselves than with hospital
staff,” Valeria Ram°rez, a transgender promoter with the city of
Buenos Aires’ Program to Facilitate Access to the Health System for
the Transgender Population, told IPS.

In place since 2007, the strategy has increased the frequency of
consultation and health check-ups by this marginalised community,
as well as boosting the immune systems of those infected with
HIV/AIDS. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (Aug. 19, 2009) IPS/GIN – Nearly five years after a
fire in a night club in the Argentine capital claimed the lives of
194 young people, a court sentenced the club manager and several
city officials Wednesday. But the judges absolved the members of
the band that was playing that night, touching off angry reactions
from families of the victims waiting outside the courthouse.

In a unanimous ruling handed down a year after the trial opened in
Buenos Aires against 15 defendants, a panel of three judges issued
sentences of between 18 and 20 years for Omar Chab n, the former
manager of the Rep£blica Croma¤¢n club; Carlos D¡az, a senior
police official; and Diego Arga¤araz, the manager of the rock band
Callejeros, which was on stage the night of the fire, Dec. 30,
2004. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (Aug. 19, 2009) IPS/GIN – Trials for human rights
crimes committed by the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina,
reopened four years ago after amnesty laws were struck down, are
moving at such a slow pace that so far only 50 people have been
convicted. At this rate it is estimated proceedings will continue
for another 15 years.

“The problem is that the sheer scale of what happened is diluted
that way,” prosecutor Eduardo Auat, head of the unit for
coordination and monitoring of cases of human rights violations
under state terrorism, which is in charge of facilitating and
expediting the trials being held all over the country, told IPS. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (May 24, 2010) IPS/GIN – As Argentina celebrates the
bicentennial of the revolution that paved the way for independence
from Spain, the promise of social progress remains unfulfilled for
excluded and marginalized groups.

Indians, slaves and gauchos (cowboys) were the largest and poorest
groups in colonial society in May 1810. Today, their place is
filled by the country’s poor, unemployed slum dwellers and homeless
people who often lack access to decent education and health care.

Read the rest of this entry →

“Violence against
women is not only domestic, it also happens in the streets. Not
having the right to feel safe in a city square or at a bus stop
without someone bothering us, that’s also violence.”

This “discovery,” as she called it, was described to IPS by Ofelia
Retamoso, who lives in the east-central Argentine city of Rosario,
300 km northwest of Buenos Aires.

Rosario is one of the Latin American cities taking part in the
regional programme “Cities Without Violence Against Women, Safe
Cities For All”.

Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (May 19, 2010) IPS/GIN – In the 1830s, the sheer
abundance and diversity of plants and animals in Argentina –
whether on land or in the water — astounded British naturalist
Charles Darwin during his famed tours of South America.

Nearly two centuries later, as Argentina celebrates the
bicentennial of its first independent government, the country’s
natural resources are severely depleted. Forests, soils, water
sources, flora and fauna are all threatened to some degree. Read the rest of this entry →

BUENOS AIRES, (May 3, 2010) IPS/GIN – The Union of South American
Nations (UNASUR), still institutionally rather flimsy according to
analysts, is holding a summit meeting in Argentina Tuesday to deal
with immediate issues, while the medium and long-term items on its
agenda remain pending.

“So far, UNASUR has been fairly effective — within the limits of
its own design — at containing public evils, but not at boosting
the public good,” Federico Merke, professor of international
relations theory at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires,
told IPS.

This was his summary of the brief history and prospects of UNASUR,
created in May 2008 in Brasilia and made up of Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname,
Uruguay and Venezuela.

The member countries’ leaders are meeting in Campana, in Buenos
Aires province, about 60 kilometers northwest of the Argentine
capital. Read the rest of this entry →

CAMPANA, Argentina, (May 4, 2010) IPS/GIN – The governments of the
South American Union of Nations (UNASUR) confirmed their refusal
to recognize the government of Honduras and named former Argentine
President Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) as the regional bloc’s first
secretary general Tuesday.

Leaders of the 12 members of the two-year-old UNASUR appointed
Kirchner, the husband of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez,
during the summit in Campana, 60 km north of Buenos Aires. Read the rest of this entry →