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South America Newsletter August 2017
SUMMARY
In this month’s newsletter (from the South American Team of Graham Minter and Richard Crosfield), we have good news from Chile on the decriminalisation of abortion, urgent actions on Venezuela and Colombia, and details of Amnesty’s short campaign on the crisis in Venezuela, where more than 100 people have been killed since April. In Colombia the challenges facing the peace agreement are revealed, while our Americas Director writes a piece on the Peace Community. Two new reports on the Zika virus and domestic violence in Brazil highlight the failure of the authorities to uphold women’s rights. In Peru we report on the harassment of environmental rights defenders and the UN’s concern at the number of social conflicts related to large-scale business operations. Ahead of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review on human rights in Argentina, Amnesty highlights Argentina’s shortcomings.
VENEZUELA
Controversial elections for a new Constituent Assembly took place on 30 July. The Assembly will have the power to rewrite the country’s constitution. Ahead of the elections, the government imposed a ban on protests and announced the deployment of military personnel and experts to deal with electoral and military crimes. However, this did not stop the protests and it is reported that at least 10 people died in a series of clashes with police. Since the latest wave of protests began in April, more than 100 people have been killed and more than 1,400 injured, according to official sources. This news report contains a series of graphic images of the protests.
As already reported, Amnesty has launched a short campaign aimed at conveying a clear message to senior Venezuelan Government figures that if they promote or implement a policy of illegal use of force, they may be subject to prosecution under international criminal justice. Amnesty considers that the recurrent attacks against the population and speeches inciting violence by the authorities indicate a premeditated policy of violent repression of any form of dissent. See Amnesty statement here.
The British Foreign Secretary has issued a statement on the situation, calling on the Venezuelan Government to refrain from divisive and inflammatory action. You can read it here.
Human Rights Watch have released disturbing video footage of the clashes, which you can see here.
Amnesty has issued an Urgent Action concerning 14 police officers who have been arbitrarily detained for politically motivated reasons since June 2016 despite a court order that they should be released. They are on hunger strike to demand that the authorities execute the release warrant. You can call for their release here.
Leopoldo López, who had been transferred from prison to his home, has been arrested and returned to prison. The Foreign Secretary has demanded his release. [update 6.08.17, CNN report that Leopoldo, our Case File, was returned to house arrest yesterday] [Read more…]
Group Newsletter 9th July 2017
Hello
Welcome our the latest newsletter.
The next meeting is on Thursday 13th July 2017, 7.30 at Moordown Community Centre. We will have an update/letter on Cuba, photo action on Japan, letter to USA re Guantanamo prisoner, working on our Case Files and have continued planning and review of events.
We don’t have any events planned over the next few months, having had a busy few weeks. A reminder we don’t have a meeting in August.
Bournemouth Pride Festival July 1st
For the third year running we were involved in the local Pride festival – both taking part in the parade and having a stall in the gardens. We got around 150 postcards signed campaigning against the abduction and killing of gay men in Chechnya.
As you can see from the photograph below we used some of our Marsh award money to have two selfie frames created. These proved quite successful as most people were quite happy to be photographed in the frame – either by us or with their own cameras. We have put about 50 photographs on our facebook page, if you’d like to check them out. But we’ve put a few on the video above.
South America Newsletter July 2017
SUMMARY
In this month’s newsletter (from the South American Team of Graham Minter and Richard Crosfield), we report on the recent visit to the UK of Esperanza Huayama, a leading campaigner for justice for the thousands of indigenous women submitted to forced sterilisation in Peru in the 1990s. We report further on the crisis in Venezuela where 80 people have been killed in anti-government protests in the last three months and the Attorney General has been banned from leaving the country. There is good news on the peace process in Colombia but major challenges remain as threats to communities continue. Brazil remains in turmoil and we highlight reports on police killings, violence against women and attacks against human rights defenders. In Chile we have a new Individuals At Risk case (Rodrigo Mundaca) that you can opt into and there are concerns that the law partially decriminalising abortion may be watered down. In Paraguay, President Cartes has threatened two journalists with imprisonment.
PERU
In June we were delighted to co-host, with the University of Kent and the Peru Support Group, the visit to the UK of Esperanza Huayama, President of the Association of Forcibly Sterilised Women in the province of Huancabamba and Vice-President of the National Association. The programme included an event at the Human Rights Action Centre (photo), where we presented a documentary on the subject and heard from Esperanza about her own experience and her work to campaign for justice. We also accompanied Esperanza to meetings at parliament, the FCO, CAFOD and Equality Now. For a fuller report, see here.
VENEZUELA
At least 80 people have been killed in anti-Government protests in the last three months. Amnesty has warned that “the increased deployment of military forces to repress protests, the rise in excessive use of force against protesters and others, and the use of military courts to try to silence dissenting voices illustrates a terrifying shift of the Venezuelan authorities’ approach to the human rights crisis wreaking havoc across the country”. For a fuller report, see here.
The Attorney-General, Luisa Ortega Díaz, has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for protection, after the Supreme Court barred her from leaving the country and ordered her bank accounts to be frozen. Ortega Díaz’s office had just announced that it was summoning the chief of Venezuela’s intelligence agency, Gustavo Gonzalez, to appear before them on suspicion of “committing grave and systemic violations of human rights”. Ortega Díaz, one of the few critical voices in the current government, had earlier contested a Supreme Court decision that would have dissolved the opposition-controlled National Assembly, the decision that sparked the current wave of protests. [Read more…]
BourneFree 2017
Last weekend we had a hugely successful return to Bournemouth’s LGBTI Pride event, BourneFree. As in previous years we were in the Gardens with our stall from about 8.00am until 4.30pm. We also took part in the parade through Bournemouth. As you can see from the photo, our stall was a bit better than previous years as we now have two bright yellow banners to help publicise ourselves.
We also had much better supply of materials from AIUK, although we ran out of the Pride stickers by lunch time. But we got around 150 postcards signed campaigning against the abduction and killing of gay men in Chechnya. As you can see from the photograph we used some of our Marsh award money to have two selfie frames created. These proved quite successful as most people were quite happy to be photographed in the frame – either by us or with their own cameras. We have put about 50 photographs on our facebook page, if you’d like to check them out. But we’ve put a sample on the video above.
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