DEATH PENALTY-LATIN
AMERICA:
Broad Support for UN
Moratorium
By Fabiana Frayssinet*
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS)
- Many Latin American
governments have not yet
adopted a position, or
have not communicated
one, but the majority
trend in the region
appears to be to support
the resolution for a
moratorium on the death
penalty proposed by a
number of countries to
the United Nations
General Assembly.
The motion in favour of
a global suspension of
executions, which
Amnesty International
describes as only one
step away from outright
abolition of capital
punishment, will be
supported by Brazil,
according to a Foreign
Ministry statement
received by IPS.
The communiqué says that
Brazil’s position at the
U.N. General Assembly
will be "above all to
abolish the death
penalty," as this
country itself did in
1979. At present the
maximum prison sentence
in Brazil is 30 years.
Complete abolition of
capital punishment is
among the human rights
goals Brazil proposed to
the U.N. Human Rights
Council in Geneva, the
Foreign Ministry said.
But if this goal is not
achieved, "Brazil will
support the moratorium,"
and if this is not
agreed either, Brazil
"will keep a watching
brief to ensure that
application of the death
penalty follows
international standards,
that is, international
human rights law," said
the statement from the
centre-left government
of Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva.
Perly Cipriano, deputy
secretary for the
defence of human rights
at the Special
Secretariat on Human
Rights of the Presidency
of Brazil, told IPS that
this is indeed Brazil’s
strategy, and pointed
out that the country has
historically maintained
this stance at
international forums.
However, Cipriano
stressed that although
the death penalty had
been officially
abolished in Brazil,
"hundreds of political
prisoners were killed
during the dictatorship
(1964-1985) in military
and police
establishments, and
those deaths were not
officially recognised."
He said that only
recently had the Lula
administration published
the book "Direito á
Memória e á Verdade"
(The Right to Memory and
Truth), in which for the
first time the state
accepts responsibility
for those deaths.
Argentina, where capital
punishment was abolished
for common crimes in
1984, appears to be
following Brazil’s lead
as regards the
moratorium, proposed for
consideration at the
62nd U.N. General
Assembly, which opened
on Sept. 18, with
general debate beginning
Tuesday.
A source at the
Argentine Foreign
Ministry’s office on
human rights told IPS
that the resolution for
a moratorium, sponsored
by a number of countries
including leading EU
countries, has not yet
been sent to the Néstor
Kirchner administration,
but added that Argentina
"is totally prepared to
support it."
In Venezuela, where
capital punishment was
abolished by the
constitution for all
crimes in 1863, no
official position for
the U.N. General
Assembly has yet been
taken. However, sources
consulted by IPS said
the government is
leaning towards voting
in favour of the
international moratorium
on executions.
Caracas is also likely
to give its support to
Mexico City, which
formally abolished the
last vestiges of the
death penalty in the
armed forces in 2005. In
practice, though, no one
has been executed in
Mexico since 1961.
Sources at the Mexican
Foreign Ministry told
IPS that the question
has not yet been
defined, but said at the
same time that the
administration of Felipe
Calderón "is completely
against the death
penalty."
The most likely outcome
is that Mexico will
support the proposal. At
the second summit
between Mexico and the
EU, held in Guadalajara,
Mexico in May 2004, the
parties signed an
agreement, article 7 of
which declared "a firm
mutual commitment" to
the universal abolition
of capital punishment.
Calderón belongs to the
conservative National
Action Party (PAN),
which is against capital
punishment. The Mexican
Supreme Court will not
extradite any person to
a country where they
might face the risk of
being sentenced to
death.
However, in Peru,
President Alan García
has other ideas. He
wants to bring back the
death penalty and has
introduced a draft law
to that effect in
Congress, where it has
not yet been debated.
Activists therefore take
the view that Peru will
oppose the moratorium.
"If the governing party
lawmakers are in favour
of the death penalty,
Peru will vote against
the moratorium at the
U.N.," the president of
the local chapter of
Amnesty International,
Ismael Vega Díaz, told
IPS.
Cuba and Guatemala are
the only countries in
Latin America that
retain the death penalty
for ordinary crimes. It
has been abolished even
for the military courts
by Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Honduras,
Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
But this is not the case
in Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, El
Salvador and Peru, where
the death penalty is
retained for exceptional
circumstances, under the
Military Code and for
certain crimes in
wartime.
The generalised
opposition to capital
punishment by
governments in the
region does not,
however, keep the issue
from cropping up again
during periods of
increased public
insecurity, when certain
sectors begin to
advocate reinstatement.
This happened in
Argentina in the 1990s,
when amid a wave of
violent robberies and
kidnappings, then
President Carlos Menem
(1989-1999) suggested
reinstating the death
penalty for cases of
kidnapping in which the
hostages were
subsequently murdered.
However, human rights
organisations mobilised
against the initiative
and it did not prosper.
In Brazil, too, the
debate has been
reactivated by the
increasing sense of
urban insecurity. Eloisa
Machado and Daniela
Ikawa, of the Sao
Paulo-based Conectas
Human Rights, told IPS
that "the view that
social problems will be
solved by stiffer
sentences is
widespread."
But that just appears to
be "an easy way out,
whereas it’s completely
inefficient as a
solution for the
problems that deeply
afflict a large part of
Brazilian society, such
as poverty,
unemployment, poor
quality education,
inadequate housing and
the lack of human
security," for which
structural solutions are
needed, the human rights
lawyers said.
In Mexico, in spite of
the government’s stance
against the death
penalty, debate is
stirring again, although
without any changes in
practice.
According to a February
opinion poll by AP-Ipsos
in Mexico, 71 percent of
respondents were in
favour of the death
penalty and 26 percent
were against. However,
when the question was
put differently and
interviewees were asked
to select a penalty for
a person found guilty of
murder, only 46 percent
chose capital
punishment.
Meanwhile, Peru may join
Cuba and Guatemala if
the García
administration’s draft
law, reintroducing the
death penalty for
rapists of children
under seven who kill
their victims, is
passed.
The initiative will be
debated again in the
Constitutional
Commission, the
commission chairman
Javier Velásquez
Quesquén told IPS,
because "conditions are
now more favourable" for
its approval.
Velásquez Quesquén
pointed out that this
was an electoral promise
of García’s, as "the
country wants tougher
sentences for sex
offenders."
Amnesty’s Vega Díaz said
he was concerned by the
announcement. "When the
International Day
Against the Death
Penalty is coming up (on
Oct. 10), it’s very bad
news that the governing
party is insisting on
its bill" to reinstate
it, he said.
In Guatemala the death
penalty is on the books,
but there have been no
executions since 2000
because of a legal
vacuum which prevents
condemned prisoners from
asking for a
presidential pardon, and
exhausting all legal
means of defence.
During the
administration of
Alfonso Portillo
(2000-2004), Congress
repealed the 1892
Pardons Law. Since then
the country has lacked
procedures for convicts
to exercise their right
to apply for a pardon,
an amnesty or a commuted
sentence.
In order to overcome the
impasse that has been
keeping 21 death row
inmates in limbo, the
rightwing Unionist Party
(PU) submitted a draft
law to Congress in 2006
that would restore the
procedure for applying
for a presidential
pardon.
* With additional
reporting by Marcela
Valente (Argentina),
Diego Cevallos (Mexico),
Ángel Páez (Peru) and
Humberto Márquez
(Venezuela). |
