CENTRAL AMERICA:
Backsliding on Human
Rights
By Raúl Gutiérrez
SAN SALVADOR (IPS)
- Central America is
backsliding badly on
human rights issues, and
social unrest could
flare up into civil wars
like those experienced
in the last decades of
the 20th century,
according to a new
report on Human Rights
and Conflicts in Central
America 2007-2008.
The seven Central
American
non-governmental
organisations that
released the report this
week say they are
concerned about abuses,
policies and practices
that undermine civil and
political rights in the
region, and attacks on
defenders of human
rights.
In Nicaragua, "the
situation has
deteriorated in the last
few years. We are under
constant attack by the
authorities, including
the human rights
ombudsman, who supports
President Daniel Ortega
and accuses us of being
paid by the oligarchy
and of spying" for the
U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency
(CIA), Georgina Ruiz, of
the Nicaraguan Human
Rights Centre (CENIDH),
told IPS.
The report, launched on
Tuesday, documents an
increase in the number
of threats, torture and
crimes, like the March
2007 murder of
Villanueva Delgadillo,
whose sons, Raúl and
William, were tortured
by police in the town of
Nueva Guinea, 280
kilometres southeast of
Managua.
After she reported the
torture of her sons,
Delgadillo was shot to
death by four hooded
assailants wearing
military and police
uniforms. A warning
about the danger she
faced had been included
in the 2006-2007 report
on Nicaragua.
Since Ortega took office
in January 2007, "access
to public information
has become complicated"
in practice, despite the
law that safeguards the
right to such
information. There have
also been attacks on the
media, especially
outlets that "express
the people’s discontent
with the government,"
Ruiz said.
"We are disappointed and
frustrated" with the
Ortega administration,
she added.
The Central American
human rights monitoring
team that produced the
report is made up of
CENIDH, the Mutual
Support Group of
Guatemala (GAM), the
legal department of the
Costa Rican Lutheran
Church, the Salvadoran
Committee of Relatives
of Victims of Human
Rights Violations (CODEFAM),
and the Research
Foundation for the
Application of Law (FESPAD),
also based in El
Salvador.
The Honduran Centre for
Investigation and
Promotion of Human
Rights (CIPRODEH), the
Honduras-based Committee
for the Defence of Human
Rights (CODEH), and the
Human Rights Committee
of Panama (CONADEHUPA),
also contributed to the
support, which was
sponsored by the
Lutheran World
Federation (LWF).
Guatemala, El Salvador
and Nicaragua were torn
by civil wars between
1960 and 1996, the year
the Guatemalan peace
agreement was signed,
ending the last of the
region’s conflicts which
left hundreds of
thousands dead, and
thousands more injured
or disappeared.
Since Guatemalan
President Álvaro Colom
took office in January
this year, there has
been "progress with
regard to respect for
freedom of expression,
and fewer violations of
human rights, but we
still have a long way to
go," said Estuardo
Galeano of GAM.
One of the challenges
facing Colom is
"strengthening the
National Reparations
Programme, which is
intended to indemnify
thousands of victims of
the 1960-1996 armed
conflict for the
economic and moral
damages they suffered,"
Galeano said.
Galeano noted that 53
community leaders,
candidates and activists
were murdered during the
2007 election campaign.
El Salvador’s Human
Rights Ombudsman, Óscar
Luna, said the increase
in attacks against
people’s physical
integrity, such as
mistreatment, excessive
use of force and abuse
of power "is worrying,"
while the right to
freedom is being
violated by arbitrary
detentions, intimidation
and harassment by the
National Civil Police
(PNC).
In 2007, the Human
Rights Ombudsman’s
Office received 2,779
complaints, of which
1,826, equivalent to 66
percent of the total,
were against the PNC.
Luna told IPS that "the
structural conditions
that generated the armed
conflict have not been
overcome" in the 16
years since the peace
accord was signed in
January 1992.
"Another concern is the
climate of impunity"
which hinders
clarification of the
crimes committed during
the Salvadoran armed
conflict, said Armando
Pérez, of CODEFAM. The
amnesty law passed by
the administration of
then President Alfredo
Cristiani in 1993
prevents prosecution of
those responsible for
human rights violations.
"If states cannot take
measures to clarify
human rights violations
committed in the past
and in the present,
there will be a crisis
of governance, and state
institutions will become
discredited because they
are hijacked by
corporate interests,
organised crime, or
political parties" that
seek to dominate society
for their own benefit,
Celia Medrano of the LWF
told IPS.
The 53-page report also
sounds a warning about
"sources of conflict"
which, if left
unaddressed, could
generate conflicts as
serious as the civil
wars 25 years ago, in
every country in the
region, Medrano said.
This year’s report was
drawn up in coordination
with the Latin American
and Caribbean Platform
for Conflict Prevention
and Peace Building, and
focuses on impunity and
violence.
Platform coordinator
Andrés Serbin said the
setbacks in terms of
human rights are due to
"marked shortcomings" in
building strong
democratic institutions
able to guarantee
people’s political,
civil, socioeconomic,
cultural and
environmental liberties
since the civil wars
came to an end.
Any conceptualisation of
conflict prevention has
to seek the root causes
of the conflicts:
poverty, social
exclusion, inequality,
political exclusion, and
absence of the rule of
law, Serbín told IPS.
If the causal factors
remain, conditions for
violations of human
rights will obviously be
aggravated, he
concluded. |
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