Seminars and Symposia

Contesting the Iron Fist: New Dilemmas for Human Rights Activists in Argentina and Chile

Claudio Fuentes
FLACSO-Chile

Human rights activists in Latin America and elsewhere face a new set of
dilemmas once democracies have been reestablished. They do not only have
to bring justice and truth for past human rights violations but also
have to deal with violations of basic citizens' rights by state security
forces in current times. How have human rights organizations adapted to
these new challenges? Contesting Iron Fist government’s policies is
difficult because a new set of incentives comes to play: as politicians
in any society tend to view the protection of citizens' rights in
zero-sum terms, they believe that what is earned in freedom and the
protection of individual rights is lost in public safety. Given this, we
should expect a structure of political and social incentives that favors
those who want to increase police powers as a mechanism to reduce crime
and delinquency. This presentation traces the story of two historically
strong human rights movements in Argentina and Chile and suggests the
new dilemmas such organizations have faced as a new political context is
defining the governments and politicians' priorities.

Claudio Fuentes is the Academic Coordinator at the Latin American Faculty of Social Science (FLACSO-Chile). He obtained his Ph.D. in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. He has a bachelor degree in History at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. He is currently the academic coordinator at FLACSO-Chile. He received the 2003 Best Dissertation Award by Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). He has focused on comparative institutions, observing issues of political and social accountability over the political process. Among his most recent publications are the edited volume Promesas de Cambio: Izquierda y derecha en el Chile contemporáneo (2003) and “After Pinochet: Civilian Policies Toward the Military in the 1990s Chilean Democracy” (Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. Vol. 42, No 3, Fall 2000). He has published more than twenty articles in academic journals in Latin America, the United States, and Britain.

When: Monday, August 2 at 5:00pm
Where: Room 9204
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (Between 34th and 35th street)
New York, NY 10016

To reserve, please send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu.

Contesting the Iron Fist Advocacy Networks and Police Violence in Democratic Argentina and Chile (Routledge Publishers. Forthcoming 2004)
Claudio A. Fuentes

Almost twenty years of democratization in Latin America has not implied a substantive improvement of individuals' basic rights. Providing compelling evidence for the cases of Argentina and Chile, this book demonstrates that the transition to democratic rule, the worldwide acceptance of international rules on human rights, and the existence of transnational advocacy groups have not been enough to enhance citizens' rights. While the comparative literature usually explains the persistence of police violence in developing countries by linking it to authoritarian legacies, this book introduces a new set of arguments. Politicians in any society tend to view the protection of citizens’ rights in zero-sum terms, that is, they believe that what is earned in freedom and the protection of individual rights is lost in public safety. Given this, we should expect a structure of political and social incentives that favors those who want to increase police powers as a mechanism to reduce crime and delinquency. This volume provides a framework based on the advocacy coalition approach that helps us understand why in developing countries patterns of police violence are likely to continue and why it is so difficult to contest Iron Fist policies toward crime.

Table of Contents
I. Guarding the Guardians
II. Chile: The Denial of Police Violence
III. Explaining an Unexpected Legal Reform in Chile
IV. Argentina: Strong Advocacy Groups, Fluctuating Influence
V. Dealing with a Corporate Police Force in Argentina
VI. Contesting the Iron Fist
Appendices
Appendix 1. Chile. Government's Reactions toward International and Local Reports
Appendix 2. Testing Social Groups' Responsiveness
Appendix 3. Argentina. Selected cases of Corruption