Türkiye

Dear friends 

This month we bring you news from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Argentina. The Colombian Ombudsman reports that 215 social leaders and human rights defenders were killed in 2022. Brazil‘s new Environment Minister has called on an investigation into former President Bolsonaro for genocide of indigenous people. Amnesty has presented its initial findings of its investigation into the repression of the massive protests in different areas of Peru since December last year. In Venezuela, 187 acts of persecution and criminalization committed by the Maduro government were recorded in January 2023    We have some good news from Chile, following on from last month’s Urgent Action. Two years on from the legalisation of abortion, there is an update from Argentina.  

COLOMBIA 

The Colombian Ombudsman reports that 215 social leaders and human rights defenders were killed in 2022, the highest number since the Peace Accords of 2016. The murders coincide with places that are strategically important to organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining and contraband. These armed groups include former paramilitaries, FARC dissidents, ELN guerrillas and organised crime such as the Clan de Golfo cartel. The new government has launched a ‘Total Peace’ plan which includes ceasefires by the ELN, Clan de Golfo and other armed groups. 

The Inter American Court of Human Rights has called for reparations for the victims of systematic violence by the Colombian state against 6,000 members and militants of the Patriotic Union. This ‘manifested itself through various acts, such as forced disappearances, massacres, extrajudicial executions and murders, threats, attacks, various acts of stigmatization, improper prosecutions, torture, and forced displacement, among others.’ The Patriotic Union was founded as a political party in 1985 by the FARC following a 1985 peace accord with the government. Colombia has promised to pay the reparations.  

Semana reports the Office of the Inspector General of the Nation has asked for five Army generals to be investigated for the March 2022 killings of 11 civilians in the village of Remanso in Putumayo department. This follows an exhaustive investigation into the killings by the Inspector General, who found that the alleged drug traffickers targeted by the Army were known not to be there at the time. 

Peace Brigades International relates the risk to Catatumbo rural communities attempting to comply with the Peace Accords of 2016. The government has failed to provide farmers with alternative crops to coca, poppy and marijuana or to alternative sources of income. Organizations that defend the Peace Agreement from inside Catatumbo “today, are more threatened and are victims of multiple types of attacks, such as accusations and assassination attempts.” 

Six months into his presidency, the Financial Times reports on President Petro’s return to ‘the revolutionary rhetoric of his youth,‘ with the intention of pushing through major reforms to pensions, healthcare and the labour market. However, it is unsure from where the government will obtain the necessary funding for these reforms. 

This month we bring you news from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Amnesty has issued an update to its Urgent Action regarding protests in Peru, following the deaths of a further 18 people on 9 January. Amnesty has also written to the Ecuadorian authorities regarding proposed reforms to the Ecuadorian constitution, which could endorse the permanent use of armed forces in public security tasks in the country. In Venezuela, Amnesty has launched an Urgent Action and public letter to Volker Türk after the Venezuela authorities moved to impose restrictions on non-governmental organisations in the country. Amnesty has also issued an Urgent Action after the assault of the Chilean protester Moisés Órdenes. Regarding Brazil, Amnesty has condemned the invasion of Parliament, the President’s Palace and the Supreme Court by extremist groups on 8 January and has an open petition to the Brazilian Public Ministries to build external and participatory control of police activity by 2024.

PERU

Since social protests began in different regions of Peru on 7 December, at least 40 people, including minors, have died and dozens, including civilians and police, have been injured, many of them from firearms, in the context of the repression of demonstrations.  Amnesty has called on the Peruvian authorities to put an immediate end to the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force against the civilian population as a first step towards laying the foundations for a way out of the current crisis facing the country.

Amnesty issued an update to its Urgent Action, following the deaths of 18 people, including a police officer, in Juliaca, Puno region, on 9 January.  You can support the action here. We used this letter at our last meeting.

The UK Government has expressed concern about the reports and called on the Peruvian Government to intensify its efforts to ensure a proportional and legal response to protests and the protection of human rights, “even in the face of violence, vandalism and attacks, which are unacceptable and have no place in peaceful protest”; and has urged immediate and impartial investigations into allegations of abuses and disproportionate action.

In his response (view here) to Graham’s recent communication to him, the Peruvian Ambassador has conveyed his government’s deep regret at the loss of human lives during recent protests and said that the government was carrying out a criminal investigation on a case-by-case basis to establish the corresponding criminal responsibility.  He ascribed the deaths to violent actions caused by people whose intention was to subvert the democratic order.

On 29 January, a crisis team from Amnesty’s Americas Regional Office arrived in Peru to “investigate serious human rights violations and possible crimes under international law committed in the context of the wave of protests that began last December”. Amnesty has now issued a press release based on their findings.