PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Freedom for Returned Chilean Exile. Jaime Yovanovic!
by Clajadep Tuesday, Sep. 02, 2003 at 12:33 PM
clajadep@hotmail.com

30 years after the military coup, Chilean exile Jaime Yovanovic Prieto, falsely accused of the assasination of Santiago General Urzua voluntarily returns to Chile seeking justice and an end to international persecution.

THE CASE OF JAIME YOVANOVIC PRIETO (PROFESSOR J.)

WHO IS JAIME YOVANOVIC PRIETO?

*Profesor J is the web pen name for Jaime Yovanovic Prieto. Jaime was born in 1948 in Valparaiso, Chile. In 1970 he was the spokesperson for the MIR and in 1971 he left his home and the University to live with 1500 poor families in occupied lands which came to be known as Campamento de Pobladores Sin Casa Salvador Allende. He was arrested after the coup and tortured for a year resulting in multiple fractures and the near total loss of his hearing.


After being expelled from Chile, he returned clandestinely and joined the armed struggle until 1984 when he was accused of having participated in the assassination of junta member General Carol Urzua, a charge he categorically denies.

He was expelled again after seeking refuge in the papal nuncio with an armed group. He then went to Cuba as a UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees) refugee where he graduated in Law from the University of Havana and was the vice-president of the committee for Chilean exiles.


In 1987 he withdrew from the MIR and started Clajadep for discussion and interchange of ideas for a horizontal democracy based on autonomy and popular power. He was invited to Brazil where he taught alternative law in various universities and institutions. The name Professor J. came from his Brazilian students.


In 2000 he participated in the Anti-imperialist Camp in Assisi, Italy, where he was arrested pending extradition for the Urzua case. The Italian government refused to extradite him to Chile and he was expelled to Brazil.


Back in Brazil he found all doors closed to him and he began receiving death threats.


He escaped to Bolivia where he worked with coca workers and the Coordination of Water of Cochabamba. While there he learned that the Chilean military was in close contact with his coworkers, so he went to Mozambique where he organized discussion groups about autonomy in outlying neighborhoods. He also participated in activities in South Africa.


He was arrested again in 2002 at the Anti-imperialist camp and sent to Johannesburg, where he was held in prison for two months. South Africa refused Chile's petition for extradition, and he was unable to leave South Africa for fear of being arrested again. While in South Africa, however, he had no working papers.

He calls himself a freethinking Marxist, anarchist, Zapatista or any other ideological label one cares to give him. He thinks that autonomous groups should create their own worldview by studying and learning from the experiences and trends of the revolutionary camp, and especially in their own experience of self-management and resistance.


He adamantly refuses to draw maps for freedom struggles since he feels that that is the role of each autonomous group.


His dream is to end the persecution and return to Chile to teach alternative law and continue participating in worldwide discussions and freedom struggles.


To this end he has voluntarily returned to Chile to clarify his case once and for all. He was arrested as soon as he stepped foot on Chilean soil and is jailed in the high security prison in Santiago [CAS]. From his cell he and his supporters are planning his defense, 30 years after the vicious US supported military coup that ended and uprooted so many Chilean lives.

Clajadep@hotmail.com



ALLEGATION OF INNOCENCE. August 2003, by Jaime Yovanovic Prieto
I have come to claim my right to justice.

To the jurists and the authorities and to those who are neither jurists nor authorities:

For nearly 20 years now the media in Chile have violated the most elemental legal principles in my case, especially the presumption of innocence of anybody who stands accused.

I have been dealt with by the press as a participant in the action that culminated in the death of General Urzua in 1983, an accusation that I deny categorically.

I believed then and I believe now that it is legitimate, as established by the United Nations letter of principles, to have taken up arms against those that did away with the legally instituted government of Salvador Allende. I believe that I have fulfilled my role as a part of a people in resistance with honesty and dignity. It never crossed my mind to take a soldier prisoner, to make him disappear, to torture him and throw him into the sea from a helicopter. The companions that I knew in those times were also worthy and altruistic human beings prepared to make great sacrifices to put an end to the black night of Chile and see to it that true democracy could return.

Therefore, with my head held high I face the present Chilean institutions with the certainty that today it is possible to clarify this case once and for all.

It is public knowledge that after the death of General Urzua, the resistance groups that fell into the hands of the DINA-CNI were assassinated, their houses attacked with rocker launchers, in short, a furious raid fell upon those that fought for democracy with arms in hand. Within that context, the only solution was to leave the country and that is why we took refuge in the Papal Nuncio, where we handed over the arms that we were carrying, in so doing we were complying with the principles of the Geneva Convention relating to armed conflicts.

My resulting appearance in the newspapers enabled those who were torturing Jorge Palma Donoso to show him my picture asking if I were by chance the other participant in the Urzua operation carried out by the Miguel Enriquez commando of the MIR, and to this Palma answered in the affirmative, which enabled the DINA-CNI to practically close the case by incorporating my name. Except that Jorge Palma, when he was able to speak, declared publicly that that affirmation was pulled out of him through torture and induced by those that pressured him physically. Jorge Palma stated, and it appears as such in the newspapers, that he didn't know me, that I took no part in that armed action and he denied the affirmation extracted in an illegitimate way.

It is not possible, Ladies and Gentlemen Jurists and Authorities, and Ladies and Gentlemen who are neither jurists nor authorities, that faced with these two statements, one extracted under the worst tortures and the other when the words could come out freely, the media echoed the first version, that of my guilt, and unleashed a media campaign against me. It was not difficult in those times to implicate my name and stain my clean trajectory as a fighter for the highest of social values.

To be more "convincing", the secret services of the day circulated the news that among the weapons handed over to the Nuncio were some that were used in the Urzua operation, thus showing that their "secret" character was strictly functional. The idea of the DINA-CNI was to judge me publicly and lead public opinion towards the version obtained under torture, forever hiding and burying the last statement of Jorge Palma precisely because it worked in my favor. The media reproduced time and time again the fabricated "proof" used against me, but never had the integrity to repeat the denial of Jorge Palma even once.

The same DINA-CNI that claims to know so much about the case knew perfectly well that those arms were used in different actions and later returned to a central depository. A journalist said that it was strange that one would arrive with the same weapons, that there was something unexplained in that, but once again silence was forced and the accusatory paraphernalia continued seeking to turn a lie into truth by often repeating it.

Thus I have been judged and condemned, I have been declared guilty by the DINA-CNI and the press. The propaganda put this idea into the heads of a certain sector of public opinion, which is why I chose not to turn myself in nor permit myself to be detained because I knew that I would fall into the middle of a game played with marked cards.

20 years have passed, Ladies and Gentlemen Jurists and Authorities, and Ladies and Gentlemen who are neither. Today it is possible to differentiate between the civil tribunals and the military tribunals. Today it is possible to restore due process. I don't know if it will be possible to demand that the press, instead of raising another media campaign, respect the essential principles of all defendants, that they are innocent as long as not proven otherwise, that they spread the idea of my innocence and that it should be the then secret services themselves who support, if they can, the burden of accusatory proof, and that I will make my defense in the proper place at the proper time with my lawyer.

But I have not spent those 20 years wrapped up in myself, since if anything has motivated my conduct during the dictatorship and my exile, it has been the hunger and thirst for justice and the real fulfillment of human rights. I have spent 20 years fighting for this in the most diverse of countries, having had to leave because of the unjust persecution to which I was subjected. My first destination was Cuba, where I arrived as a refugee from UNHCR (UN High Commission on Refugees), and I graduated in Law, joined the National Union of Cuban Jurists and I worked in the area of housing and population in the Municipality of Central Havana. Later, in 1990 I was invited to Brazil by the now Methodist University of Sao Paulo and I gave classes in various universities in, among other things, the disciplines of Philosophy of Law, Human Rights, Penal Law, History of Law and I acted as post graduate professor in charge of the discipline of Comparative Penal Law.

Similarly, I was a member of the Commission on Human Rights of the Order of Lawyers of Brazil (OAB in Spanish)-Sao Paulo and advisor of the Association of Tutelage Councils for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents. I acted as an advisor of the Association of Justice Officials of the State of Sao Paulo and consultant of the General Secretariat of the National Federation of Judicial Workers of Brazil. I founded, along with the Union of Psychologists of Sao Paulo, the Permanent Commission for the Rights of the Marginalized, just as I founded and was the coordinator of the network of Popular Legal Offices of Brazil, together with student groups, lawyers and other law professors. Even today, different Brazilian jurists recognize my role in the promotion of human rights and the development of jurists with social sensitivity towards the neediest layers of the population. In Brazil I also published the book INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF LAW AND ALTERNATIVE LAW which can be found along with others in the library of the Faculty of Law of the University of Sao Paulo and is utilized by professors in various Brazilian universities.

In Mozambique I acted as an advisor of the director of the Faculty of Law of the University Eduardo Mondlane and consultant of the Ministry of Agriculture in the areas of communication and investigations with the rural population. In South Africa I worked with Planact, an entity that carries out investigations and community training.

By the same token, different peripheral neighborhoods of the cities of Brazil, Bolivia, South Africa, Mozambique and others were the backdrop for my activities with children and young people in field investigations, songs, dances and games in search of new ways of understanding the behaviors and the yearnings of a group united in rebuilding of the social being within the community, autonomous, free and creative, the subject of democracy, the driving force of every social project, the common man and the common woman, the subject of poverty, the social subject who in the midst of marginality and misery is capable of dreaming and making those dreams a reality, emancipation, which should start in the hearts of each one, no longer in theories. ideologies, tactics and strategies, but rather in the practice of life in common and the joy of being, in the everyday embrace with others and seeing each other face to face, solidarity, respect and affection, hand in hand and the beginning of seeing the world through the most profound shared sentiments.

I have changed; of course I have changed. I have grown like a tree with the roots firmly in the earth, our Pachamama, spreading my branches towards the infinite, and now I have come to caress other roots, to turn myself into a forest. Where many trees and dreams can interweave paths towards the horizon.

Therefore I claim my right to justice, to an end to the infamous campaign that has been carried out against me, that I be permitted to walk freely and feel the wind from the cordillera and the breeze from the sea on my face, that I be permitted to continue my path as educator, teaching how to learn, since I have nothing new to pass on beyond my old desire to live and be free, to laugh, sing, jump, dance, kick up my heels and climb mountains, like the song in French that I always teach in groups that I am a part of:

Enfant de la montagne
Je retourne, je retourne
Enfant de la montagne
Je retourne en chantant

La fatique me gagne
Mais mon coeur, mon coeur
La fatique me gagne
Mais mon coeur est content

This can be translated something like:

Child of the mountain
I return, I return
Child of the mountain
I return in song.

I am weary
But my heart, but my heart
I am weary
But my heart is glad.

I thank you all in advance, jurists, authorities and those who are neither jurists nor authorities, for the measures and actions taken to make this cry for justice a reality.

Jaime Yovanovic Prieto
(Profesor J)
clajadep@hotmail,com



EXCERPT TRANSLATED FROM EL MERCURIO
Wednesday August 20, 2003

Surprising Return from South Africa:
Mirist Accused of Assassinating General Urzua Arrives in the Country

Jaime Yovanovic Prieto decided to turn himself over to the Chilean legal system to prove his innocence, said his lawyer Alberto Espinoza last night.

20 years after the assassination of the intendente [mayor] of Santiago, General Carol Urzua, Jaime Yovanovic Prieto returned last night, one of the Mirists accused of being one of the main perpetrators in the attack against the entourage of the regional chief and his escorts Jose Domingo Aguayo and Carlos Riveros.

Yovanovic, 55, professor of law, was living in Johannesburg, South Africa after having been expelled from Italy last August. His relatives and lawyer Alberto Espinoza were waiting for him in the Arturo Merino Benitez airport. Mr. Espinoza said that his client returned voluntarily to turn himself over to the Chilean legal system in order to prove his innocence in the events of August 30, 1983.

"He was free in South Africa and as long as he was abroad he had the status of a free citizen, but there is an order from the military prosecutor for his capture and he will be detained as soon as he steps foot on Chilean soil" said Mr. Espinoza. That occurred at 11:25 PM last night, as soon as he stepped off the Varig flight.




LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR JAIME YOVANOVIC PRIETO (PROFESSOR J)
The Professor is innocent and we are asking for his immediate freedom.

To Companeros and Friends;
We ask that you circulate the following letter widely requesting support in the case of Jaime Yovanovic Prieto.


The addresses are as follows:


Presidente de ChileRicardo Lagos Escoban
presidencia@segegob.cl


(2) 6904000
La Moneda s/n
Santiago de Chile
http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/


Luis Bates Hidalgo
Ministerio de Justicia
Morand� 107. Santiago Chile
Tel�fono: (56-2) 674 31 00
Fax: (56-2) 698 70 98
http://www.minjusticia.cl/


Camara de Diputados
Av.Pedro Montt s/n Valpara�so
(2) *6970022
http://www.camara.cl



Senado de la Rep�blica
Valpara�so,Av.Pedro Montt s/n Valpara�so (32) 504000
Santiago,Catedral 1158 (2) *2806700
http://www.senado.cl




Dear Sirs and Madams:

I (we) are writing to ask that you to support a cause that we consider to be just. That cause is the case of Jaime Yovanovic Prieto, who is innocent of the charges against him.

He was unjustly singled out as a perpetrator of a crime that he did not commit, during a time in Chile when human dignity and truth had no value.
He was accused and subjected to a Military Tribunal processing which was not and is not competent, as he is not a member of the armed forces.
He was tried in absentia, which from a legal standpoint is inadmissible since he was not present to defend himself.

For 20 years he has been followed and persecuted everywhere he went, there being many requests for his extradition. He had to deal with being incarcerated a number of times as a result. Each time, the country being requested to extradite him refused, because of the political nature of the persecution.
He suffered attempts against his life and was never permitted an existence worthy of any human being.

Today he presents himself voluntarily before the Chilean Tribunals to confirm his innocence and he finds himself judged for an offense which according to the law does not exist. The description of this offense was covered up. Another legal error?

Today he is sick, from an illness most likely picked up in one of the many countries to which he was forced to flee, and for which he had no resources for medical attention. We still don't know the extent of damage his body has suffered.

For all these reasons we call upon you to advocate for the immediate release from prison of Jaime Yovanovic Prieto


Sincerely,


Please keep in touch for developments.
Clajadep@hotmail.com

clajadep.lahaine.org

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