Human Rights organizations in Peru have found a novel approach to highlight discrimination by companies: awarding them "anti-awards". This year "anti-award" to the "greatest discriminator" goes to beer company Backus for its ad campaigns which exclude people with mestizo, indigenous, black or Asian features - this in a country where whites are a small minority. Backus is also cited for portraying women as objects and linking alcohol use to social success.
Backus is the producer of the most popular Peruvian beers, including Pilsen, Cristal, Cusqueña and Dorada.
What follows is the Press release of the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (in Spanish)
ENTREGAN ANTIPREMIO "AL MAS DISCRIMINADOR " A BACKUS
Hoy miércoles 29 de marzo a las 12:00 p.m. del mediodía, la Mesa de Trabajo contra la Discriminación Racial de la Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos hará entrega del antipremio “Al más discriminador” a la empresa Backus.
La concentración será en el Ovalo Gutíérrez, de allí se movilizarán hasta la sede de la empresa Backus en San Isidro, Avenida Pardo y Aliaga 666 (sede de Cerveza San Juan).
El antipremio “Al Más Discriminador” se otorgó a la empresa cervecera Backus, por sus campañas publicitarias que constantemente ignoran que en el Perú existen ciudadanos de rasgos mestizos, andinos, negros y orientales. La publicidad de Backus es además altamente cuestionable por el uso denigrante de la mujer como un objeto y además la vinculación entre el consumo de alcohol y éxito social.
Todos los años, la Mesa contra el Racismo de la Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos, conformada por la Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos - APRODEH, el Grupo Impulsor contra el Racismo y varios decididos voluntarios, hace entrega de este reconocimiento.
Área de Prensa
Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos
9571 1123 / 702 2500 - Anexo 113.
Amnesty International Spain is collecting signatures on a petition to the Chilean government to extradite Fujimori to Chile. You can sign the petition by going to
Fujimori: ¡Actúa para que se haga justicia! - AI España
The webpage is in Spanish but it asks you for your Name (Nombre), Last Names (Apellidos), Country (Pais), Province (if in Spain), e-mail and Phone Number (Teléfono)
Alberto Fujimori was president of Peru during the 1990's. As such, he created death squads and was responsible for the death, disappearance and imprisonment of thousands of innocent Peruvian citizens. In 2000, as allegations of corruption were making his arrest likely, he went to Japan for a state visit and faxed his resignation as president. He's been living in that country since then.
Japan has been under strong international pressure to turn him over to Peru, where he is wanted on charges of corruption as well as human rights violations. In November of 2005, he quietly left Mexico and made his way to Chile, where he was arrested at the request of the Peruvian government.
Analysts speculate that Fujimori was counting that the political tension between the Chilean and Peruvian governments would make Chile reluctant to arrest him. He planned to run in Peru's next presidential elections, but the Peruvian election board ruled in January that a Congressional order barring Fujimori from public office until 2011 was valid.
See Fujimori's grand plan withers behind bars (from the Chicago Tribune)
Lori Berenson, the American activist arrested in Peru and originally tried for "treason" by a faceless military tribunal, has now spent ten years in prison. Currently she is in prison in Cajamarca, and spent December working in the prison's bakery turning out Christmas breads to be sold in town. Peruvian TV captured some of her time in the kitchen.
http://www.peru.com/noticias/idocs/2005/12/2/DetalleDocumento_264368.asp
Lori was originally arrested and accused of being a member of the terrorist organization Movimiento Revolucionario Tupca Amaru (MRTA). She was tried by military court composed of faceless judges, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life in prison. She spent the first few years of her imprisonment in the Yanamayo prison near Puno, on the high Andes. There she endured sub-human conditions, including exposure to freezing temperatures, lack of appropriate food and opportunities for exercise. Due to this conditions, she developed numerous health problems.
Due to international pressure, Peru eventually abandoned its military tribunals and re-tried Lori in a civilian court. The court found that there was no credible evidence that she was ever part of the MRTA, much less in the leadership of the organization, but that some of the actions she undertook constituted collaboration with terrorism. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her case was presented to the Inter-American Committee on Human Rights, who found that both judicial procedures had violated her rights under the convention. However, the Committee's decision was appealed to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which found that while the military procedures had, indeed, violated her rights, the civilian procedures did not violate the norms of due process under the convention.
Lori continues in prison, now at the Huacariz Prison in Cajamarca, where prison conditions are better.
For more information see:
Committee to Free Lori Berenson
Sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights