From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
Subject: Amers Watch on Latin Amer Rts/ed-lp
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: The NY Transfer News Service
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 19:52:43 GMT


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

edlp 12/10

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman.  "el Diario/La
Prensa" is a Spanish language newspaper published in New York
City.

"AMERICAS WATCH" LATIN AMERICAN REPORT RELEASED

The US-based human rights organization "Americas Watch"
recently released its report on human rights in Latin America.
The report said that Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello
is giving an example to Latin America by strengthening Brazil's
democratic institutions. [Note: Collor is currently suspended and
undergoing a trial for corruption. If he is found guilty he will
be removed from his post as president.] However, at the same
time, there continues to be police violence, poor living
conditions, prison massacres and street children being killed by
death squads. There is still state tolerance of forced child
prostitution and inadequate investigation and indictments in
cases of abuse of women.

In Colombia, says the report, conditions continue to be the
worst in the hemisphere, but the responsibility is shared by the
army, guerrillas and drug cartels. In the first eight months of
1992 there were 91 massacres and 477 deaths.

In Cuba civil and political rights are systematically
violated, says the report. In 1992 repression against human
rights activists increased; fifty are allegedly in prison.
Cuba "lacks the laws and institutions" which would protect basic
civil and political rights and its courts are subordinated to the
executive branch.

The report says the worst abuses in the Dominican Republic
continue to be committed against the Haitians who are brought in
for the sugar harvest, although in 1992 unions were legalized and
measures were taken to slightly improve working and living
conditions. Forced labor by minors has virtually been eliminated.

El Salvador has undergaone an improvement in its human
rights record, according to the "Americas Watch" report, thanks
to the end of the armed conflict. Investigations have begun in
order to punish those responsible for massacres which occurred
during the war.

There has supposedly been a reduction of human rights abuses
by the army in Guatemala; however, some cases of torture and
political assassination show that the army remains the same as
ever.

In Haiti the army has been responsible for the deaths of
more than 1,000 people since the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide in Sept. 1991. The people live in a situation of terror
comparable only to the Duvalier dictatorship.

Mexico suffered the violence related to the elections,
street executions, limits on labor rights, the killings of
journalists and the impunity of those reponsible for the worst
violations of human rights.

Peru's president Alberto Fujimori dealt a great blow to human
rights by violating the constitution, dissolving congress,
suspending the court system, jailing members of the opposition
and assuming dictatorial powers, says the "Americas Watch."
The report added that the current situation offers little
hope that Fujimori will end the abuses or the impunity which
the Peruvian army has traditionally enjoyed. (edlp 12/10 from
AFP)


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