HRW warns of the most serious setback in decades of human rights in Latin America

The attacks on judicial independence, freedom of the press and civil society make up a disturbing panorama that shows “the most serious setback in decades” in terms of human rights in Latin America, says the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its World Report 2022.

This aggravation occurs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been a challenge in all orders for the region, but has also meant for certain governments the opportunity to implement arbitrary measures, the human rights organization points out in a section of its annual report entitled “Latin America: Alarming setback of basic freedoms”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wonderful excuse for authoritarian leaders to adopt restrictive measures that they wanted to adopt anyway,” said Tamara Taraciuk, interim Americas director for HRW.

Repression of protesters in Cuba

Regarding Cuba, HRW expresses its concern about the “systematic abuses against critics and artists, including arbitrary arrests, mistreatment of detainees and abusive criminal proceedings” after the massive demonstrations on July 11.

“The response of the Cuban regime has been a brutal repression. We have documented systematic cases of arbitrary detention, more than a thousand people were detained during the July protests. We have documented complaints of mistreatment against detainees and also criminal proceedings without any type of due process guarantees,” Taraciuk asserted.

No Electoral Guarantees in Nicaragua

In the case of Nicaragua, HRW denounces that the presidential elections held on November 7 “were carried out without the slightest democratic guarantees,” after the authorities previously arrested seven rival candidates for the president and then candidate for re-election. , Daniel Ortega, keeping many of them “incommunicado in abusive conditions for weeks or months.”

Regarding the situation in the Central American country, Taraciuk asserted that “in Nicaragua there is a brazen dictatorship,” as was evident last year with “the barbarity that occurred prior to the presidential elections, which were an absolute farce.”

This same lack of guarantees was replicated two weeks later in Venezuela, where on November 21 regional elections were held in which the Chavista candidates prevailed in an electoral process characterized by irregularities that were denounced by the team of observers from the European Union (EU).

The EU mission concluded that some political opponents were arbitrarily disqualified from running for public office, there was unequal access to the media, as well as a lack of judicial independence and respect for the rule of law, which affected transparency and fairness of the elections.

El Salvador and Mexico: against state order and the media

In turn, HRW observes that the governments of El Salvador and Mexico are carrying out constant anti-democratic attacks against the other powers of the State and against the media.

In El Salvador, the Administration of Nayib Bukele replaced the judges of the Supreme Court. The new members of the highest judicial body decided that the president could run for consecutive re-election, despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits it.

The government has also proposed a “foreign agents” law that can severely limit the work of independent journalists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive funding from abroad.

“We are concerned about pure and harsh dictatorships like Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, but also about these attempts by leaders who are democratically elected and, once in power, what they do is weaken the rule of law,” said Taraciuk.

In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promulgated an agreement last November that gives priority to works that the Government has established as mainstays in its Administration.

This measure, according to the HRW report, will cause permits to be issued for these works “automatically, without complying with the required studies”, thus leaving them “exempt from the rules of transparency” and making the oversight work of the press more difficult.

Anti-system stubbornness in Brazil

The HRW report also mentions the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, whom it says “has threatened the democratic government in Brazil by trying to undermine confidence in the electoral system, freedom of expression and judicial independence.”

The Brazilian government has tried to undermine the credibility of the electoral system, pointing out that electronic voting lends itself to “fraud”, without providing any proof of it.

But the main critical point towards Bolsonaro has to do with his erratic handling of the pandemic crisis, because, in the opinion of HRW, Bolsonaro “continued to ignore” the health recommendations against the coronavirus pandemic and “promoting ineffective medicines” against COVID -19.

Tamara Taraciuk made it very clear that for HRW “it is essential to continue supporting the work of the judges in Brazil who have dared to put a stop to Bolsonaro’s excesses.”

Police abuses and gang impunity in Colombia

The protests that took place in Colombia between April and July of last year left 84 dead, of which 25 were due to police action, are also the subject of a complaint in the HRW report, which draws attention to the fact that the Government “still does not has taken significant steps to reform its police force.”

For HRW, “police officers repeatedly and arbitrarily dispersed peaceful demonstrations and used excessive force, often brutal, including live ammunition and gender-based violence.”

“Colombia is the only country in Latin America where the Police are under the authority of the Ministry of Defense, and this often makes it difficult to distinguish between military and police responsibilities,” Taraciuk stated.

HRW adds that, despite the signing of the 2016 peace agreement between the Government and the FARC guerrillas, “conflict-related violence has taken new forms and abuses by armed groups – including assassinations and massacres and the massive forced displacement – have increased in remote areas of the country in 2021″.

In Haiti, according to the report, the collusion with state actors means that the rampant violence of the increasingly large gang groups punishes the population more.

HRW points out in its report on Latin America that the insecurity caused by some 95 armed gangs has caused the eviction from their homes and displacement of 19,100 people in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince in 2021.

Argentina and Ecuador: concern for women, children and prisoners

HRW sees with great concern that there has been an “endemic violence” against women in Argentina, since this constitutes one of the “longest lasting” human rights violations.

The NGO recalled that in 2020 there were a total of 251 femicides, of which only four of them had a court ruling.

As for the right to abortion – legal in this country since Congress approved a law in December 2020 – its exercise continues to be a “challenge” and “obstacles” arise in access to termination of pregnancy, warns HRW.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, “the poor prison conditions and violence, the indiscriminate use of force by security agencies, the restrictions on access to reproductive health for women and girls, and the limited protection continue to be serious concerns.” of the rights of children and refugees.

The human rights NGO focuses on the situation in prisons in this country, characterized by “poor conditions, violence, inadequate health and long-term problems.”

And in addition to warning that more than 600 inmates contracted COVID-19 and some died, HRW expresses special concern about the explosive situation in Ecuador’s prisons, which in 2021 experienced the most violent episodes in its history, with successive brawls that they left 80 dead in February, 119 in September and another 68 in November.