Police abuses against civilians in the framework of social protest in Colombia, the murder of human rights defenders and the resurgence of violence in certain areas of the country figured high in the annual evaluation for the year 2021 that the US organization delivered this Thursday Human Rights Watch (HRW).
(Read here: ‘Latin America is between two poles: democracy and tyranny’: Sergio Ramírez)
In its report, which is more than 700 pages long, the NGO affirms that during the previous year it was presented in Latin America an “alarming setback” in the matter of basic freedoms due to attacks on judicial independence, freedom of the press and against civil society, as well as growing humanitarian needs associated with the crisis due to the covid.
In the case of Colombia, HRW claims that members of the National Police “responded to mostly peaceful protests by arbitrarily dispersing protesters and resorting to excessive use of force, including the use of lethal ammunition.”
It also affirms that the Government has not adopted significant measures to reform the police force, nor a legal framework that contributes to justice for these human rights violations.
“The police abuses against protesters that occurred during the national strike are unprecedented in the recent history of Colombia. Unfortunately, the transformation of the police that the government of President Duque has proposed so far does not address the institution’s most serious structural problems and does very little to guarantee that these police abuses do not happen again. Carrying out a deep and serious reform of the police should be a priority measure, “Juan Pappier, who is in charge of Colombia in this NGO, told this newspaper.
(Also read: Latin American countries with economies best prepared for 2022)
According to the report, during 2021 the dissidents of the FarcThe ELN and other criminal groups sowed terror in remote areas of the country where violence had subsided after the signing of the peace accords. And he cites numerous cases of murders, forced displacement and recruitment of minors.
It also documents the highest number of massacres (82 reported) that have been committed since 2014. And it also expresses alarm at the death of more than 450 activists since 2016, a figure that makes Colombia one of the most dangerous places of the world to practice this profession.
For Pappier, “the number of homicides, massacres and forced displacement that occurred in 2021 is very worrying. If serious and urgent measures are not taken, there is a great risk that several communities in remote areas of the country will soon experience levels of violence again. similar to those that existed before the peace process. “
According to the report, the covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to control it had “a devastating impact in terms of poverty and social inequality.”
The report also mentions impunity for past abuses, obstacles to land restitution, and limitations on reproductive rights as other problems that continued to arise in the country during 2021.
(It may interest you: Less freedom of expression; 30 journalists killed in America: Fundamedios)
Alert for erosion of democracy in Latin American countries
According to Tamara Taraciuk, interim director for the Americas at HRW, at the regional level, 2021 stood out as a year in which democratic spaces that were taken for granted had to be defended.
“Even leaders who came to power through democratic elections have attacked independent civil society, freedom of the press and judicial independence,” Taraciuk said, noting that the challenges that are being presented are the most serious in decades.
And as examples he gives several cases such as Nicaragua, where he says that last November’s elections were held without the slightest democratic guarantees. In Cuba, HRW maintains that the government carried out systematic abuses against critics and artists, including arbitrary arrests, mistreatment of detainees, and abusive criminal proceedings, in response to largely peaceful protests against the government.
In Venezuela, the NGO highlights the decision made in November by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) when he opened an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed during the administration of Nicolás Maduro.
Likewise, it includes the balance of an independent electoral mission of the European Union in which numerous arbitrariness are documented during the regional elections that affected its transparency and impartiality.
The report also criticizes the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, for his intimidating attacks against the Supreme Court and baseless accusations about alleged electoral fraud.
In Mexico, HRW argues, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “continued his media attacks against journalists and human rights defenders, as well as his efforts to eliminate independent public bodies that limit their power and to co-opt the judicial system to persecute enemies. politicians”.
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele and his allies in the legislature summarily replaced the Supreme Court justices with whom they differed and enacted laws to remove hundreds of lower-level judges and prosecutors.
The new magistrates appointed to the Supreme Court ruled that Bukele could run for consecutive reelection, despite a constitutional provision prohibiting it. His government also proposed a “foreign agents” law that, if passed, could seriously limit the work of independent journalists and civil society organizations.
For their part, in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Guatemala, the report maintains, various efforts aimed at weakening judicial independence or using the justice system for political purposes have threatened the democratic system of checks and balances.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Washington
On Twitter: @ sergom68
In other news
– These are the assembly members from Ecuador who presented a report on Saab
– Keys to understanding the fifth term of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua
.
#HRW #warns #alarming #decline #freedoms #Latin #America