Trump nominee for Inter-American Commission on Human Rights board rejected

[sandensea]

The Organization of American States (OAS) met in Cancún this week to elect new commissioners for the IACHR - the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - for the 2018-2021 period.

The OAS elected the candidates proposed by Mexico, Brazil, and Chile - but rejected, among others, the Trump administration's nominee, Notre Dame Human Rights Law Professor Douglass Cassel.

Cassel, 70, had admitted in 2015 to receiving payment from the Houston-based oil giant Chevron to publicly attack Ecuadorian villagers and their lawyers after they won a historic $10 billion judgment against the company in Ecuador in 2013 for deliberately discharging billions of gallons of toxic waste into the country’s rain forest.

Professor Cassel was criticized by representatives for Amazon communities for being an example of “corruption in academia” and for violating Notre Dame’s conflict of interest policy by not being transparent about his financial relationship with Chevron.

“It is pretty clear that Cassel is allowing himself to play a central role in a classic oil industry subterfuge,” Ecuadorian lawyer Julio Prieto said. “Since the corporation (Chevron) that dumped billions of gallons of oil waste into the rain forest has no credibility, it tries to enlist a third party academic to launder its agitprop."

Also rejected was Argentine President Mauricio Macri's nominee, Carlos de Casas.

De Casas, 62, served as defense attorney for retired Lt. Col. Enrique Gómez Saa, in a case of multiple kidnappings and torture committed during Argentina's brutal last dictatorship in the late 1970s.

"The nominee lacks any experience in the defense of Human Rights," Argentina's leading human rights organizations pointed out in a joint open letter. "Indeed, his only role was as defense attorney for one of those accused of perpetrating abuses."

De Casas succeeded in having Gómez Saa found mentally unfit to stand trial in 2015 based on a report prepared by Gómez Saa's own son-in-law.

Critics pointed out as well that de Casas' law career has been largely spent defending corporate clients against fraud charges.

Perhaps the most infamous was that of the Peirano Basso brothers, whom de Casas defended from extradition proceedings after the collapse of Banco Velox in 2002. The three brothers, who transferred $800 million from Velox to a Cayman Islands offshore bank, were later extradited and convicted of aggravated fraud.

Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups had opposed the nomination. De Casas was, moreover, the only candidate rejected by the IACHR as "unsuitable."

The elected IACHR representatives were Joel Hernández García (Mexico); with 28 votes; Flávia Cristina Piovesan (Brazil), with 21; and Antonia Urrejola Noguera (Chile), with 19. Cassel and de Casas obtained 16 and 11 votes, respectively.

They will replace James L. Cavallaro (USA), José de Jesús Orozco Henríquez (Mexico), and Paulo Vannuchi (Brazil).

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infonews.com%2Fnota%2F308538%2Fla-oea-dejo-afuera-al-candidato-de-macri

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Trump asks advisers for each appointment "who will do the most harm?"

I am not exaggerating, he and Bannon are purposely doing harm where they can.

[sandensea]

2. A veritable fifth column, those guys.

When Hitler boasted that "we lost the war; but shall win the peace" - this is exactly what he meant.

[Judi Lynn]

3. True to Trump's perverted form: nominate a supporter of the Chevron Chernobyl in the Americas.

The entire rest of the world have known about the war between Chevron and its victims for years and years. Of course, many who did know about it in the States couldn't be paid to give a #### about all the forms of life throughout Ecuador, and the people who live in the rainforest who died painfully from this absolute catastrophe which not only happened, but was left in place by Chevron/Texaco, as the death toll spiralled.

There are pages of images at Yahoo which are totally informative, should anyone be interested:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrB8pSmPkxZ5FEA1w.JzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBsZ29xY3ZzBHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEc2xrA2J1dHRvbg--;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRhY3RuA2NsawRiY2sDZWFlcjdmOWNnbDI5ZyUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGtyRmJQQ0ZwWUVJanZxa0JhenBsUEYwYURZRC5NaEVpb0RnLjV3LS0lMjZzJTNEcXQlMjZpJTNEZTVHQmFhNVJvVU9VVk5VQnlRbTUEY3NyY3B2aWQDZVNyZHpUWTVMakhsTzJkNldRcUpNQUJqTWpZd01nQUFBQUNtOFNkaARmcgNzZnAEZnIyA3NhLWdwBGdwcmlkA05ycXIuNWpxU28yWGp0RnVzejI0N0EEbXRlc3RpZANudWxsBG5fc3VnZwMwBG9yaWdpbgNpbWFnZXMuc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMzNgRxdWVyeQNlY3VhZG9yIGNoZXZyb24gcG9sbHV0aW9uIHJhaW5mb3Jlc3QEdF9zdG1wAzE0OTgxNjkzNzMEdnRlc3RpZANudWxs?gprid=Nrqr.5jqSo2XjtFusz247A&pvid=eSrdzTY5LjHlO2d6WQqJMABjMjYwMgAAAACm8Sdh&p=ecuador+chevron+pollution+rainforest&fr=sfp&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&ei=UTF-8&n=60&x=wrt

Macri rumbled straight ahead with his own perverse agenda by nominating another defender of brutality, and death, and abuse of life in the starkest, most sadistic degree to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Far out, right?
As mentioned in the article, it seems like a wry joke. Undoubtedly it is. Someone sick probably saw it as a real "knee slapper."

Sandansea, these two are running neck and neck, totally amuck in human terms. Both should have been in prison long ago. Instead, they are the "leaders" of countries.

Thank you for this food for thought. It pays to stay informed, at least. Even if we can only watch, at the moment. You'd hate to think they are doing this kind of damage to prospects of a decent world without anyone's knowledge!

[sandensea]

4. Indeed, Judi. And it's a real shame about this guy Cassel; he was one of Nader's raiders in his day.

It seems that now that he's 70, he's more concerned about making sure the winter of his years are *golden* years. We're only human I guess.

Macri's pal, de Casas, never had to 'go to the dark side' though; he's been there from day one practically.

That bank fraud case he defended cost thousands of depositors their life savings back in '02 (that bleakest of years for Argentina). While some were in fact lured into buying into risky, high-interest CDs, others literally had their (gov't insured) time deposits illegally converted into high-risk accounts without their knowledge.

Some fear something similar may be brewing as we speak, btw. Taking advantage of Macri's bank deregulation decrees, Argentine banks are gaming interest rate spreads - and the Central Bank is issuing a nearly-uncontrolled amount of VERY high interest LEBAC bonds (28%) to keep the game going.

Macri's borrowing like there's no tomorrow to cover all bets. But if the Central Bank becomes unable to service the LEBACs fully, and that 'bicycle' tips over, it could be the worst bank insolvency crisis since the dictatorship's debt-fueled collapse in 1981.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Good grief. I hope anyone you know there got any investments out of the way

when Macri slithered into office. His kind of politicians don't seem to do anyone outside their own corrupt circle any good at all, while they steal everything in sight.

Nearly swallowed my tongue reading your comment about 2002, and the fact some people lost their time deposits when they were converted without their knowledge. Inconceivable anyone would ever want to do that to people, isn't it?