After 28 Years, Charges for Poisoning Former Chilean President

From: The New York Times
December 8, 2009

Three in Chile Accused of 1980s Crime
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

RIO DE JANEIRO — A judge in Santiago ruled Monday that a former Chilean president, Eduardo Frei Montalva, had been poisoned and charged three people connected with the Pinochet dictatorship with murder in the 28-year-old case.

Alejandro Madrid, a judge with the Court of Appeals, said there was evidence that Mr. Frei, who was president of Chile from 1964 to 1970, was poisoned with low doses of mustard gas and thallium three months before his death on Jan. 22, 1982.

The poisoning at the Santa María Clinic in Chile’s capital compromised Mr. Frei’s immune system, the indictment said, and made him too weak to survive surgery for a stomach ailment, which the original autopsy had ruled as the cause of death.

The indictment charged six people in connection with the killing. A doctor connected to Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s army, a former intelligence agent under the general and Mr. Frei’s driver were charged with murder. Two doctors who were alleged to have falsified the autopsy report were charged with covering up the killing, and a third was charged as an accomplice.

Four of the suspects were in custody on Monday night and two had been released on bail.

At the time of his death, Mr. Frei, who at first had supported the dictatorship, had become the leader of the moderate opposition.

He entered Santa María Clinic in November 1981 for a stomach hernia operation. On Dec. 8, he was found in his room bleeding profusely and suffering from septic shock. Diagnosed with an intestinal obstruction, he was whisked into surgery. A few weeks later he died.

His family had long contended that he had been poisoned.

“There is no doubt that Pinochet ordered this murder,” Álvaro Varela, a lawyer for the Frei family, said in an interview on Monday. “But there are more people involved with different degrees of responsibility and more leads to follow.”

The revelations in the indictment came less than a week before presidential elections in which Senator Eduardo Frei, the son of the late president and a former president himself, is the candidate of the governing Concertación coalition.

The campaign of the opposition candidate Sebastián Piñera questioned the indictment’s timing, saying it may have been intended to build sympathy for Mr. Frei, who is trailing in polls by some 10 percentage points.

Judge Madrid responded by saying that “justice has to be done when the time comes for it,” and noting that when the investigation began in 2000, Mr. Frei was neither a candidate nor a senator.

Mr. Varela said the possibility that Mr. Frei had been murdered first came to light in 2000 when an anonymous caller told a friend of the Frei family that the former president had been poisoned.

Carmen Frei, a daughter of Mr. Frei and a former senator, said in an address to the Senate in 2001 that her father might have been injected with bacteria produced by Eugenio Berríos, a chemist who worked for the military intelligence service. A 2002 book by Jorge Molina, “Imperfect Crime,” also alleged that Mr. Berríos had developed bacteria that were administered to Mr. Frei by intelligence agents. Mr. Berríos was killed in Uruguay in 1995.

A Chilean court agreed to exhume Mr. Frei’s body in 2004. A new autopsy showed the presence of toxic substances and other differences from the original autopsy.

Mr. Frei’s death “was due to the gradual introduction of non-conventional toxic substances,” Judge Madrid told reporters on Monday.

Pascale Bonnefoy contributed reporting from Santiago, Chile.

The mask of Ira Hayes

This is another image (left) I have shared with classes on occasion, mostly due to its iconic status in U.S. collective memory and the way it was later re-staged during 9-11 (below).

This article just appeared today on one of the men behind the Iwo Jima photo, who was featured in the recent film Flags of Our Fathers. The Ira Hayes story is a tragic reminder of the ways in which politics and politicians can manipulate the image of the "war hero" while disregarding the human being behind that image of patriotism and loyalty.

Iwo Jima flag raiser's body 'was never sent to rest'

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous war photographs ever taken — the World War II image of U.S. military personnel raising the flag over Iwo Jima.

Last month, 54 years since his death, his family learned that another image of Hayes, a face mask, had been cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary. The mask of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, Ariz., was made without the family's knowledge and ended up on display at the Gilbert Ortega Museum Gallery of Scottsdale.

"In Pima culture, when you pass on, everything you own is supposed to go with you," says Sharon Cook, a Hayes family member. "They say because of this, Ira's body was never sent to rest."

Kenneth Hayes, 78, received his brother's mask in November from the gallery. Hours later, relatives returned it to the Gila River Indian Reservation where Ira Hayes was born and died, according to Larry Cook, Hayes' grand-nephew.

The mask was broken to bits and buried near the graves of his parents, Sharon Cook says.

The discovery of the mask adds one more chapter to the odyssey of Hayes, who has been depicted in books, films (including Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers) and music.

Amid the final battles of World War II, Cpl. Ira Hamilton Hayes, four other Marines and a Navy corpsman were captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal as they raised the Stars and Stripes.

The 1945 picture, which came to symbolize American courage and patriotism, transformed a troubled Indian kid into an unwilling national celebrity. Hayes was one of only 27 of the company of 250 to survive the battle on Mount Suribachi, according to historical reports.

President Harry Truman declared Hayes a hero and ordered him back to the states to join a tour raising money through the sale of war bonds.

According to S.D. Nelson, who wrote, Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story, the 23-year-old corporal considered his fallen comrades the true heroes. After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Nelson wrote, Hayes returned to his home in the poverty-stricken Gila River Indian Community, seeking solitude — and often turning to alcohol. Hayes died of exposure in 1955 at the age of 32 after getting into a drunken fight during a poker game. His body was found lying in a creek, Larry Cook said.

Gilbert Ortega Jr., the gallery president, says the history of the mask can be found in a one-page document written in 1986 by Shirley Nelson of Yuma: A Phoenix artist named Hortense Johnson went to the funeral parlor and made a cast of Hayes' face. It was her intent to make a bust of Ira.

After Johnson's death, her husband gave the mask to Nelson and her mother. "My mom and I were the only people who knew what it was, so he gave it to us," she says.

In the early 1980s, artist Robert Yellowhair expressed an interest in making a sculpture of Hayes. Nelson says she gave the mask to Yellowhair.

Yellowhair never created the sculpture and in 1995 gave the mask to Gilbert Ortega Sr., owner of Native American art and jewelry stores.

"My dad always prided himself on the mask," Ortega Jr. says. "There's no way to put a value on something like that."

Larry Cook and his great uncle, Kenneth approached Ortega Jr. about donating the mask to Ira's descendants. "I believe it still has the spirit in there, and that's what led the family here," Ortega Jr. says.

Wagner reports for the Arizona Republic

Kent State Shooting Site as a National Historic Site?

Type in "Kent State" in Google images, and the first picture to come up is this one:

I have used this image in several courses when talking about the concept of collective memory, as well as postmemory. Most of my students have seen this photograph, but many aren't sure of the historical period or the place. And though I myself was not even born when this photo was taken, it has a certain significance for me because I hold two degrees from Kent State University, and my uncle was a student here when the shootings occurred. In fact, not only was he a student, but he witnessed many of the events that took place. From my grandmother, I learned about the craziness and anxiety of the weekend of May 4, 1970, and how she and my grandfather struggled to get in touch with their son, hoping he was okay. My uncle was a journalism student, and the journalism building was (I think it still is) located very near to where some of the (fatal) shootings took place -- in an area that is now a parking lot. In 1995, I attended a vigil to mark the 25th anniversary of the shootings; Mary Ann Vecchio, the woman in this photograph -- who, at the time, was a runaway from Florida, not a student on the campus -- was one of the speakers.

Looking back, it seems that every year the campus became divided over whether or not this event ought to "be forgotten" or "be remembered." Letters to the editor of the Daily Kent Stater and the Record Courier complained that the campus and town were stuck in the past or only affiliated with the shootings. Others spoke of the importance of continuing to preserve the memory of those who were wounded and killed so as to prevent something similar from happening again. Still others juxtaposed the tragic loss of life in Vietnam with the "four dead in Ohio." Personally, I never understood why the debate had to be so confined to the "forget/remember" dichotomy. I often think that it was at Kent State that my interest in memory began -- long before I began to study it in graduate school, and in the Spanish context.

My mother just sent me an article regarding putting the Kent State shooting site on the National Register of Historic Places.

From: Cleveland.com (AP)

Kent State shooting site recommended for place on historic register

By Associated Press

December 04, 2009, 2:40PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio is asking that the site of the 1970 Kent State University shootings be added to the National Register of Historic Places.

A state panel on Friday formally nominated 17 acres of the Kent State campus where Ohio National Guard members opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War. Four students at the northeast Ohio school were killed and nine were wounded.

State historians say the area where the shootings occurred has national significance and should be preserved.

Ohio's recommendation goes to the National Park Service for review and a final decision on whether the Kent State site is put on the historic places register. Ohio Historical Society spokeswoman Kim Schuette (SHOO'-tee) says that process is expected to take 90 days.

To me, what is more interesting than the article itself are the comments left by readers following the article -- "they need to give it up and move on" versus "After reading several of these shallow comments, Ohio needs more than ever to guarantee that this site is guaranteed a place on the National Register of Historic Places if only to make us all THINK!" Many of the comments are politically-charged, mostly railing against "leftist" or "communist" college professors and students, implying that the National Guard was right in firing upon the crowd. There are also remarks on Vietnam and Cambodia and George Bush and Iraq.

The debate stirred up every time one mentions Kent State reveals how entrenched the memory of a traumatic event can become, on both a personal and a collective level. It also highlights the place where politics and memory meet and how one historical period can become conflated with another. Does "remembering" Kent State imply, for some, the promotion of a particular political agenda, which they still associate with 60s-era movements? Is this debate over ownership of the past and the narratives created about that past? Who gets to decide who remembers and why?

Víctor Jara's second funeral

I only recently learned that the Chilean folksinger Víctor Jara was buried on my birthday. This week, on the way to work, I was listening to Jara sing, thinking about the first time I heard his voice on a trip to Chile nearly 10 years ago. I was only in the country for a short time, but the singer's image was everywhere, along with that of Mercedes Sosa and Violeta Parra, and I became intrigued (plus, my Chilean friend Luis had given me a book and tape of Parra's poemsongs before my trip). The lyrics of this song by Víctor Jara, "Canto libre" ("Free Song"), have stuck with me:




In the song, Jara sings, "Mi canto es un canto libre / que se quiere regalar / a quien le estreche su mano / a quien quiera disparar" (My song is a free song / that wants to give of itself / to whoever extends his hand / to whoever wants to fire upon it) and "Mi canto es una cadena / sin comienzo ni final / y en cada eslabón se encuentra / el canto de los demás" (My song is a chain / with no beginning or end / and on each link of the chain is found / the song of all the rest)."

These words are especially significant when we think of Jara's torture and death shortly after the Chilean September 11 (1973) - the coup which put Pinochet in power. The most recent autopsy reports, which took place in June 2009, identified 44 bullet wounds in Jara's body, as well as evidence of other torture.

Yesterday, 36 years after his death, a wake was held in Chile for Víctor Jara, attended by his widow, Joan Turner, his children, and the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet. In addition, some 10,000 others attended to honor the singer. In the president's words, "Our country has taken 36 years to return him to Chile and to his family, this Víctor that is ours, that is all of ours" ("Se ha demorado nuestro país 36 años en devolverle a Chile y devolverle a su familia, este Víctor que es nuestro, es de todos nosotros"). A funeral will be held today at 10 am, Chilean time.

Perhaps because I've studied the Spanish case much more than that of Chile, the public funeral for Jara reminds me of some of the more private commemorations and "reburials" that have taken place recently in Spain for the victims of the Franco dictatorship. Everyone deserves to be buried with dignity.

Gendering Historiography

I am so excited to take a look at this book (left)! I just read a very interesting article in the latest issue of the PMLA (special topic: war), which got me thinking again about the often-overlooked connections between memory and gender and all that is still left to explore.

Info:

Gendering Historiography
Beyond National Canons
244 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 3/8
Paper $40.00
ISBN: 9783593389608 Published November 2009

Comparing various European and American historiographies from the past two hundred years, Gendering Historiography provides insights into the establishment and cultivation of gendered power relations in different societies and outlines the devastating effects that exclusionary practices can have on each national canon. This detailed and revealing book will change the face of history writing, bringing overlooked and previously excluded histories back into modern historiography.

War Crimes Fugitives

BBC NEWS
Serbia 'making tribunal progress'
By Mark Lowen
BBC News, Belgrade

The UN's chief war crimes prosecutor has said Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is "progressing".

However, in his report to the UN, Serge Brammertz said Serbia must continue searching for two fugitives.

They are Bosnian-Serb military leader Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, who is wanted for war crimes in Croatia.

Belgrade hopes the largely positive report will help unblock Serbia's European Union hopes.

These were frozen last year by the Dutch government demanding that the fugitives be caught.

EU bid

The Serbian government has been waiting with baited breath for this latest report, eager for the chief prosecutor to make a favourable assessment of Belgrade's performance.

In the end, Mr Brammertz's conclusions were the most positive to date but he noted that Serbia must pursue its attempts to find the two remaining fugitives, who were indicted for war crimes during the 1990s.

In the report, Mr Brammertz said: "Serbia's co-operation with my office has continued to progress.

"Prosecution requests to access documents and archives are being dealt with more expeditiously and effectively... Serbia must maintain these efforts with the clear objective of apprehending the fugitives."

Crucially, the magic words "full co-operation" were not uttered.

That is the phrase that the Netherlands had demanded in order to unfreeze the Interim Trade Agreement - a precursor to Serbia's longed-for EU membership negotiations.

The Dutch government froze the agreement last year, demanding that Serbia prove its commitment to catching the fugitives.

However, Belgrade - and many in Brussels - believe that Serbia's significant progress in its co-operation with the tribunal may now persuade the Dutch to unblock the agreement as early as next week.

This would pave the way for Serbia's formal application for EU membership by the end of the year.

Responding to the report, the Serbian President Boris Tadic said his government is doing everything in its power to locate the two indictees.

It will now be up to the EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday to decide whether to reward Serbia for progress made or maintain pressure on Belgrade, by keeping the door to the EU firmly locked.

John Demjanjuk Case

Questions of the Day: what does this case say to you about the question of justice and reparations in the case of genocidal acts and crimes against humanity? How is the concept of "victim" being defined here?

When I was growing up in northeast Ohio, I often heard about the case of John Demjanjuk. He is currently being tried for the "mass killing of Jews," which he is alleged to have carried out as a Nazi prison guard. He is 89 and was carried into the courtroom on a stretcher today -- his lawyer contends Demjanjuk is very ill and a victim himself, while others claim he is a Nazi criminal putting on a theatrical show.

Read more here: "Demjanjuk trial shows double standards, lawyer says" (BBC)