[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 111 (Friday, August 7, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1594-E1595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRUE REALITIES OF OUR HEMISPHERE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 6, 1998

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, with an eye toward this country's emerging 
all-embracing trade arrangement with our Latin American neighbors, as 
outlined in the recent second heads-of-government meeting at the Summit 
of the Americas in Chile, we in this country would do well to better 
familiarize ourselves with the true realities found in the rest of the 
hemisphere. We will then be in a better position to discharge our 
responsibility of expressing some words of caution or encouragement to 
our citizens and U.S.-based corporations that are considering whether 
to make investments throughout the region, including in Argentina.
  Over the last few years, Latin America undoubtedly has made genuine 
improvements in the fields of economic development as well as in its 
observance of minimal standards of human rights, but much work remains 
to be done regarding the region's respect for the rule of law. This was 
one of the main points made in a major article in the July 27th issues 
of the highly regarded British publication, The Financial Times, in 
which judicial corruption was listed as a major problem in Argentina 
today. Similar articles have indicated that problems stemming from a 
tainted judiciary are found throughout the region.
  We are familiar with the need to wage similar battles in the U.S. to 
achieve the observance of justice and tough human rights standards, so 
we cannot be smug over such matters. But we can and must be forthright 
in expressing our opinions when the well being of our fellow citizens 
may be at stake and the welfare of one of our neighbor's citizens is 
being flagrantly flouted. After all, the same judiciary that protects 
the human rights of its own citizens in Latin America also enforces 
commercial law respecting foreign investments.
  It is for this reason that, with alarm, we read reports issued by the 
OAS and USAID, as well as by the State Department, speaking about the 
inadequacies of the Latin American judiciaries, where the presence of 
corruption and venality is at times, almost beyond exaggeration, be it 
in Honduras--perhaps the worst case of a venal judiciary in the 
hemisphere, or Argentina (one of the worst). Without an honest 
judiciary there is no level playing field and no reliable rules of the 
game. The pseudo integrity of the Latin American court system is only 
rivaled in scope by the substitution of democratic form in place of 
substance in much of the region. This reality has to be of great 
concern to us.
  Argentina is a good example of may of these points. Despite Buenos 
Aires' continued claim that it is reforming its admittedly gangster-
like judiciary into one that is less at the mercy of politics, 
cronyism, influence peddling and payoffs, and more into one that can 
fearlessly uphold and conform to the country's constitution, there are 
good reasons to believe that its court system is apparently taking 
serious steps backwards. This is the case in spite of the fact that 
Argentine justice officials have begun to put together the long 
promised ``Consejo de la Magistratura,'' which is a judicial oversight 
committee.
  Unfortunately, the brutal military dictatorship, which wiped out a 
generation of democratic leaders during Argentina's ``Dirty War'' and 
drove much of its intellectual class into exile, has left a malodorous 
legacy in the person of many of the judges it selected who still sit on 
the country's bench. For years, the judiciary has enjoyed a period of 
relative anonymity from the scrutiny its tawdry performance all but 
required, but today it is subject for close examination by the 
international community, including the aforementioned issue of The 
Financial Times.

  One example of the many instances of serious miscarriages of justice 
that have taken place in that country is provided by the bizarre case 
of the Buenos Aires Yoga School (BAYS), of which the following article 
from the

[[Page E1595]]

Council on Hemispheric Affairs' distinguished biweekly publication, the 
Washington Report on the Hemisphere, provides a thorough critique. This 
includes outlandish tactics which that highly regarded Buenos Aires 
cultural and educational institution has had to endure at the hands of 
extremist and unprincipled elements of the Argentine judiciary.
  We all have heard stories concerning the continued legacy of 
corruption and disregard for constitutional guarantees that exists in 
Argentina. These have been compounded by the long tradition of virulent 
anti-Semitism in the country, as exemplified by the sanctuary that a 
succession of Argentine presidents provided to fleeing World War II war 
criminals of the Nazi era. Other examples of outrageous behavior on the 
part of local Argentine authorities have been the Keystone cop antics 
surrounding the farcical investigation of the bombings of two Jewish-
related Buenos Aires facilities in the last few years, at a cost of 
over 100 lives. Last April, a delegation of our Hill colleagues went to 
Argentina, where they were diligent in promoting the cause of human 
rights, and in urging the local authorities to investigate the 
unresolved bombing of the AMIA, one of the two aforementioned wantonly 
destroyed Jewish facilities.
  We now have another opportunity to take action in helping to 
strengthen Argentine democracy. Unfortunately, as in this country we 
must face the fact that religious and racial persecution is found in 
many places in the Americas, representing a frontier that the 
international conscience must strive to conquer. Unequivocally, the 
facts surrounding the treatment of the Buenos Aries Yoga School reveal 
that this is one of a number of disturbing instances where injustice 
has been done: where the courts have served as a persecutor of the 
human spirit, rather than its defender. The reason that this highly 
regarded institution of scholars, professionals and others seeking an 
inner light has been singled our for threats, intimidation, sexual 
harassment and a campaign of terror largely is because many of its 
members are highly distinguished cultural, professional, and academic 
figures of Jewish background. COHA's article on the ordeal experienced 
by BAYS sheds some light on the tribulations that all those in this 
country who really care about democracy will have to be concerned 
about. I call upon my colleagues to carefully read the following 
article by the director of the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, Larry 
Birns, and COHA research associate, Anna M. Busch.

                     Council on Hemispheric Affairs


              Argentina's Flawed Court, Corrupted Society

                     By Larry Birns and Anna Busch

       After years of being held in contempt by most Argentines 
     because of its lack of professionalism and absence of even 
     elemental integrity, the Buenos Aires police force has begun 
     the protracted task of cleansing its own Augean stable, 
     easily among the hemisphere's most egregiously corrupted 
     institutions. Last December, 2,000 of its personnel were 
     terminated and almost 50,000 were implicated in some form of 
     corrupt practices.
       The pressing need for massive restructuring in the police's 
     selection and training procedures was highlighted by the 
     alleged involvement of Buenos Aires' assistant police chief 
     in the bombing of a Jewish community building, resulting in 
     almost 100 deaths. Five years was then wasted on a 
     scandalously farcical investigation. Although such facts have 
     become widely known to the Argentine public, its 
     sensibilities have been dulled by the hecatomb of corruption 
     charges leveled from all directions at the government of 
     President Carlos Menem.
       Merely one of hundreds of examples where Argentine justice 
     is chronically denied or manipulated to serve the ends of 
     cronyism and venality, is the fate of the Buenos Aires Yoga 
     School (BAYS), a tiny entity devoted to pursuing education 
     and philosophic studies, akin to New England's literary 
     Athenaeum movement of a century ago.
       Although BAYS' ordeal has been hardly remarkable, it well 
     illustrates the grevious condition of one of Argentina's 
     basic institutions--its notoriously flawed court system. BAYS 
     regards itself as an apolitical, non-religious, NGO. The 
     Argentine government calls it a cult. The group has attracted 
     a long list of tributes for its work in the fields of public 
     health and in the war against drugs. In the arts, BAYS 
     members also has made their mark through composing a number 
     of major works, including an opera, a ballet, and a symphony, 
     which have won plaudits worldwide. Nevertheless, the group 
     has been greeted with singular hostility in Argentina.
       A motivating factor for the judiciary's prejudice against 
     BAYS is the high percentage of Jews in its leadership as well 
     as among its members (no small fact in a country which is 
     anti-Semitic to its marrow).
       Legal proceedings against BAYS' members were initiated in 
     1993, and were accompanied by an unrelieved spate of hostile 
     media coverage. The original trial judge was well-known for 
     his neo-nazi ideology, redolent of that of the brutal 
     military regime that had seized power in 1976, and which 
     ruled for almost a decade through a level of violence 
     unparalleled in Argentine history. The complaint against BAYS 
     was entered as a counter suit to one filed by one of its own 
     members, a 24-year-old student who accused her stepfather, a 
     former employee of the military junta, of sexually molesting 
     her. In turn, the stepfather charged that his stepdaughter 
     was a victim of a cult which had ``corrupted'' her. The judge 
     eventually recused himself, but only under pressure of his 
     own imminent Senate impeachment on charges of having 
     committed scores of illegal acts against BAYS. He imprisoned 
     the innocent and demanded that children testify, but not in 
     the presence of their parents or attorney, he questioned 
     defendants for hundred-hour stints, carried out more than 
     thirty illegal searches including raiding the offices of the 
     defendant's attorneys, as well as authorizing the stealing of 
     evidence.
       The judge, well known for his sleaziness and his sexual 
     improprieties, also insisted at the time that he was removing 
     himself from the case only because he had been ``bewitched'' 
     by the group. He then handed it to a fellow right-winger. 
     Although the new judge favored a more discreet approach, he 
     could barely contain his personal antipathy toward BAYS, 
     capriciously adding fraud and larceny to the existing 
     charges. He also openly ignored a superior court's decision 
     nullifying part of the case on the grounds that no convincing 
     evidence against BAYS was established. Nevertheless, the 
     judge refused to invalidate the previous illegal actions 
     sanctioned by his predecessor, and proceeded to recklessly 
     indict even more individuals, as well as ignoring that the 
     statute of limitations had run out.
       BAYS' fate is illustrative of the corruption, bigotry and 
     criminality that pervades every level of Argentina's court 
     system and also infects its broader society. The nation's 
     ill-reputed judiciary and police force are a liability for 
     the nation's reputation abroad, which could hurt the country 
     from fully benefiting from the opportunities afforded by the 
     regional trade pact, Mercosur, as well as the FTAA, once 
     enacted.
       Demonstrably, Argentina is far less along the democratic 
     continuum than Presidents Menem and Clinton wrongfully insist 
     it is. On the eve of the Santiago Summit, in his speech gave 
     to the Chilean legislature, President Clinton stressed the 
     theme of ``deepening'' democratic institutions (millions of 
     dollars already have been allocated from abroad to reform 
     Argentina's bedeviled judiciary). Argentina and other 
     hemispheric nations desperately need that ``deepening'' to 
     make credible the now pseudo-democratic nature of their 
     institutions.
       It hasn't helped that Menem fosters political cynicism as 
     his modus operandi, rather than providing genuine leadership 
     or anything approaching a vision. His lack of class and his 
     inability to comprehend strong ethical standards, has left 
     the country without a moral compass. His readiness to 
     participate in the cover up of a number of infamous cases, 
     including the bombing of two Jewish entities, with heavy loss 
     of life has emphasized the desperate need for reforming the 
     region's deplorable court systems, beginning with 
     Argentina's.

     

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