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  • World Report 2013: Colombia
    Jan 31, 2013
    Colombia's internal armed conflict continued to result in serious abuses by irregular armed groups in 2012, including guerrillas and successor groups to paramilitaries. More than 4 million Colombians have been internally displaced, and more than 100,000 continue to be displaced each year. Human rights defenders, community leaders, trade unionists, journalists, indigenous and Afro-Colombian leaders, and displaced persons’ leaders face death threats and other abuses. The administration of President Juan Manuel Santos has publicly condemned threats and attacks against rights defenders.
  • World Report 2013: Cuba
    Jan 31, 2013
    Cuba remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent. In 2012, the government of Raúl Castro continued to enforce political conformity using short-term detentions, beatings, public acts of repudiation, travel restrictions, and forced exile.
  • World Report 2013: Bolivia
    Jan 31, 2013
    Judicial investigations and adjudication of human rights cases are subject to long delays that continued to hinder accountability in 2012. The fate of scores who “disappeared” before democracy was reestablished in 1982 has still not been clarified, and most perpetrators of disappearances and extrajudicial executions have escaped justice. The insistence of military courts on trying military accused of abuses has continued to obstruct justice in the case of an army recruit killed in suspicious circumstances during a training exercise in 2011.
  • World Report 2013: Brazil
    Jan 31, 2013
    Brazil is among the most influential democracies in regional and global affairs, yet it continues to confront very serious human rights challenges at home. Faced with high levels of violent crime, some Brazilian police units engage in abusive practices with impunity, instead of pursuing sound policing practices. Justice officials who seek to hold police officers accountable for unlawful practices face threats of violence.
  • World Report 2013: Argentina
    Jan 31, 2013
    Argentina continues to make significant progress in prosecuting military and police personnel for enforced disappearances, killings, and torture during the country’s “Dirty War” between 1976 and 1983, although trials have been subject to delays.
  • World Report 2013: Venezuela
    Jan 31, 2013

    President Hugo Chávez, who has governed Venezuela for 14 years, was elected to another six-year term in October 2012. During his presidency, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled his government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute Venezuelans who criticize the president or thwart his political agenda. President Chávez and his supporters have used their powers in a wide range of cases involving the judiciary, the media, and human rights defenders.

  • World Report 2013: Mexico
    Jan 31, 2013

    Mexican security forces have committed widespread human rights violations in efforts to combat powerful organized crime groups, including killings, disappearances, and torture. Almost none of these abuses are adequately investigated, exacerbating a climate of violence and impunity in many parts of the country.

  • World Report 2013: Honduras
    Jan 31, 2013

    Honduras made very limited progress in 2012 in addressing the serious human rights violations committed under the de facto government that took power after the 2009 military coup, despite efforts by the human rights unit in the attorney general’s office to investigate abuses, and the 2011 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report documenting those that occurred.

  • World Report 2013: Haiti
    Jan 31, 2013

     

    Political instability, the lasting effects of the January 2010 earthquake, and the persistence of a deadly cholera epidemic continue to hinder the Haitian government’s efforts to meet the basic needs of its people and address long-standing human rights problems, such as violence against women and girls, inhumane prison conditions, and impunity for past abuses. 

  • World Report 2013: Chile
    Jan 11, 2013
    During 2011 and 2012, Sebastián Piñera’s government faced student unrest and other protests that often ended in the destruction of property and violent clashes between police and demonstrators. Police abuses, including inappropriate use of anti-riot weapons and ill-treatment of detainees, were reported. The Piñera administration has ended the trial of civilians by military courts and amended elements of counterterrorism legislation that were incompatible with international standards of due process. However, military courts that lack independence from the military hierarchy still try police accused of human rights abuses. The government has invoked the counterterrrorism law to punish the aggravated homicide of two farmers in their home by a group of hooded intruders.