Amnesty Int’l blasts LatAm human rights abuses

Amnesty International (AI) issued its 2009 report on Thursday and it provides a sobering outlook of global human rights abuses. "Billions of people are suffering from insecurity, injustice and indignity around the world," said an AI release on the report which added that global economic slowdown has exacerbated the problem of abuses. Furthermore, the reports claimed that attention paid to a prompt economic recovery has blocked the need to halt human rights violations.

Latin America and the Caribbean were certainly not exempt from being criticized by AI. Here are a few of the organization’s criticisms:

• Cuba – While the U.S. trade embargo “continued to have a negative effect on the exercise of human rights”, the Castro regime has engaged in the harassment of political dissidents and restricting freedom of expression.
• Colombia – A myriad of human rights abuses have occurred including increased internal displacement, “false positives” by the military, continued kidnappings by guerillas, and judicial impunity.
• Brazil – Indigenous peoples have come under threat as their lands become increasingly encroached while little has been done to turn around socioeconomic inequality in Brazil’s cities.
• Mexico – Women’s’ rights continue to be violated, migrants moving through Mexico were often attacked by criminals with police complicity, and journalists keep getting killed.
• Puerto Rico - Police have engaged in racial profiling and have been accused of brutality against migrants from the Dominican Republic.
  

Not all was negative in the Americas according to AI; the organization praised the upcoming closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison, Nicaragua’s recognition of a local indigenous group, and the prosecution of “Dirty War” crimes in the Southern Cone states.

Image- CNN
Online Sources- Amnesty International, UPI, BBC News