• by IPS Correspondents (new york)
• Friday, December 09, 1994
• Inter Press Service

NEW YORK, Dic 09 (IPS) - Human rights violations persist in Latin America, despite the consolidation of democratically elected governments in the region, according to a global report issued Thursday by the non-governmental Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based organisation reported that "even as civilian governments seem firmly established, respect for human rights has not become a central component of democracy."

The report added that "torture, police harassment, assassination of political activists, electoral anomalies and threats to the press coexist with - and are tolerated by - nominally democratic governments."

The situation is especially serious under the government of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who has reportedly turned the court system "into a tool for repression."

The group denounced that torture is commonplace in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and El Salvador, while the police and army continue to act with impunity in Nicaragua and Honduras.

It added that Latin America must establish independent court systems to replace "notably abusive security forces and assure that past human rights violations go to trial."

Human Rights Watch stated that Latin America's transition period has created "new human rights concerns," in areas such as Chile and El Salvador, where military personnel guilty of abuses in the past have not yet been replaced.

However, the group cited Paraguay and Chile as positive cases, where former human rights violaters have stood trial, while the Argentine government has begun to provide indemnities for the families of the disappeared.

"But despite these efforts, state security forces - even under elected governments - act with impunity and (continue to rank) among the leading perpetrators of human rights violations," the report stated.

It added that the victims of these violations "are not only poltical suspects, but also criminals, prisoners and other groups marginalised by society."

The group denounced that in Colombia, "paramilitary groups - often linked to the armed forces - continue their 'social cleanup' campaign against street children, homosexuals, beggers and the so-called 'disposable people'."

In both Colombia and Peru, abuses are commited in the name of "national security," with both paramilitary and state forces guilty of violations of internationally recognised human rights.

The veto of a law dealing with political disappearances - voted down in July by the government of then-President Cesar Gaviria - will make it more difficult to put an end to the armed forces' impunity, according to the group.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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