Mexico: Activists Urge Obama to Speak Out on Human Rights Abuses

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Mexican colleague, Enrique Peña Nieto, are expected to discuss topics including immigration, security and bilateral trade when they meet later today.  Human rights activists hope that both leaders will also focus on human rights abuses that have increasingly taking place in Mexico. 

 “We urge Obama and Peña Nieto to use all their available executive powers to stem the tide of smuggled weapons and to support legislative and electoral efforts to overcome political inertia and roll back the power of the light arms industry and their political front groups like the National Rifle Assn.,” wrote Javier Sicilia in an opinion piece published in today’s Los Angeles Times.

Sicilia, a poet turned peace activist after his son was brutally murdered in March 2011, added that both leaders “need to work together in prioritizing public health and regulation over a strategy that makes suspected drug offenders into military objectives”.  Yet he also called on “an engaged citizenry” from both sides of the border to pressure political leaders into “making good decisions.”

Sicilia and other human rights activists delivered a petition to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City this week calling for an end to the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico. 

For Daniel Zapico, head of Amnesty International in Mexico, Obama and Peña Nieto should reexamine the security cooperation pact known as the Mérida Initiative.

“The U.S. government has closed its eyes to the allegations of human rights abuses they have identified (in Mexico) including supposed torture, forced disappearances and the misapplication of military jurisdiction to ensure impunity,” said Zapico.

According to a letter sent to Obama by José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch, the number of reported cases of alleged human rights increased fivefold under the presidency of Peña Nieto predecessor, Felipe Calderón.  Vivanco also claimed that under Calderon’s six-year term over 70,000 people died in drug-related violence while some 26,100 people “disappeared.”

Human rights violations in Mexico are also closely linked to the country’s immigration debate, which was pointed out in a communiqué published by a coalition of human rights groups:

Rights group warns against Colombian “neo-paramilitaries”

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published yesterday highlighted the resurgence of criminal groups linked to Colombia’s rightist paramilitaries.

The HRW study entitled points out the crime and abuses by criminal groups that have emerged from the demobilization of the country’s AUC paramilitaries between 2003 and 2006. Most of the 30,000 demobilized soldiers have never really left the AUC structure and new recruits have taken their place according to the
scathing report.

The report also warned about the sharp increase in violence in urban areas as a result of paramilitary successors and comes after public backlash against president Alvaro Uribe’s unusual plan to pay Medellin schoolchildren as informants.

As to be expected the government’s reply was to strongly denounce the report; a Defense Ministry statement claimed “Colombian paramilitaries have been extinguished.” Such a shortsighted view was rebutted by HRW:

"Whatever you call these groups - whether paramilitaries, gangs, or some other name - their impact on human rights in Colombia today should not be minimized," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "Like the paramilitaries, these successor groups are committing horrific atrocities, and they need to be stopped."

The HRW report comes at a sensitive time for a proposed U.S.-Colombia free trade pact that has been stalled due to the concern of Democratic lawmakers over violence and human rights abuses.

Image- CBS News (“A member of the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) raises his weapon during a demobilization ceremony in Tibu, northeast of Bogota, December 10, 2004.”)
Online Sources- UPI, CNN, Human Rights watch, Colombia Reports, Reuters, El Espectador

Notable Quotables: You can run but you can’t hide

“The verdict will also send a powerful message to current heads of state who may be tempted to use abusive tactics to resolve their political problems. As Fujimori discovered yesterday, crimes they may be able to get away with while in power can come back to haunt them years later.”

---José Miguel Vivanco- executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch- gave his two cents on yesterday’s historic verdict against Peruvian ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

Peru’s Supreme Court convicted Fujimori for human rights abuses during his decade in power and subsequently sentenced him to 25 years in jail.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CNN

Venezuela less democratic under Chavez says HRW

Venezuela has become less democratic under the rule of Hugo Chavez according to a report issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

A weakened justice system, press harassment, and political discrimination were just a few of the problems faced in Venezuela under nearly a decade of Chavez’ rule according to HRW Americas director José Miguel Vivanco. At a press conference yesterday in Caracas, Vivanco spoke out against the “weakening of democratic institutions” under Chavez and made several recommendations to the Venezuelan government.

The Chavez administration not only replied by criticizing Vivanco but also by kicking him out of the country hours after his press conference:

Officials in Caracas said Human Rights Watch Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco had made unacceptable remarks against the country's institutions.

"We aren't going to tolerate any foreigner coming here to sully the dignity" of Venezuela's institutions, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told state television…

Vivanco "has violated the constitution" and Venezuela's laws, Maduro said.

Both human rights campaigners had been acting at the behest of the U.S. government, the foreign minister said.

Earlier this week, HRW released a statement calling for Bolivian authorities to investigate the deaths of at least fifteen people during recent disturbances. “An independent and unbiased investigation is absolutely critical to ensuring that those responsible for these killings are brought to justice,” said Vivanco over the killings in the department of Pando.

Image- AP (“Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for Human Rights Watch, listens to reporters' questions during a news conference in Caracas, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008.”)

Sources (English)- Human Rights watch, CBC, miamiherald.com

Sources (Spanish)- unionradio.net