ECUADOR SETS UP TRUTH COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE POTENTIAL HUMAN RIGHTS CRIMES FROM PRESIDENCY OF LEON FEBRES CORDERO.

The government of Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has set up a "Truth Commission," which will be charged with investigating accusations of human rights crimes during the administration of former President Leon Febres Cordero (1984-1988), the right-wing leader of the Partido Social Cristiano (PSC). The commission will also look into alleged human rights abuses committed during the last 27 years. Cordero and his allies have strongly denied the accusations, calling the commission a political effort to smear and repress opposition to Correa's leftist administration.

Correa: panel to "halt impunity"

Correa said on May 3 that the four-member commission is intended to "halt impunity." The commission is composed of lawyer Julio Cesar Trujillo, human rights activists Alberto Luna (a Catholic leader) and Elsie Monge (head of the Frente Ecuatoriana de Derechos Humanos, FEDHU), and Pedro Restrepo, the father of two brothers who disappeared at the end of Febres Cordero's government

Restrepo's two sons disappeared in January 1988 and are believed to have been killed by police, who mistook them for Colombian guerrillas. Their bodies were never found.

Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea said the human rights of "hundreds of citizens were systematically violated." Larrea said 327 cases of political assassinations, torture, and disappearances have gone unpunished.

The commission will have nine months to present a report, with a possible extension of three months.

The text setting up the panel takes its precedent from Article 23 of the Constitution, which "prohibits cruel punishments, torture, and all inhumane, degrading treatment or treatment that entails physical, psychological, or sexual violence or moral coercion." The constitutional framework also establishes that "actions or punishments by torture, forced disappearance of people, kidnapping or homicide for political reasons or reasons of conscience will be imprescriptible and will not be eligible for pardons or amnesties."

The body's founding document also recalled that "there have been denunciations of torture, disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and other serious crimes and attacks on human rights" from the time of the Cordero administration. The commission will be charged with "investigating, revealing, and impeding impunity with respect to the violent and violating deeds against human rights that occurred between 1984 and 1988 and other [more recent] periods."

The commission will also be able...

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