The summer of 1980 was a bit-
ter season for human rights in
Latin America, kicked off by a mili-
tary coup in Bolivia and capped by
a phony plebiscite in Chile. Bodies
of Argentine dissidents turned up
in Lima and Madrid. Amnesty In-
ternational reported a dramatic in-
crease in “political arrests and
systematic torture” in Chile. And
Brazilian terror squads reap-
peared after a short hiatus, to reg-
ister their opposition to “liberaliza-
tion” with bombs.
In Central America, the war
continued against the Indians,
peasants and trade unionists of
Guatemala, whose Vice-President
resigned in protest against human
rights abuses; against the popular
organizations and armies of El Sal-
tador, where the year’s death toll
climbed to 5,000; and against
striking workers in Honduras.
The trend evidenced by these
events was the subject of a three-
Jay seminar in mid-August, hosted
)y the government of Ecuador and
:he Latin American Institute of So-
cial Research (ILDIS), with head-
quarters in Quito. The conference,
a sequel to one held in November
1979 in Quito, culminated in the
creation of a Latin American Asso-
ciation for Human Rights-the
:irst continental organization of its
ype. NACLA, represented by staff
member Janet Shenk, attended
ihis founding conference as an ob-
server.
Much of the impetus for the
:onference came from Ecuador’s
iew President, Jaime Roldos,
Nhose inauguration in August
1979 ended seven years of military
dictatorship. Facing serious do-
mestic obstacles to his proposals
for economic and social reform,
Roldos has sought to shine in the
international arena by leading An-
dean opposition to the Bolivian
coup, by opposing a United States
proposal for a “peacekeeping
force” in Nicaragua prior toSomo-
za’s downfall, and by pledging sim-
ilar opposition to any U.S. attempt
at “multilateral” intervention in El
Salvador.
The composition of the Quito
conference reflected the need to
unite all democratic forces in
Latin America against an increas-
ingly united and audacious enemy.
Again and again, the alarm was
sounded that the winds of fascism
are blowing from the south, threa-
tening to consume the entire con-
tinent.
Jaime Paz, Vice-President-elect
of Bolivia and now the official inter-
national representative of the
46
HUMAN RIGHTS
A New Voiceupdate * update * update * update
Siles Suazo government-in-clan-
destinity, made the point most
forcefully: “Bolivia is an ideologi-
cal frontier,” he said, “between
the democracies to the north (re-
ferring to the newly elected gov-
ernments of Peru and Ecuador)
and dictatorships to the south.”
Paz denounced the blatant partici-
pation of the Argentine military in
planning and executing the coup,
and warned that a new “Interna-
tional” is taking shape, composed
of the dictatorships of Argentina,
Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and now
Bolivia. “This is not the 189th
coup in Bolivia’s sad history,” he
said. “It is the first coup in an en-
tirely new international context.”
Social Democracy, an increas-
ingly important current in Latin
America, was present at the con-
ference in force. Carlos Andrez
Perez, ex-President of Venezuela,
and Daniel Oduber, ex-President
of Costa Rica, represented their
respective parties. Jose Fran-
cisco Pena Gomez, General Sec-
retary of the Dominican Revolu-
tionary Party (PRD) also came as
President of the Socialist Interna-
tional for Latin America and the
Caribbean. Ruben Berrios repre-
sented the Pro-Independence Par-
ty (PIP) of Puerto Rico and Leonel
Brizzola spoke for the Brazilian
Workers’ Party (PTB).
Adding to the political pluralism
of the conference were Gustavo
Carvajal, president of Mexico’s
ruling party (PRI), Santiago Diaz of
Cuba, Ernesto Cardenal of Nicara-
gua, Hector Campora, ex-Presi-
dent of Argentina, and three repre-
sentatives of El Salvador’s Demo-
cratic Revolutionary Front-to
name only a few.
Despite the marked under-rep-
resentation of Latin American re-
volutionary movements, the tone
46
of the conference was surprisingly
radical in its analysis of the causes
of democratic demise and alterna-
tives to dictatorial rule. Radomiro
Tomic, founder of the Christian
Democratic Party of Chile, set a
recurrent theme in a brilliant expo-
sition of the incompatibility be-
tween capitalism and democracy
in Latin America. The first justifica-
tion for any coup d’etat, said
Tomic, is that “freedom must be
preserved.” But the freedom re-
ferred to is strictly economic.
“Freedom under capitalism
means that lions are free to eat
rabbits and vice-versa, but the
vice-versa never happens.”
The rejection of traditional no-
tions of representative democracy
and the need for a “democracy of
a new type” was a second major
theme of the conference. Tomic
defined representative democra-
cy as “waiting on line to vote every
four years,” while a progressive
alienation and apathy sets in.
Ecuadorian President Jaime Rol-
dos declared that “no frontier sep-
arates formal constitutionalism
from dictatorship,” and called for
an authentic democracy based on
popular participation. As he spoke,
two Ecuadorean dissidents stood
silently near the podium, bearing
placards that denounced Ecua-
dor’s own new “National Security
Law,” which grants special, anti-
democratic powers to the state in
the event of broadly defined
threats to “national security.”
The sharpest plea for participa-
tory democracy came from Mon-
senor Leonidas Proa-no, the Ecua-
dorean Bishop of Riobamba and
spokesperson for radical currents
within the Catholic Church.
“These conferences are all well
and good,” said the Bishop. “But
we must consider the people’s
need to know their own rights and
to organize themselves to defend
them.”
Like all such conferences, this
one was marked by endless
speeches and denunciations of
conditions in country after country
that ultimately numb the listener to
further outrage. Yet delegates sat
in stunned silence after the
screening of a new film, entitled
“El Salvador, 1980,” which clearly
demonstrates that repression and
terror have eclipsed the reformist
pretensions of the military/civilian
junta there. Representatives of the
Revolutionary Democratic Front
received a standing ovation after
the film, while the final declaration
of the conference recognized the
FDR as the “legitimate expression
of the majority of the Salvadorean
people.” The document also de-
fends the people’s right to armed
insurrection, when all peaceful
means have failed.
A New Voice
The new Latin American Asso-
ciation for Human Rights was cre-
ated by the conference as a non-
governmental, regional body with
headquarters in Quito. Its honor-
ary presidents are Jaime Roldos of
Ecuador and Hernan Siles Suazo,
President-in-clandestinity of Boli-
via. An Executive Committee of 12
is headed by Venezuela’s Carlos
Andres Perez, with Horatio Sevilla
of Ecuador as Executive Secre-
tary of the new Association.
The Association cites among its
objectives: to promote human
rights in the broadest sense of the
term, including civil, political, eco-
nomic, social and cultural rights;
to elaborate a strategy to defend
human rights in Latin America;
and to coordinate and support the
efforts of national and regional
bodies concerned with human
rights.
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