Monday, September 25, 2006

Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice

(IPJ) Film Series Presents:

“The Ambassador”

A film about John Negroponte

Co-sponsored by the Social Issues Committee
with assistance from the Center for Christian Spirituality

 “The Ambassador,” a documentary film made by Norwegian freelance journalist Erling Borgen, tells the story of Director of National Intelligence John Dimitri Negroponte, formerly U.S. Ambassador to Iraq; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; and U.S. Ambassador to Honduras during the height of the wars in Central America during in the early 1980s. 

The film was introduced by William Aceves, Professor of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at California Western School of Law.  Following the film, comments were offered by Andrés Thomas Conteris, Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at Non-Violence International.  Conteris helped Norwegian journalist Erling Borgen secure interviews with key Central American human rights leaders for the film.  

Some key figures appearing in the film include Jack Binns, Negroponte’s predecessor as U.S. Ambassador to Honduras; Bishop Medardo Gómez, Lutheran Bishop of El Salvador; and Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

Biographical Sketches of Commentator
and Introductory Speaker

Andrés Thomas Conteris
A human rights promoter in Latin America for the last 25 years, Andrés Thomas Conteris is Non-Violence International’s program director for Latin America and the Caribbean and a leader in the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases. He is co-producer of “Hidden in Plain Sight”, a documentary on the history of the School of the Americas, and works as an outreach organizer for Democracy Now! in Spanish. Conteris also helped Norwegian journalist Erling Borgen secure interviews with key Central American human rights leaders for the documentary film, The Ambassador, which chronicles the tenure of U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Dmitri Negroponte, when he was ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s and complicit in human rights crimes. Conteris disrupted three Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings when John Negroponte faced confirmation to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2001), ambassador to Iraq (2003), and DNI (2004).  He received a B.A. in Peace and Global Studies from Earlham College in 1984 and a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Howard University in 1992 and currently is taking PhD-level classes at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

William J. Aceves
William J. Aceves is a Professor of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at California Western School of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, Comparative Law, Foreign Affairs Law, and Human Rights Law.  Professor Aceves has written numerous articles on human rights and international law.  Professor Aceves frequently works with Amnesty International, the Center for Justice & Accountability, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union on projects involving the domestic application of international law.  He has also represented several human rights and civil liberties organizations as amicus curiae counsel in cases before the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.    He is the principal author of the 2002 Amnesty International USA report on torture and impunity in the United States.  He has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA and is presently the Ombudsperson for AIUSA.  He is a member of the National Board of the American Civil Liberties Union and serves on the Board of the Center for Justice & Accountability.    He also serves on the Advisory Committee of the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.  Professor Aceves has appeared before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Migrants, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.