This month, we update you on developments in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia and on the rising prevalence of police abuse in the region. We ask you to participate in Amnesty’s social media campaign to support the legalisation of abortion in Argentina; to sign a petition to protect Colombian Human Rights Defenders; and to take action on the two South America cases featured in this year’s Write for Rights Campaign – Gustavo Gatica (Chile) and Jani Silva (Colombia) – as well as the updated Urgent Action regarding protection of the family of killed Peruvian Human Rights Defender, Roberto Carlos Pacheco. We record our meeting with the Chilean Ambassador to discuss Amnesty’s report on the repression of the October 2019 protests. Amnesty has called on the Peruvian authorities to place respect for human rights at the heart of their response to the political and social crisis there, while AI Brazil has called on Brazilian society to intensify its ‘anti-racial struggle’.
REGIONAL – POLICE ABUSE
Police abuse, resulting in hundreds of serious injuries and many unlawful killings, has been a feature of many of our recent newsletters. In an article in the New York Times, Human Rights Watch offer comment on this, highlighting Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia, and attributing the problem to pervasive impunity, lack of oversight and an institutional culture that permits and, at times, encourages abuse. It calls on governments urgently to enact reforms in three areas: protocols and equipment for crowd-control; authority to detain protesters and the treatment of detainees; and accountability for abuses.
COLOMBIA
Jonh Fredy Alvarez Quinaya, President of ASTRACAL, killed 11 January 2020
We ask you to take action to protect Colombian human right rights defenders by signing a petition demanding that Congress establish a commission to verify and guarantee their protection. Although there are numerous laws and institutions that are supposed to protect HRDs and their communities, killings and threats continue to multiply. Congress should demand accountability via a commission of experts.
One of the cases in this year’s Write for Rights campaign features Jani Silva, a Colombian environmental defender who, despite threats to her life, continues to fight for the conservation of the Amazon ecosystem and for the rights of hundreds of campesinos. You can sign an online petition here and take the actions set out in the Write for Rights booklet available here.
The killings of 95 human rights defenders (HRDs) in the first half of 2020 were 68% higher than for the same period of 2019, according to the NGO Programa Somos Defensores (‘We Are Defenders Programme’; the report is in Spanish). A further 13 HRDs were forcibly disappeared, compared to none in 2019. Of the 95 HRDs killed between January and June 2020, ten were women and eighty-five were men.
| HRDs by category killed Jan to June 2020 |
Number |
| Community leaders |
45 |
| Rural peasant community leaders |
19 |
| Indigenous community leaders |
17 |
| Afro-descendant community leaders |
3 |
| Environmental leaders |
3 |
| Youth leaders |
2 |
| LGBTI leader |
1 |
| Academic leader |
1 |
In 36 cases the perpetrators have been identified. Of those that were identified:
| Presumed responsible for killing HRDs |
Jan to June 2020 |
| Paramilitaries |
39% |
| Dissident FARC guerrillas |
33% |
| Armed Forces |
17% |
| ELN guerrillas |
11% |
The report highlights the increase in killings by dissident FARC guerrillas, who have increased their range in Colombia, and by the armed forces, whose efforts to make the countryside more secure for rural communities ‘could have had the opposite effect and that it is not effective in preventing and protecting these communities’.
A new report from Human Rights Watch points to the intentional killing of detainees during a riot at Bogotá’s Modelo prison in March. 24 prisoners died and 107 people were injured, including 76 detainees and 31 prison guards. Autopsies by forensic scientists found that “most of the gunshot wounds described in the autopsy reports are consistent with having been produced with the objective of killing”.
Good news! The Senate has passed a law that extends the right of victims of the civil war to reclaim their land for a further 10 years, to 2031. Originally, the law did not permit claims beyond 2021.
The Colombian authorities report that the number of people infected by Covid-19 has fallen to under half the rate prevailing in mid-August. The government has said that it will vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated free of charge. How this will be implemented, particularly in rural areas lacking healthcare facilities, is a problem. [click to continue…]
Marielle Franco was born and raised in a favela in Rio, Brazil. An elected councillor, she worked tirelessly to promote the rights of black women, LGBTI and young people.
