February 7, 2008

The University Of Miami’s Center For Latin American Studies Hosts A Forum On Justice And Accountability In Peru After The Truth Commission

Coral Gables, FL. (February 7, 2008) –The University of Miami’s Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS)  and the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) , a human rights organization, will co-host a panel discussion called “From Accomarca  to Fujimori: Justice and Accountability Peru, which will examine the human rights situation in that country.

The Inter-America Center for Human Rights and The Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law Center are also co-sponsors of the event to be held at 7:30 p.m. on February 13 at the Alma Jennings Foundation Student Lounge at the School of Law, 1311 Miller Drive.

The forum comes on the heels of a hearing held in Miami Federal Court in the case of Peruvian military officer Telmo Hurtado Hurtado and his role in the Accomarca Massacre of 1985.

Hurtado is accused of leading an attack in an area called Accomarca. During the attack, soldiers went from house to house attacked and raped many of the women in the community. After forcing most of the community into two buildings, Hurtado allegedly threw a grenade at a house and ordered the troops to open fire on the buildings. Sixty nine people were killed. Hurtado came to the United States in 2002 after an amnesty law protecting him was nullified.

The UM event will honor the plaintiffs, Teófila Ochoa and Cirila Pulido, who testified in the case and they are expected to be in the audience during the UM event.

Panelists will include Almudena Bernabeau, international attorney for the CJA who is the lead attorney on the Hurtado case, Eduardo Gonzalez, an expert on transnational justice from the International Center for Transnational Justice and Javier Diez Canseco, a former Peruvian senator who led the Senate investigations into several human rights abuses.

For more information about this event, please call CLAS at 305-284-1854.

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Media contact:
Bárbara Gutiérrez
bgutierrez@miami.edu
305-284-5500