Human rights is one of four items on the agenda for the thirty-four leaders who will gather in Santiago, Chile for the summit. We at Human Rights Watch have prepared this briefing packet to familiarize you with the human rights situation in several countries in the region.
The hemisphere enjoys a growing consensus that democratically elected government works best. With scant exceptions, the hemisphere stands out as one of the few areas of the world where elected civilian governments appear firmly ensconced. Unfortunately, respect for human rights has not kept pace with progress in democratization. Torture, police brutality, arbitrary detention, the harassment of journalists, and even extrajudicial executions are still prevalent throughout the region. U.S. leadership on these issues, meanwhile, has been undermined by its failure to ratify the hemisphere's key human rights treaty, the American Convention on Human Rights.
The following packet includes information on human rights violations in nine countries that have received particularly close attention from Human Rights Watch (though this doesn't mean that human rights problems don't exist in other countries in the hemisphere). More detailed information about any of these countries is available through the executive director of our Americas division, Jose Miguel Vivanco, who will be on the ground in Santiago, or through our Washington and New York offices.
Countries covered in this packet:
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Columbia
Cuba (the only country in the hemisphere excluded from the summit)
Haiti
Mexico
Peru
The United States
ARGENTINA
Even as democracy has advanced in Argentina, the country still faces a number of serious human rights problems, including police brutality, lack of independence of the judiciary, and harassment of journalists who expose such problems.
Many police officers are abusive, corrupt, and ill-prepared to prevent or investigate crimes. Officers have been implicated in multiple extrajudicial executions and even "disappearances." In one of the most infamous recent cases, evidence linked members of the Buenos Aires provincial police force to the 1994 terrorist bombing of the Israel-Argentine Mutual Association, an attack that killed eighty-four people and wounded over one hundred others. Meanwhile, a politicized judiciary prevents full accountability in many cases of corruption and other abuses. Corruption cases against Menem's cabinet members, relatives, and other high-ranking officials have not resulted in a single conviction.
Journalists who investigate corruption and human rights violations suffer severe, and at times violent, harassment, and are subject to multiple lawsuits by government officials intent on silencing them. One of the most notorious cases was the 1997 murder of photojournalist José Luis Cabezas, who was investigating police corruption. Cabezas was handcuffed, beaten, and shot to death; then his body was burned. Last year, Adolfo Scilingo, the only Argentine Navy officer to have voluntarily confessed to serious human rights abuses during the military dictatorships from 1976 to 1983, was abducted by armed men with police credentials. He was beaten and threatened, and the initials of three prominent Argentine journalists to whom he had told his story were carved in his face.
"Although the Menem government is clearly an improvement over the brutal dictatorships of the past," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch, "it has a long way to go. Argentine journalists may know this best of all."
Question for President Carlos Menem: You expanded the Supreme Court from five justices to nine at the beginning of your term, but the nominees were approved at a Congressional hearing without the opposition present, and without previous screening of the candidates. How do you now intend to restore faith in the judiciary?
BRAZIL
In Brazil, the federal government has taken a series of encouraging measures, such as drafting a National Human Rights Plan, and making torture a criminal act under the law. However, grave human rights problems persist, particularly police violence and abysmal prison conditions. Brazil's police departments are controlled at the state rather than the federal level, and are therefore subject to local pressure to control crime. A good example in this regard is Rio de Janeiro, where current authorities bestow bonuses and promotions on police officers engaged in acts of "bravery." In practice, these prizes are awarded to police who kill criminal suspects regardless of the circumstances. The bravery policy has led to a doubling of the number of civilians killed by police, now estimated at more than thirty civilians per month. As a basis of comparison, the police in New York, a city 35 percent larger than Rio, kill fewer than thirty civilians per year.
Throughout Brazil, people awaiting trial and those already convicted are held together in police lock-ups in inhuman conditions, for months and often years. As many as forty to fifty people are often held for months in small, rancid cells that are designed for short-term detention for six to eight prisoners. These detainees are frequently subject to beatings and other forms of physical abuse, and lack adequate medical and legal attention. In three prison rebellions in the past nine months, police have killed a total of twenty-two prisoners.
Question for President Fernando Henrique Cardoso: State-level courts have routinely ruled against human rights victims. Why has your administration failed to pass legislation to bring severe human rights crimes under the jurisdiction of the federal government, as Brazilian and international human rights groups have recommended?
CHILE
President Clinton will begin his Summit trip with an official state visit to Chile. Almost eight years have passed since Chile returned to democratic rule, and during this time the country has benefitted from economic growth unparalleled elsewhere in Latin America. Yet, the country still suffers from two of the most persistent human rights issues plaguing the region: impunity for past abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression.
Chile has recently made headlines as ex-dictator General Augusto Pinochet retired from his role as commander in chief of the armed forces and assumed his position as senator for life, a post guaranteed to him under the constitution that he drafted. A 1978 amnesty ensures impunity for military and police personnel who committed human rights violations during the early years of the military government (between 1973 and 1978). In the last two years no one has been convicted for any of the notorious cases of extrajudicial execution and torture committed after 1978, which are still under court investigation. Although the incidence of torture has declined significantly, cases of police torture continue to be reported, including one in which a suspect was beaten to death. If implemented, a government initiative to overhaul the criminal justice system would strengthen due process and individual guarantees. But as long as police abuses are not tried in independent courts, reforms will not lead to greater accountability for police.
Freedom of expression has not marched in tandem with Chile's political opening. Journalists, politicians, and lawyers are frequently victims of judicial actions based on defamation laws. One of the laws widely used to stifle criticism is Article 6 of the Laws of State Security, enacted in 1958, which criminalizes those who "defame, insult or calumny the President of the Republic, Ministers of State, senators, deputies... ." Judges are still empowered to ban reporting on court cases, and films are subject to prior censorship. Human Rights Watch, along with other groups, is pursuing several Chilean freedom of expression cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and is in the process of preparing a detailed report on cases of censorship and legislation that perpetuate these violations of international standards.
Question for President Eduardo Frei: The Chilean government has announced that it intends to hold a plebiscite on constitutional reform to make the political system more democratic. What is the timetable for the plebiscite?
COLOMBIA
Even as the administration of President Ernesto Samper has taken limited steps to curb violence and address impunity, the human rights situation in Colombia has deteriorated sharply. Political violence was particularly intense in areas contested by guerrillas and by paramilitaries operating with the acquiescence or active support of the Colombian army. All parties routinely attacked "enemies" within the civilian population, meaning that noncombatants remained Colombia's most frequent victims. Human rights defenders continued to be the targets of attack and threats. Thousands of Colombians have been forcibly displaced; in one instance, more than 13,000 people fled violence in the northwest department of Chocó in 1997. Meanwhile, the Colombian government is dragging its feet on many pending human rights investigations, including the 1997 Mapiripán and Miraflores paramilitary massacres, which took place with the apparent complicity of the Colombian security forces in areas where U.S. antinarcotics and military personnel are present.
"Even as the security forces have incorporated human rights into their public statements, words have yet to translate into effective, sustained action," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.
In 1997, the Clinton administration and the U.S. Congress made human rights an important part of U.S.-Colombia relations. The so-called Leahy amendment prohibits the use of funds for foreign security forces if the Secretary of State believes they have committed gross violations of human rights. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has chosen to apply the spirit of Leahy to all antinarcotics aid, a decision we strongly support. In March, two units of the Colombian army were cleared to receive U.S. aid conditioned by the Leahy amendment. But the Administration has not disclosed the mechanism it used to review the army's compliance with Leahy, or the names of the two cleared units.
"Until the U.S. government has clear and public guidelines for how to apply Leahy, including revealing the names of the military units approved for security assistance, no aid should be disbursed," said Vivanco.
Despite a Constitutional Court decision ordering that cases involving officers implicated in human rights violations be sent to civilian courts for investigation and trial, military officers in Colombia continue to be tried within the military justice system. In the military system officers who commit heinous crimes, like massacres and torture, are routinely investigated, acquitted, then promoted and showered with awards.
Questions for President Ernesto Samper: Why has your administration failed to promote the passage of a bill reforming the military justice system, which continues to give impunity to officers who commit serious human rights crimes? Since the military has yet to transfer any pending cases to the civilian courts, as mandated by a 1997 ruling, why haven't you ordered the commander of the armed forces to do so immediately? Besides verbal orders, what concrete measures have you taken to investigate and punish cases of cooperation between the Colombian army and the paramilitaries?
CUBA
The most significant human rights event in Cuba in the past months was the visit of Pope John Paul II in late January. While the pontiff's visit forced the Cuban government to make some concessions, there has been a lack of genuine human rights reform in Cuba. During the pontiff's stay, the Cuban government permitted large outdoor religious celebrations and broadcast these events uncensored on state-controlled radio and television. Since his visit, Cuba has freed over eighty political prisoners. Twelve of those recently released were forced to leave the island--a violation of the fundamental right of those detainees to remain in their own country.
Unfortunately, as Cuba released some political prisoners, it simultaneously restricted the fundamental freedoms of other Cubans. On February 13, for example, a Santa Clara tribunal sentenced Cecilio Monteagudo Sánchez, a leader of the Democratic Solidarity Party, to four years in prison for "enemy propaganda." He was tried on the basis of having drafted, but not distributed or published, a document calling for abstention from local elections. This and other recent cases starkly demonstrated Cuba's continued willingness to repress peaceful dissidents and journalists. Several of the political prisoners who were released fear that they may face prosecution and a return to prison if they express their political viewpoints.
The U.S. trade embargo has neither brought about the overthrow of the repressive Cuban government nor encouraged concrete steps toward democracy and human rights. What's more, it has discouraged the region's democratic governments from criticizing Castro, since they fear being seen as joining Washington's bullying tactics. "The U.S. embargo is not a principled human rights policy, and has failed to improve human rights in Cuba," said José Miguel Vivanco, the executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "Worse still, the embargo has made enemies of all Washington's potential allies. It has given governments world-wide an excuse to remain silent as Mr. Castro locks up nonviolent dissidents in horrendous conditions for such crimes as 'illegal printing,'" said Vivanco.
Human Rights Watch believes that Cuba should not be excluded from the Second Summit of the Americas, which would provide an excellent forum for discussing human rights with President Fidel Castro, since decades of isolation have failed to promote democracy and respect for human rights on the island. Rather, hemispheric leaders should openly discuss with President Castro the country's lack of democratic progress. Continued human rights abuses in Cuba, like those in other regional countries, should be part of the hemisphere's human rights agenda.
Question for President Clinton: You have said that the U.S. embargo has proven ineffective since its imposition almost forty years ago, yet you signed the Helms-Burton legislation that strengthened it considerably and removed presidential control over lifting it. Beyond the recent modifications to U.S. policies toward Cuba, what additional policy shifts will help improve the Cuban human rights situation?
HAITI
In the past year, the Haitian National Police (HNP) Force has committed serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, beatings in detention, and killings resulting from an excessive use of force. While the HNP has shown a willingness to discipline and fire human rights violators within its ranks, Haitian courts have imposed minimal criminal sanctions on abusive officers or simply dismissed charges against them. Unfortunately, the U.S. government's failure to deliver critical military documents to the Haitian government (documents that U.S. forces seized from Haitian military and paramilitary headquarters in 1994) continues to impede human rights investigations and prosecutions of past abuses.
"While Washington has supported the reform of Haiti's judicial system, the Clinton administration simultaneously has erected roadblocks to establishing truth and justice for past abuses in Haiti," said José Miguel Vivanco, the executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch.
Questions for President Clinton: The U.S.-backed Haitian police force, and particularly its riot control unit known as CIMO, has been implicated in serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions. What are you doing to stop police violence in Haiti? While stating its support for judicial reform in Haiti, the U.S. has obstructed justice in human rights cases by failing to return documents seized by U.S. forces in Haiti in September 1994. Some have attributed this delay to a U.S. interest in blocking information about CIA support for the paramilitary group, FRAPH. How can you explain this delay, and when will you return these materials to the Haitian government?
MEXICO
Despite positive movement toward the consolidation of political freedoms, human rights violations in Mexico continue to be extremely serious. State and federal police and members of the army continue to engage in torture, arbitrary detention, and other widespread abuses. Prosecutors frequently accept such abuses and judges often fail to question them. In the field of labor rights, in the maquiladora sector, female job seekers are subject to routine forced pregnancy testing. Moreover, the Mexican government still refuses to undertake a much-needed, comprehensive approach to resolving these institutionalized problems.
"The Mexican government must move from human rights rhetoric to human rights action," noted José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "Starting with President Ernesto Zedillo, authorities must demonstrate that no human rights violations will go unpunished."
The December 1997 massacre of forty-five people in Acteal, Chiapas, committed by members of an armed civilian group that supports the ruling party, took place within a context of government-supported or officially tolerated violence and widespread impunity. At least thirty-four cases of civilian-on-civilian violence had been reported in Chenalhó municipality (where Acteal is located) in the months prior to the killings, including murders, wholesale expulsions from communities, and kidnappings. Yet the government failed to investigate any of these incidents adequately. At the same time, violence there was not one-sided. Supporters of the ruling party have also suffered similar attacks.
Questions for President Ernesto Zedillo: Only a handful of torturers are in jail for human rights crimes. What does the Zedillo administration plan to do to change the culture of impunity that has been the hallmark of this and prior Mexican administrations? The federal Attorney General's office is making progress in investigating those who carried out the Acteal massacre. What has been done, however, to address the many armed civilian groups that still operate in Chiapas?
PERU
Peru continues to violate human rights as part of central government policy. Recently there has been a strong decline in the numbers of extrajudicial executions and disappearances committed in the course of government counterinsurgency operations in the country. However, torture, both of persons detained on suspicion of terrorist activities and in ordinary criminal cases, remains a basic concern.
Peru's intelligence services, particularly the National Intelligence Service and the Army's Intelligence Service, have been responsible for serious abuses in recent years, including torture, kidnappings and intimidation, arbitrary arrest, wiretapping, and attacks on freedom of expression. For example, in 1996 and 1997, the Frecuencia Latina television channel had denounced government corruption, as well as eavesdropping and human rights violations by military intelligence. The government expropriated the owner of Frecuencia Latina in September 1997. Further, the government has tried to weaken Peru's constitutional mechanisms to protect human rights, including the office of the Attorney General and aspects of the judicial system. The government's failure to make even minimal progress in the rule of the law forced the World Bank in March 1997 to suspend a justice system-related grant to the government.
"The Peruvian judiciary must be independent," said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. "Curtailing its powers and limiting its independence threatens the rule of law -- and human rights in general -- in Peru."
UNITED STATES
Immigration practices, police abuse, the death penalty, prison conditions, and issues of discrimination continue to be some of the most serious human rights violations in the United States.
The U.S. Border Patrol and other immigration officials along the U.S.-Mexico border continued to commit human rights violations such as unjustified shootings, sexual assaults, and beatings. At the same time, serious incidents of police abuse in cities around the country have been reported. Weak processes of civilian review, flawed internal investigations, and the rarity of criminal prosecutions created an atmosphere in which brutal officers had little reason to fear punishment of any type.
"Frequently the officers involved in the most serious violations have long histories showing that they were disobeying the police department's rules -- and sometimes the law," said Allyson Collins, Human Rights Watch's senior researcher for U.S. issues.
Ignoring the international trend away from capital punishment, U.S. states carried out executions at a record pace in 1997, with seventy-four men executed, half of them in Texas. In March 1997, Pedro Medina was executed in Florida using an electric chair that malfunctioned, setting his head ablaze. Florida courts held that executions should continue, despite the repeated malfunctions. During 1997, two Mexican nationals were put to death in Texas and Virginia, and in both cases state officials failed to notify defendants of their right to contact Mexican consulates--in violation of the Vienna Convention. During the first three months of 1998, Texas and Florida each executed a woman from death row, ending a de facto moratorium on executing women since 1984. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, only one other woman has been executed. The United States is one of only six countries in the world that execute people for acts committed before the age of eighteen; the other five are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. At present, fifty-eight such people are on death row.
The United States continued to incarcerate a greater proportion of its people than almost any other country in the world, with one of every 163 U.S. residents behind bars. At the end of 1996, the number of prisoners and jail inmates reached a new high of approximately 1.7 million, double the incarcerated population in 1985. Notably, racial disparities in the rate of incarceration continued to worsen. African-Americans, who made up 51 percent of the national prison population, were incarcerated at a rate 7.5 times that of whites.
Questions for President Bill Clinton: When a United Nations Special Rapporteur investigated the application of the death penalty in the U.S. last year, federal and state officials provided very little assistance. U.S. Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson told reporters that the report would simply collect dust on a shelf somewhere. Now that the report has been released, how will the U.S. use or respond to the Special Rapporteur's findings? Does the U.S. believe it should be subjected to inspections by the same United Nations human rights experts who conduct these types of missions in other countries?