[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 26006-26007]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             THE BAYS CASE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DONALD M. PAYNE

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 19, 1999

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring an issue to this 
House's attention. I would like to make public an article on the BAYS 
case. To the consternation of Argentine officials, the Buenos Aires 
Yoga School (BAYS) affair is assuming a rising profile on the sparsely 
populated plains of U.S.-Argentine relations. More than 50 Democratic 
and Republican House members have now sent letters to President Menem 
asking him to halt in the persecuting of the literary and social 
organization. The 300-strong group, which includes some illustrious 
intellectuals, has shrunk from a peak membership of 1,000 due to the 
unremitting harassment it has suffered at the hands of the authorities.
  For six years, the case has been enmeshed in Argentina's stygian 
court system, which has been classified by several international 
business groups as being among the world's most corrupt. Six years ago, 
when the case first broke, the local press saw BAYS as an Argentine 
version of Jonestown, even though not a single reporter bothered to 
closely investigate any of the specious charges lodged against it. 
Argentina's journalists now see this as a potboiler performance which 
many have come to regret. After a first wave of tabloid journalism 
faded, a code of silence descended on the case until recently, when 
several young BAYS members, with no budget, came to Washington and 
proceeded to work Congress in search of the justice they were denied in 
their native country. President Clinton has now written two letters on 
the case, expressing his concern over the apparent malfunctioning of 
proper legal procedures. He has also asked that the U.S. embassy in 
Buenos Aires ``encourage Argentine authorities to respond fully to 
congressional correspondence on this matter.''


                        Bewitched and bewildered

  The BAYS case was originally presided over by Judge Mariano Berges 
from December 1993 until November 1995 when, after a short interregnum, 
it was taken over by Judge Julio Cesar Corvalan de la Colina. As a 
result of these excesses, Berges was brought before

[[Page 26007]]

the Argentine Congress' Impeachment Committee on charges of non-
professional behavior involving 138 irregularities and several serious 
crimes regarding BAYS alone. Radical Party members on the committee 
supported Berges, which startled many observers wary of the Party's 
corruption problems stemming from the Alfonsin-led Radical government 
of the 1980s. But, in spite of its delegation's stance, the entire 
Impeachment committee moved to indict Berges for abuse of power and 
failure in his public duties. He insisted that BAYS had ``cast a spell 
on him,'' and then withdrew from the case. Although no ultimate action 
was taken, the case eventually was handed over to Corvalan, who now 
presides.


                       Dr. Corvalan, Psychiatrist

  Instead of applying responsible jurisprudence in the BAYS case, Judge 
Corvalan grossly compounded his predecessor's malfeasance. Engaging in 
flagrant misuse of his powers, Corvalan emulated the worst practices of 
the Stalinist era by condemning BAYS members on grounds of poor mental 
health, without considering due process. Corvalan, who was appointed to 
the bench under the Argentine military junta (and maintained his 
position due to Alfonsin's intervention), declared the two BAYS members 
``mentally incompetent,'' and awarded legal custody over them to their 
long-estranged mothers. His ruling was upheld by an Appellate Court, 
even though the psychological exams of the BAYS defendants were 
administered by a court-appointed forensic team, and showed them of 
sound mind. These mental health specialists also established that one 
defendant has been sexually abused by her family. If this wasn't 
Argentina--a country featuring daily scandals--it would be 
inconceivable that a judge, ignoring expert testimony and with no 
concrete evidence, would award custody of a 27-year old woman to the 
very person who she previously had charged with sexual depravity. After 
being armed with such powers, the mother promptly filed a bondage suit 
against BAYS in the name of her daughter. After a recent mission to 
Argentina by the Council on Hemisphere Affairs, the members expressed 
their concern in a letter to President Clinton: ``The Delegation found 
many legal and judicial irregularities. . . .'' Argentine human rights 
organizations have begun to denounce the anti-BAYS actions committed by 
judicial officials.
  Nobel laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel found that Corvalan's ruling on 
BAYS ``begs to be investigated,'' and the famed Mothers of Plaza de 
Mayo concluded that he had violated Article 16 of the International 
Treaty on Civil and Political Rights. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de 
Mayo maintained that Corvalan's actions ``are similar to those 
committed against citizens during Argentina's dirty war. . . .'' 
Corvalan's removal from the BAYS case has been requested before the 
Council of Magistrates, a new institution that evaluates judicial 
impropriety and instances of corruption. The case is now being heard by 
its ``Accusation Commission,'' headed by Radical Representative 
Cruchaga. Thus, the case was destined to be dismissed, but due to the 
persistence of Council member Miguel Angel Picchetto, who argued that 
the charges against Corvalan must be heard, Cruchaga announced that 
because of the ``international interest'' in the case, a hearing would 
be held. The petition for relief filed by the BAYS defendants has been 
warmly supported by, among others, the distinguished physicist and 
human rights figure Dr. Federico Westerkamp, the Argentine League for 
the Rights of Man, and members of the Argentine House Human Rights 
Commission.
  The proceedings against Corvalan are attracting wide dissemination 
because challenging the judge's multiple transgressions is seen as an 
important milestone in Argentina's laborious struggle to earn the 
emblems of an authentic democracy and to somehow neutralize judicial 
and political corruption.

                          ____________________