An array of violent human rights abuses committed by public security units have become institutionalized in Mexican society. Americas Watch concludes that this pattern of excessive violence can only mean that either the Mexican government has adopted a policy of tolerating such behavior, or it has lost control over its police, security and prosecutorial agencies.

A small group of rebel insurgents attacked the Liberian border town of Butuo in late December 1989, killing an undetermined number of soldiers and immigration officials. The government of Liberia responded to the attack with a show of force, sending two battalions to Nimba County, where Butuo is located.

Afghanistan has been the scene of some of the most serious human rights violations on record. About one half of the country's prewar population is either in emigration, or internally displaced, or dead. Most of the biolations documented in three previous Helsinki/Asia Watch reports continued in 1987, despite the fact that prospects for peace in 1988 seem brighter than ever before.