This month, we update you on developments in Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela,and Chile.
Amnesty International reviews the victims of excessive use of force by Colombia’s security services during the National Strike and analyses the killing of 199 Human Rights Defenders in 2020, a new record. We report on the high death rate from Covid-19 among the indigenous community in Brazil, as well as extrajudicial killings and political developments in the country. We have a new Urgent Action on Venezuela and reports on the humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses there. A Mapuche leader, Elisa Locon, has been elected to lead the drafting of the new constitution in Chile, and we cover allegations of human rights abuses by Chile’s national police force.

COLOMBIA

Demonstrators in Cali during the National Strike
1. National Strike – excessive use of force by the security services
Amnesty International reports on the victims of excessive use of force by Colombia’s security services during the National Strike. Between 28 April and 2 June there had been 76 homicides, 34 of which were allegedly caused by the actions of the security forces in the context of the demonstrations. 988 people sustained injuries as a result of the excessive use of force by riot police; 74 of those wounded had eye injuries. There have been 151 attacks against human rights defenders in the context of demonstrations. At the end of a month of mobilizations, the Working Group on Forced Disappearances had recorded 775 people feared disappeared, the whereabouts of 327 of whom remain unknown.
Amnesty adds: ‘The statements of President Duque and other high-ranking officials about the alleged “terrorist purposes” of the peaceful marches must stop. The militarized response to the protests in Colombia, provided for by Decree 575, issued on 28 May, is in breach of Colombia’s international human rights obligations.’
According to The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) 102 journalists were assaulted, 45 threatened, 14 had their equipment seized, 17 harassed, and 11 illegally detained by the security forces during the strike.

Human Right Watch calls on the Colombian authorities ‘to protect human rights, initiate a comprehensive police reform effort to ensure that officers respect the right of peaceful assembly, and bring those responsible for abuses to justice.’ British police officers have been training the Colombian police for 15 years.
Colombia Peace Monitoring notes that while the organisations that convoked the National Strike are now working with Congressmen on a raft of bills and have called for an end to the strike, groups of mostly young people continued to take to the streets in Bogotá’s poorer southern neighbourhoods, in “resistance” sites around Cali, and in Medellín, Bucaramanga, Pasto, and Popayán. While demonstrations and blockades were mostly peaceful, violence between police and protesters broke out several times during the week.

2. Human Rights Defenders under threat
Programa Somos Defensores (‘We are Defenders Programme) reports that despite Covid-19 lockdowns last year 60% more human rights defenders were killed (199) in 2020 than in 2019, when the overall number of homicides declined by 7% in Colombia.
More HRDs were killed in 2020 – 199 – than in any year since records began.
25 were women and 174 men. Social leaders in rural areas distant from the centre of the state, and therefore invisible, are the principal victims of the violence. They are the community, campesino (field-worker), indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders. These communities are vulnerable to the armed groups who roam the territory and are principally financed by the drug trade and illicit mining. Conflict with these largely isolated communities is often over land rights, coca and marijuana cultivation and recruitment of boys and girls into their ranks.
Activity of victims
Number killed in 2020
Community Leaders  91
Indigenous Leaders  41
Campesino (field-workers) leaders  29
Afro-descendant leaders  11
Environmental leaders 7
Union leaders 6
LGBTI Leaders 5
Other leaders 9
TOTAL KILLED   199
Very few of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. From the Prosecutors’ Office’s own data, Somos Defensores reckons only 0.2% of all threats against HRDs have been officially clarified between January 2015 and February 2021. Of the 2,962 cases investigated by the public prosecutor only 6 have resulted in a conviction.
Amnesty International continues with its action on behalf of Human Right Defenders. Please sign the petition to Congress to ensure that they are protected.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that the number of mass displacements between January and May 2021 has doubled since the same period last year. 80% of the forced displacements are the result of communities fleeing their homes following threats or armed attacks from non-state actors. [click to continue…]