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Peru Will Hold Torturers Accountable: Why Can't the U.S. Do the Same?

Posted by Allison Kilkenny, True/Slant at 8:00 AM on October 20, 2009.


The door will be left open for future abuses as long as the U.S. skirts the issue.

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A British mining corporation is facing a multimillion-pound claim for damages after protesters were detained and allegedly tortured at an opencast copper plant that the firm is seeking to develop in the mountains of northern Peru.

via British mining company faces damages claim after allegations of torture in Peru | World news | The Guardian

This story is interesting for two reasons. First, it’s a disturbing example of "corporate torture" where a powerful corporation, in this case a mining company called Monterrico Metals, operates under such a wide umbrella of immunity that the corporation’s managers feel they can justifiably torture workers without fear of one day being forced to pay restitution to their victims.

Peruvian protesters say police, who they claim were being directed by the mine’s managers, sprayed noxious substances in their faces before they were hooded, beaten with sticks, and whipped. Two female protesters say they were sexually assaulted and threatened with rape. Certainly, Monterrico Metals deserves to be held accountable for its managers’ actions if these allegations are true.

Second, this story is important because it shows a willingness on Peru’s part to seek accountability for this example of corporate torture, while the U.S. government continues to skirt, and in some cases avoid, prosecuting high-level officials responsible for torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

Interrogation and detentions implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of at least 100 detainees, and while some of those deaths were caused by “bad apple” interrogators, many deaths were caused by torture methods authorized at the highest levels of George W. Bush’s White House. Attorney General Eric Holder’s myopic method of limiting investigations to the grunts responsible for the brawn side of torture is as pointless as if Peru limited its torture accountability to the cops responsible for the physical aspects of the assaults on workers. Yes, the police must be held accountable, but so too must the managers who passed along the orders, and the corporate masters who have permitted such a reckless culture to ferment under their watch.

Similarly, those U.S. government suits that pass along torture orders are no less guilty of torture than the soldiers who actually carried out the torture’s physical aspects. That’s why it is not cliché or radical to demand the U.S. hold our own torturers (at all levels) to the same level of accountability as British mining corporations.

Indeed, at this point, it’s actually the very least the U.S. government can do. International laws have already been broken. If the U.S. refuses to prosecute the guilty parties in a one-tier justice system where all officials face the same standards of punishment, the door has officially been left open to future officials who will be permitted to torture, and do whatever else they desire, in a system of total immunity for the rich and powerful.

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Tagged as: torture, interrogation, peru, eric holder

Allison Kilkenny co-hosts Citizen Radio, the alternative political radio show. G. Gordon Liddy once told her her writing makes him want to vomit, which is the greatest compliment she's ever been paid, ever.


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Torture is part of the American Culture
Posted by: kettleblack on Oct 20, 2009 8:28 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Anybody who has participated in Hazing knows this to be true.
The pictures from Abu Graib look like scenes from a college frat party.
The real torture pictures were kept from us.

Americans worship power, so the powerful get away with anything. Why is there no clamor for justice? Bush and Cheney got us into Iraq on false pretenses, and a million innocent Iraqis died. The foot soldier takes the blame for following orders, and the commanders get promoted.

We convict others of torture when they use waterboarding techniques, but we change the rules when it is our turn at the controls. We are making a movie called "Americans are Good, No Matter What," So, we turn a blind eye to the horrors that we create: millions of refugees, orphans, cities in rubble. But, it's not our fault.
Because we are the Good Guys.
War is a means to an end: Peace.
Thank you, Neoconservatives, for setting us up for the New American Century!

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Thank God They're British
Posted by: eddie torres on Oct 20, 2009 11:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The company, Monterrico Metals, is UK-registered and the case is being heard in a London high court.

The Guardian article says: "...lawyers for the protesters have taken statements from eyewitnesses alleging that the mine's manager was directing the police, and say that two of the corporation's executives had been in the area shortly before and during the police operation."

Now that's a real solid commitment to the concept of "quality control." British corporate plutocrats taking valuable time away from their Caribbean golfing / yachting holidays to deliver "hands on" treatment to their investment portfolio? Color me 'impressed'.

According to Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," Plutonomy is where elite and unaccountable oligarchs wearing corporate masks are the real drivers of investment-grade consumption because they have all the wealth.

Gillian Tett in "Michael Moore Must Leave US to Find New Elite," (FT - here or here) points out that the original "Plutonomy" theorists now predict "...new plutonomies will occur in emerging markets such as China, Brazil, Russia and India."

What a relief for the Peruvians that they were abused by British Plutocrats, and not Chinese, Brazilian, Russian, or Indian ones.

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Why Is Their Government Going After Monterrico Metals
Posted by: Eric.Arthur.Blair on Oct 21, 2009 11:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Because they usurped a state monopoly on torture.

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