Friday News Highlights
- Multiple reports were released this week citing human rights violations committed by security forces in Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela.
- A new report by Amnesty International "accuses the [Mexican] authorities of failing to fully probe allegations of abuses committed by the military, including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial and unlawful killings, torture, ill treatment and arbitrary detentions." You can download a PDF of the report, "Mexico: New Reports of Human Rights Violations by the Military" here.
- Human Rights Watch released a report that accuses Brazilian police officers of "routinely resorting to lethal force, often committing extrajudicial executions and exacerbating violence in both states [São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro]." The report, "Lethal Force: Police Violence and Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo," says the two police forces kill more than 1,000 people every year, and have killed 11,000 people since 2003.
- The Miami Herald continued the trend with an article on Venezuela. According to the article, "Police death squads are active in more than half of Venezuela's 24 states, and the practice of 'extra-judicial execution' is nationwide. While more than 7,000 people were killed by uniformed members of the security forces between 2000 and 2007, ... only 3% of 6,000 suspects were actually sentenced."
- In Honduras, plans were being made for ousted President Manuel Zelaya to leave the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has taken refuge since returning to the country in September, and fly to Mexico. However, Zelaya refused to sign a letter written by the de facto government, in which he would drop his demand to be reinstated. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Zelaya says he will leave the Brazilian Embassy by January 27th, 2010, "when his presidential term ends."
- The Economist published New York Times.
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Chile will hold its
- On Monday, a judge in Santiago ruled that former Chilean president, Eduardo Frei, did not die of stomach ailments in 1982, as once thought, but was poisoned "with low doses of mustard gas and thallium." This court ruling served as a reminder of the abuses during the country's Pinochet years. A Los Angeles Times editorial read: "Chile has developed a strong democracy in the 20 years since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet ended, and yet the blue-eyed strongman who died in 2006 continues to cast a pall over the country's current events in a stark demonstration of how difficult it is for a nation to recover from tyranny." And John Dinges, the author of "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and his Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Countries," told the Washington Post's Juan Forero, "This is probably the greatest crime of the military government, to kill a former president. . . This is like discovering that Nixon was involved in the Kennedy assassination." Six people were charged in connection with the killing: "A doctor connected to Gen. Augusto Pinochet's army, a former intelligence agent under the general and Mr. Frei's driver were charged with murder. Two doctors who were alleged to have falsified the autopsy report were charged with covering up the killing, and a third was charged as an accomplice."
- On the Center for International Policy blog, Plan Colombia and Beyond, Adam Isacson outlines five points that stood out in a new report by the Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, a small think-tank in Bogotá, Colombia. This report, titled "2009: The decline of 'Democratic Security?'," argues that "the Uribe government's policies are experiencing diminishing returns after a high point in mid-2008, when paramilitary leaders were extradited, hostages were freed, and top FARC leaders were killed." The five points outlined in the blog are: 1. The FARC are more active; 2. "New" paramilitary groups are far more active; 3. There is a security crisis in Medellín; 4. "New" paramilitaries are increasingly active in Bogotá; and 5. Judicial actions are being taken in cases of "false positives" or extrajudicial executions.
- The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2134, the "Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act of 2009", on Tuesday. The bill is now being considered in the Senate. If it becomes law, an independent commission will be formed to review 28 years of U.S. policies aimed at reducing illicit drug supply and demand in the Western Hemisphere.
- On Sunday Bolivian President Evo Morales was reelected with 63% of the popular vote. His Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party also secured two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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At the beginning of a press conference with Ukranian Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko, <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/12/133349.htm' target=" href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/12/133349.htm' target=" blank"="">Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a moment to comment on Honduras:
Before I turn to the issues that the minister and I discussed and the shared objectives the United States and Ukraine are working toward, I'd like to say a few words about Honduras. President-elect Lobo has been meeting this week with President Arias of Costa Rica, President Martinelli of Panama, and has been in touch with other leaders throughout the hemisphere to advance regional cooperation with respect to Honduras. Ever since the June 28 coup, the United States has remained dedicated both to our democratic principles and our determination to help Honduras find a pragmatic path to restore democratic and constitutional order. We condemned President Zelaya's expulsion from Honduras as inconsistent with democratic principles and the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and we have taken significant steps to signal our determination. At the same time, working with OAS, President Arias and diverse sectors in Honduras, we've spared no effort to help Hondurans find a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the crisis, a resolution that restores democratic and constitutional order. We supported the San Jose process. We welcomed the negotiations among Hondurans themselves that led to the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. And we are encouraged by the work of regional leaders in support of this process. Yesterday, I spoke with President Arias and I will continue to reach out to other leaders as well. A year-long electoral process culminated on November 29 when the Honduran people expressed their democratic will peacefully and in large numbers. And we salute the Honduran people for this achievement and we congratulate President-elect Lobo for his victory. These November 29 elections marked an important milestone in the process moving forward, but not its end. President-elect Lobo has launched a national dialogue and he has called for the formation of a national unity government and a truth commission as set forth in the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord. We stand with the Honduran people and we will continue to work closely with others in the region who seek to determine the democratic way forward for Honduras.