From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Amers Watch on Latin Amer Rts/ed-lp
Date: 13 Dec 92 21:19:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:74NqVB8w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-56346175:000:3394
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Dec 13 13:19:00 1992


Subject: Amers Watch on Latin Amer Rts/ed-lp
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)


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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