There are setbacks in freedoms in Latin America, according to HRW 3:52
(CNN Spanish) --
Latin America is experiencing an alarming setback for basic freedoms and some democratically elected leaders are attacking the independence of civil society, said Tamara Taraciuk Broner, acting Americas director for Human Rights Watch.
That is one of the conclusions of the world report on the state of human rights of HRW published this Wednesday, in which it indicates that autocracies are on a dangerous rise, while democracy is in decline.
“The alarming setback of fundamental freedoms in Latin America forces us today to defend democratic spaces that we used to take for granted,” said Taraciuk Broner.
In the report, Human Rights Watch points out not only the growing repression against the opposition in several countries around the world —including Venezuela—, but also the "emergence of leaders with autocratic tendencies" in countries where democracy was consolidated —such as example Brazil and El Salvador—says the report.
“Even leaders who came to power through democratic elections have attacked independent civil society, press freedom and judicial independence,” Taraciuk said. “Millions of people have been forced from their homes and countries, and the pandemic has had a devastating economic and social impact," he added.
The report indicates that "autocrats are having a good time, in part because of the failings of democratic leaders," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, in the introductory essay.
"However, today's democratic leaders are failing to respond to the challenges in front of them."
"Whether it's the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty and inequality, racial injustice, or the threats posed by modern technology, these leaders are often too entangled in partisan battles and short-term concerns to respond to these issues effectively," adds Roth.
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The HRW report analyzes the situation in 14 Latin American countries, along with the United States and Spain.
The organization highlighted in the presentation of the report the following countries as the most relevant cases.
Below, we take a look at the main points of the analysis in those nations.
How is the situation in Latin America?
This says the HRW report
Argentina
Although the report described the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina in early 2021 as "historic," it says that "serious historical human rights problems still exist" in the country, such as police abuse, poor detention conditions and endemic violence against women. women.
President Alberto Fernández has condemned specific acts of what he calls institutional violence and, at an event in homage to the victims of the repression in 2001, said that "the State is not there to be violent but to do justice", although no commented on recent systematic allegations of abuse during his tenure.
HRW points out that the security forces "on occasion have used excessive use of force" and that the "General Ombudsman's Office reported abuses committed by agents of the security forces in the framework of the implementation of the confinement measures established to prevent the spread of covid-19".
Following reports of police abuse in Formosa during demonstrations against isolation in March 2021, the Argentine Human Rights Secretariat repudiated the events, saying that "they do not justify the disproportionate use of police force in the repression of the protest. security, both national and provincial, must be trained to contain acts of violence".
In 2021, the Undersecretary of Human Rights of the Province of Buenos Aires created a guide to prevent police abuses within the framework of the restrictions on circulation due to the coronavirus.
HRW criticizes that more than half of those detained in federal prisons have not been convicted of a crime, but are in preventive detention (according to official figures).
Alberto Fernández, who when he was president Mauricio Macri said in a column that "preventive imprisonment is exhibited today as one of the most odious setbacks shown by jurisprudence", has defended his government's prison management, said in 2020 that he was in favor of house arrest for the population at risk from covid-19 and inaugurated new detention centers that year as part of its 2020 Provincial Prison Infrastructure Plan, according to Télam. However, HRW denounces "that no significant reform has been carried out to address the situation of pretrial detention."
Human Rights Atch says in the report that "despite a 2009 law that provides comprehensive measures to prevent and punish violence against women, impunity for the killing of women remains a serious problem." In November 2021, President Fernández said that the State is working for an "Argentina without violence" and pointed out that his government is committed to eradicating this scourge. In December, he visited a shelter where women and children in situations of gender-based violence are housed. and affirmed: "I take everything they have told me with the commitment to respond with a State that makes their lives better". The Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Eli Gómez, after the femicide of Araceli Fulles, said that she demands "to the Judicial Powers that there is no more impunity or administration of justice or security forces without a gender perspective".
Brazil
The report notes that President Jair Bolsonaro "has threatened the democratic system in Brazil by attempting to undermine confidence in the electoral system, freedom of expression, and judicial independence."
HRW says that Bolsonaro, who is seeking re-election in 2022, "has harassed and tried to intimidate the Federal Supreme Court" in order to further his own interests.
The report also says that the president has tried to discredit the electoral system.
In September 2021, Bolsonaro called for marches to question the highest body of justice and other institutions in the country and said that he would disobey the orders of the STF after the opening of an investigation against him.
At that time, the president of the STF, Luiz Fux, said that it was an "attack on democracy," according to the state-run Agencia Brasil.
This week he criticized two ministers of the Federal Supreme Court, during an interview with the newspaper Gazeta Brasil, assuring without evidence that they work for the election of former president Lula da Silva.
CNN Brasil contacted the magistrates' advisers and reported that they will not comment on Bolsonaro's statements.
Bolsonaro has not commented on the report so far.
Colombia
The report says that despite the signing of peace agreements in Colombia in 2016 between the Government and the FARC, "conflict-related violence has taken new forms."
HRW reports there that "abuses have increased" by armed groups, such as murders, massacres and massive forced displacement in rural areas of Colombia.
Likewise, Human Rights Watch reports "excessive —and often brutal— use of force" by police officers during the 2021 demonstrations "which included the use of lethal ammunition and gender-based violence."
So far, the National Police has not ruled on this report;
CNN has contacted the institution and awaits comment.
In June 2021, he condemned any "situation that eventually implies a violation of human rights" and said that it will be "investigated and punished, there will be no impunity."
According to that June 2021 Ministry of Defense report, it was determined that "21 civilians have died in the midst of the protests, 19 cases have been ruled out and 11 additional cases are in the process of clarification."
For its part, the government of President Iván Duque has stated on several occasions that human rights violations will not be tolerated and confirmed that disciplinary investigations have been opened against soldiers.
After the protests, the Government announced last June a plan to reform the Police, which, according to Duque, seeks to "modernize the organizational structure of the Ministry of Defense at zero cost, where we will give citizen security, public security an emphasis unquestionable and within that emphasis the work with our National Police, where that closeness with the citizen is and the structure of citizen scrutiny to the work itself".
According to the HRW report, as of December 2021, two agents had been charged and five had been charged in connection with homicides committed during the protests.
The Savior
"Nayib Bukele and his allies" weakened democracy, says Human Rights Watch categorically in the chapter on El Salvador, referring to the dismissal of judges of the Supreme Court of Justice and other judges of lower courts, as well as the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Chamber that enabled Bukele to stand for re-election.
Bukele has not yet confirmed if he will be a candidate for the next presidential elections.
"President Bukele's government has proposed a draft law to reform the constitution, which includes extending the presidential term from five to six years and reforming some democratic institutions," says Human Rights Watch.
Bukele, very active on social networks, has chosen to respond to this type of remarks in an ironic way.
Last September he put in his Twitter biography "Dictator of El Salvador" and "The coolest dictator in the world".
The report also points to gang violence, forced recruitment of children, and sexual abuse of minors and the LGBTQ community.
"Girls and women accused of abortions have been imprisoned for homicide and aggravated homicide. LGBT people are targets of discrimination and police violence," the report says.
In September 2020, after another series of complaints in the press about rights abuses in El Salvador, Bukele said on Twitter that opponents had obtained support "from their friends Vivanco and 'Human Rights Watch'" to say that in El Salvador rights are not respected. rights but that for Salvadorans "Vivanco's convictions don't matter to them".
Neither Bukele nor the Presidency have commented on the most recent report until now.
Mexico
Regarding Mexico, HRW says that "torture, forced disappearances, abuses against migrants, extrajudicial executions, gender violence and attacks against independent journalists and human rights defenders" have continued to occur in Mexico during the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The report assures that AMLO "has demonstrated his autocratic inclinations", trying to "intimidate journalists, manipulate justice and neutralize the controls on his power", according to Taraciuk, from HRW, about Mexico.
The Government of Mexico told CNN that for the moment they will not comment on the report.
The UN Committee against Enforced Disappearances visited Mexico in November 2021 and made a series of recommendations to the Government.
The Committee condemned "impunity" and "ineffectiveness" of the authorities regarding the disappearance of people.
According to official figures, the whereabouts of more than 95,000 people since 1965 have been unknown in Mexico.
The Committee said that it trusts "that they will be implemented and that through them it will contribute to solving the scourge of forced disappearances in Mexico" and confirmed that there have been "legislative and institutional advances produced in the past years."
President López Obrador said in April 2020 that torture has been eradicated in the country, but human rights organizations insist that torture remains in Mexico.
Other organizations have reported situations similar to those reported by HRW in Mexico.
Doctors Without Borders presented a report in 2020 with worrying figures on the violence and abuse of Central American migrants on their way to the United States.
López Obrador has had a tense relationship with the press and has been accused of intimidating journalists.
On May 4, 2021, for example, he said in the country there is a "biased" press, which is dedicated to lying, and which is unfair to his government, although he added that there are "honorable exceptions."
The president pointed out that it is a time of darkness for the media that, according to him, are far from the citizens and close to the groups in power.
The president has said in his statements that his government fights against violence against women, although activists denounce that there is 96% impunity in cases of gender violence and official figures indicate that this type of crime only grows.
Venezuela
About this country, HRW reports extrajudicial executions and short-term forced disappearances by the government of President Nicolás Maduro and his security forces, as well as the imprisonment of opponents, the trial of civilians in military courts, torture and repression of protesters.
It also says that due to the state of emergency imposed by covid-19, the Government has used it to "increase control over the population."
"The lack of judicial independence has made it easier for these crimes to go unpunished. The judicial authorities have participated in or been complicit in the abuses," says the report on Venezuela.
HRW recalled the investigation initiated by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on possible crimes against humanity in Venezuela.
Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia said on Twitter that Mr. Vivanco is saying goodbye to HRW doing what he does best: fabricating files to please his financiers.
His latest report, full of inaccuracies and without mention of the harmful effects of the Coercive Measures against the People of Venezuela, is pure mythomania."
The Maduro government has been under preliminary examination at the International Criminal Court since February 2018 for alleged crimes against humanity, to determine whether it warranted a trial.
In November 2021, the government and the ICC signed a memorandum of understanding by which the South American country agrees to cooperate with the investigation that the Court will carry out there for allegations of crimes against humanity.
"It is an agreement that expresses the synthesis of this day that has been a step forward in relations of positive complementarity and cooperation between the Venezuelan state," Maduro said after signing the memorandum last November.
In March 2021, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, noted that her office had documented at least 66 cases of intimidation, harassment, disqualification and criminalization of “journalists, the media, human rights defenders , humanitarian workers, union leaders and members or supporters of the opposition, including the 2015 elected members of the National Assembly and their families.”
In December 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court, held the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela responsible for the death, during a military operation, of seven people deprived of liberty. In September of that year, the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which belongs to the United Nations Organization (UN), presented a report stating that serious violations had occurred in Venezuela since 2014 that would have been perpetuated by members of the State security forces and intelligence services, both civilian and military. the Government of Venezuela of crimes against humanity.
According to a report published in 2019 by Human Rights Watch, the Special Action Forces (FAES) of the Venezuelan police committed extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions in low-income communities “that stopped supporting the government of Nicolás Maduro.”
The government of questioned President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly rejected the multiple accusations and has on different occasions accused countries like the United States, governments like Colombia and the Lima Group of promoting actions against the country.
A June 2020 report by the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) human rights organization claims that the government uses "enforced disappearances" as a tool of political repression.
The government, through Attorney General Tarek William Saab, dismissed the report at the time, telling CNN that the organization had no jurisdiction to judge the situation in Venezuela.
Advances in defense of human rights
The report points to "encouraging developments" in terms of human rights protection in the region.
For example, the decriminalization of abortion in Argentina in 2020;
the decriminalization of abortion in four states of Mexico in 2021, and laws on the advancement and flexibility of abortion in Ecuador.
Likewise, the approval of equal marriage in Chile and the recognition of non-binary gender identities in official identity documents in Argentina.
“Many brave journalists, human rights defenders and judges in the region have played an extraordinary role in exposing abuses and acting as checks on executive power,” said Taraciuk Broner.
With information from Florencia Trucco and Osmary Hernández
Human RightsHuman Rights Watch