Latin America faces an alarming decline in freedoms

“There has been a very serious deterioration of the rule of law at the regional level.” With these words the acting director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the Americas, Tamara Taraciuk, stressed the situation on the continent, in the context of the organization’s 2022 report.

Taraciuk mentioned some examples: “Direct and formal attacks against electoral systems, against the Judiciary, against the independent press and against civil society.” Facts that not only occur in countries led by dictatorial regimes, but also in territories that have “democratically elected leaders, thus putting the pillars of democracy at risk,” he concluded.

The official also said that the “great popular discontent, due to poverty, corruption and insecurity” is notable, situations that are taken advantage of by “populist politicians who come to power and do not want or cannot face the problems”, but limit the Rights. Given this, “the narrative of a savior leader who will solve the problems prevails”, so “the solution is more democracy, and not less.”

Tamara Taraciuk also pointed out the challenges of the territory. Poverty, the unequal distribution of wealth, climate threats, violence, among others, which has led to the exodus of millions of people trying to lead a life without this burden on their shoulders.

Chapter Mexico: “violence and impunity under the administration of AMLO”

There are several sections of the general report presented by HRW. In the case of Mexico, the document refers to the high levels of violence and impunity under the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

According to the document, 90% of the crimes are not reported, a third of the defendants are never investigated, and 16% of the people who are the subject of investigations, their cases end in pre-trial agreements, which is why it is concluded that just over 1% of the cases that occurred in that nation were clarified in 2021.

The data in the report was extracted from the National Statistics Agency. According to HRW, torture “widely used” by internal law enforcement agencies to seek information, the overcrowding of pre-trial prisoners in unsanitary prisons, the granting of numerous civil power responsibilities to the armed forces, are other aspects discussed.

It cannot be left out that this country is “one of the most dangerous countries” for those who practice journalism and defend human rights. Their murder is “rarely investigated or prosecuted.”

HRW recognized the progress of sexual rights in the country, with the legalization, in several states, of equal marriage or the facilities provided to the processes of sex changes for trans people.

El Salvador: drastic measures to “co-opt” democracy

The pointing to Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, is direct. He accused him of “adopting drastic measures to co-opt democratic institutions” and of sponsoring the abuses that take place during the emergency regime declared in March of last year as a response to the violent climate caused by the gangs. This was recently extended for the tenth time.

According to the local authorities, the detainees in this context reach 60,000, in figures approved until last December, while local NGOs denounce the lack of due process, ill-treatment, forced disappearances, arbitrary acts and some 2,900 reports of violations. to human rights.

The pages released underline the backwardness in terms of reproductive rights.

Nicaragua: “systematic repression” against critics

Nicaragua could not be left out of the compendium. That country is experiencing a spiral of “systematic repression against critics, journalists, and human rights defenders.” The Catholic Church, higher education centers and non-governmental organizations are clear targets of the government led by Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

There, the Executive “has dismantled all the institutional bodies” that control presidential power. The critics detained this year include some 50 people, including seven candidates for the country’s presidency.

They were detained and subjected to proceedings based on “absurd charges and without basic guarantees of due process.”

The repression extended its cloak of restrictions to other sectors of society, such as “human rights defenders, journalists and other actors critical of the Government who are the target of death threats, attacks, intimidation, harassment, surveillance, online smear campaigns , detention and arbitrary criminal proceedings,” according to the study.

Cuba: “disproportionate prison sentences” and the “failure” of US policy

Two factors came to light in the section on Cuba: the repression of critical voices and the failure of US policies towards that country. According to HRW, replicated by the EFE agency, the Cuban authorities refuse to respond to the problems that in 2021 caused the largest protests on record since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.

Trials against hundreds of protest participants “often violated basic guarantees” and resulted in “disproportionate” prison sentences. A fact that analysts consider as a measure of punishment.

Bearing in mind that the laws, despite having a common factor regarding respect for the dignity of man and his rights, are not of equal application, Cuba dedicated prime time on national television to explain the sentences and the facts for which which several of its citizens were accused.

HRW mentioned the intimidation tactic that the Cuban government uses against independent activists and political opponents: arbitrary arrests, counting at least a thousand detainees who can be framed in what HRW calls political prisoners, counting house arrests and those who are They are on probation.

The economic crisis and its effects were also mentioned. The departure of hundreds of thousands of Cubans from the country is one of them. They expose themselves to the insecurity represented by the gangs and the security forces of the nations that are an obligatory step for those who decide to head north.

Despite this, Human Rights Watch regrets that the current US administration continues the “failed policy of isolation towards Cuba”, a setback initiated by Donald Trump, and the economic embargo that has plagued the island since the 1960s.

“The United States embargo on the Cuban government an excuse for problems, a pretext for abuses, and the sympathy of nations that might otherwise condemn repressive practices,” the report concluded.

The truth is that, if it were not effective, Washington would have already put it aside. At the beginning of the political path taken by the island under the mandate of Fidel Castro, the Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Lester Mallory, wrote a memorandum that would remain in the history books of the island.

“The majority of Cubans support Castro,” Mallory emphasized. “There is no effective political opposition (…) Communist influence is permeating the Government and the body politic at an astonishingly rapid rate (…) The only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on dissatisfaction and economic difficulties.

An analysis that, over the years and with the physical disappearance of the natural leaders of this process, is taking shape, but at a high price for the Cuban people, but not for its leaders.

Chile: police reform, women and abortion

The delay in the reform of the security forces in Chile, specifically the police, has been the cause of attention on the part of HRW. However, the organization has verified the first steps for such changes, emphasizing that more care must be taken in relation to the disciplinary system and protocols, according to EFE reports.

The documents indicate that the call for reform was formulated after complaints of excessive use of force against protesters and mistreatment of detainees in the context of the 2019 social outbreak, the largest since the return of democracy to that nation. According to the report, “deficiencies remain that leave wide scope for abuse.”

HRW also turned its gaze to the reproductive sexual rights of women and girls. In particular, the issue of voluntary termination of pregnancy on the basis of three edges: fetal inviability, rape or risk to the mother.

“Health facilities impose unnecessary obstacles, including restrictive and discretionary interpretations of exceptions to the abortion ban,” the HRW pages concluded.

He also reminded the new draft constitution that was rejected by the majority of Chileans in a referendum. It established the duty of the State to guarantee the right to abortion.

The “similar tactics” of Trump and Bolsonaro

For her part, the acting executive director of Human Rights Watch, Tirana Hassan, compared the assault on the main government and political buildings in Brazil by followers of the far-right policies of former President Jair Bolsonaro, with what happened in January 2020 in the United States Congress.

“Both Trump and Bolsonaro laid the groundwork for these attacks by undermining confidence in the electoral system,” he concluded. According to Hassan, both ex-presidents used “the same playbook” of the “autocrats” to “attack democracy.”

On January 8, thousands of ultra-rightists stormed the headquarters of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, claiming failures and fraud in the electoral process that led to Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva as the winner.

Other issues visible in the HRW report

Discrimination in South Korea, the rights of women drastically curtailed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the repression of Iranian protesters, abuses by armed groups and law enforcement in Africa, the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, among others. issues, were also mentioned in the report.

The report, some 752 pages long, analyzes human rights conditions in at least 100 nations. The 2022 summary is the 32nd to be released.

With EFE, AP and local media