Dear friends

This month we bring you news from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina and Chile. Plus we have the regional highlights from Amnesty International’s annual report on human rights worldwide.

In Colombia Amnesty International, together with many local NGOs, has published its detailed proposals for police reform. Whilst in Brazil, Amnesty and other civic society organisations have launched the campaign “The Ministry Has to Be Public”. This is an attempt to tackle the severe problem of police violence. Amnesty has marked the 100th day since the start of social protests in Peru.

In Venezuela Amnesty has decided to extend the deadline for its Urgent Action on “Venezuelan NGOs at risk” for another eight weeks. They have also highlighted the ongoing arbitrary detention, and health deterioration, of Javier Tarazona, director of an NGO, who was imprisoned and charged with inciting hatred, treason, and “terrorism” in July 2021.

In Argentina the remaining aircraft used to carry out “death flights” during the military dictatorship is being returned to the country. Amnesty has published a new report, based on the testimonies of female Venezuelan refuges in Chile, outlining the difficulties they experience.

REGIONAL

Amnesty has issued its annual report on human rights worldwide.  It found, among other things, that:

• An additional 15 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean have begun to live in poverty since the Covid-19 pandemic began, raising the total to 201 million;
• The Americas remained the region with most fatalities from Covid, with more than 2.9 million confirmed deaths, while Peru has the highest death rate from Covid in the world;
• At least 67 people have died since widespread protests began across Peru in December, including at least 49 deaths from state repression;
• The Americas accounted for 273 of 327 trans and gender-diverse people reported murdered worldwide, while Brazil recorded more killings (96) than any other country on earth
• More than 7.17 million Venezuelans have left the country, mostly since 2015, over 6 million of whom are living in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached the second highest annual figure since 2006.

COLOMBIA

Following Amnesty International’s reports on the excessive use of force by the National Police during the 2021 National Strike, Amnesty International, together with many local NGOs, has published its detailed proposals for police reform. These include removing the police from the Defence Ministry, re-orientating its objectives and changing its recruitment and training to enable it to serve the people and fully recognise their human rights, including the right to protest. (See attached proposal). Please sign the petition supporting these proposals.

Amnesty has submitted its findings to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly.  Between 2018 and 2022 Amnesty International documented worrying trends of excessive use of force by Colombian security forces when intervening in protests and mobilizations. Among the most commonly used repertoires of violence were extrajudicial executions, injuries (including severe eye trauma) and gender-based violence (including sexual violence).

The UN Commissioner on Human Rights reports on his visit to Colombia. While noting the many advances on human rights and the 2016 Peace Accord’s transitional justice under the new administration, he calls on ‘the Attorney General’s Office to advance accountability for violations reportedly committed by security forces during protests. The charges of serious offenses, such as terrorism, against protestors, needs to be reviewed.’  The Attorney General is independent of the Government.

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.