BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY

The Castro government’s easing of foreign travel restrictions on Cubans has not led to greater freedoms on the island, a leading dissident said on Wednesday.

Elizardo Sanchez said 19 opposition activists had been allowed to leave since a new exit policy was introduced on January 14. Dozens more would go in the next few weeks, he said.

But the Communist government, in power since 1959, was keeping strict control on dissident voices at home, he said.

“They calculate it will be freedom of expression for people outside Cuba but the voices will not be reproduced in Cuba. They control all communications, radio, newspaper, local and international television, and access to Internet,” Sanchez said.

A total of 92 political prisoners were currently held in Cuban jails, which the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been allowed visit since 1989, he said. A further 350 were held in short-term detention on political grounds.

Sanchez is president ... Read More

The State Department’s latest report on human-rights practices effectively puts the lie to the idea that the piecemeal and illusory changes in Cuba under Gen. Raúl Castro represent a genuine political opening toward greater freedom.

If anything, things are getting worse. The report, which covers 2012, says the independent Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation counted 6,602 short-term detentions during the year, compared with 4,123 in 2011. In March 2012, the same commission recorded a 30-year record high of 1,158 short-term detentions in a single month just before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

Among the many abuses cited by the 2012 report are the prison sentences handed out to members of the Unión Patriotica de Cuba, the estimated 3,000 citizens held under the charge of “potential dangerousness,” state-orchestrated assaults against the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), the suspicious death of dissident Oswaldo Payá and so on.

As in any dictatorship, telling the truth ... Read More

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

The human rights arm of the Organization of American States has formally asked Cuba for details of the disputed car crash that killed noted dissident Oswaldo Payá, his daughter, Rosa Maria Payá Acevedo, revealed Monday.

Payá Acevedo also told El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald that ruler Raúl Castro’s economic reforms amount to “fraud” and noted that “neither Castro nor (his hand-picked successor Miguel) Diaz-Canel were elected by the people.”

The 24-year-old physicist said she learned of the letter sent by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights to the Cuban government during a meeting in Washington last week with IACHR Executive Director Emilio Alvarez Icaza.

IACHR press office director Maria Isabel Rivero confirmed the letter was sent last week but said its text is confidential, like all exchanges between the commission and OAS member states.

“The Cuban Government has not replied to the IACHR in many years. The only letters ... Read More

BY FRED HIATT

Why would Cuban security agents choose to kill the island’s leading dissident while he was in the company of two Europeans who might bear witness to the crime?

To outside observers, it’s an intriguing mystery. For those directly affected, even to ask the question is, in some sense, to surrender to the malign influence of authoritarian control. That was one message this week from two inspiring young women, daughters of courageous democracy activists from opposite sides of the world, who happened to be in Washington at the same time.

“I’m not so anxious to understand the perverse logic of repression,” Rosa Maria Payá, 24, replied when I asked why agents might have targeted her father that way.

“I don’t think there is a reason to kill anyone,” she added. “And I shouldn’t have to be having to answer that. This is a question to put to the people who threatened his ... Read More

As Venezuelans prepare to go to the polls on 14 April, Amnesty International has identified some of the key human rights issues that every candidate should prioritize in their plans.

Public Security Venezuela has one of the highest murder rates in Latin America due, among other factors, to the uncontrolled availability of firearms and ammunition.

Policing remains a challenge and while there have been advances in recent years, authorities must ensure that all human rights abuses by the security forces are investigated and those responsible brought to justice.

Moreover, official information on firearms and injuries resulting from them must be collected and available to the public and a national support system for victims of gun violence, established.

Prisons For years, Venezuelan prisons have been overcrowded and violence has been widespread.

This has become particularly problematic in recent years and in 2012 at least 591 people died in Venezuela’s jails, where there is triple the number of inmates ... Read More

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO

Cuban diplomats at the United Nations complained “heavy-handedly” about a news conference by blogger Yoani Sánchez at a U.N. auditorium hosted by journalists accredited to the international body, knowledgeable reporters said.

Sánchez’s appearance before the U.N. Correspondents Association went ahead as scheduled at 3 p.m. Thursday, but its location had to be shifted because of the Cuban complaints, according to association members and news media reports.

The blogger’s supporters have expressed suspicions that Cuban diplomats arranged or encouraged most of the hostile groups that tried to disrupt several of Sánchez’s recent appearances in Brazil, Mexico and New York City.

The protesters have repeatedly chanted and displayed banners with pro-Castro slogans, repeated Havana allegations that Sánchez is a “mercenary” on the pay of the U.S. government and thrown enlarged copies of U.S. dollars at her.

But the Cuban diplomats’ complaints against the UNCA news conference marked the first time that officials of ... Read More

By César Gaviria Trujillo

A historic showdown set to occur at Friday’s meeting of the general assembly of the Organization of American States could determine the future of human rights protections throughout the Western Hemisphere.

A group of nations led by Ecuador is pushing to “reform” the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its office on freedom of expression. The purported aim of these changes is to “strengthen” human rights protections. If implemented, however, the reforms will severely weaken the commission and make it easier for governments to ignore basic rights and limit free speech.

When I served as president of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, I saw how difficult it could be for national institutions to evolve and change without external pressure. As secretary general of the OAS between 1994 and 2004, I saw firsthand how effective the Inter-American Commission could be in providing this pressure when nations needed help to move forward ... Read More

Secretary of State John Kerry has told the US Senate that the United States will insist that “any new elections [in Venezuela] should be democratic, constitutional, peaceful, and transparent and must respect the universal human rights of the Venezuelan people.” Kerry made this pledge in writing in response to a question submitted during consideration of his nomination. It will soon be published by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Anticipating the death or incapacitation of Venezuela’s cancer-stricken leader Hugo Chávez, Kerry said, “The Venezuelan constitution and the Inter-American Democratic Charter should define the way ahead.” The new chief US diplomat also pledged to “support the strengthening of democratic institutions, respect for freedom of expression, rule of law, and the protection of human rights.”

Kerry has also committed to make counternarcotics and counterterrorism cooperation a priority in any future bilateral relationship with Venezuela, along with the traditional issues of commerce and energy.

The new secretary ... Read More

Erin Burnett engaged in a heated argument with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday, when she grilled him over reports that he is ill and human rights issues in Ecuador.

Assange has been granted asylum by Ecuador and is currently seeking refuge in London at the Ecuador embassy. It was recently reported that he is suffering from a lung infection. On Wednesday, Burnett interviewed him about his new book and asked him if the reports were true (starts at 7:00 mark in the clip above).

“Julian Assange is not very important,” he responded, before attempting to shift the conversation back to the book. When she pressed him to answer the question, he said, “I don’t think it’s important.”

She moved on to another issue: human rights in Ecuador, the country that has granted him asylum. “When you talk about governments clamping down on people’s right to speak, Ecuador is an unlikely champion of your ... Read More

Havana, Cuba- A leading Cuban dissident says the European Union should be firmer in demanding the Castro regime respect human rights on the island, including free elections.

“I think that an attitude at odds with the demands of the Cuban people for freedom – free elections and recognition of their individual and collective rights – definitely isolates Spain and the EU from the Cuban people and puts them more in line with Communist regime,” said Regis Iglesias, spokesman for the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba.

A former political prisoner himself who is currently in exile in Spain, Iglesias called on the EU to maintain the “common position” taken in 1996 that established that its economic relations with Cuba “would depend on improvements in the area of human right and fundamental freedoms.”

“To abandon the common position when human rights are still not respected in Cuba, when peaceful dissidents are imprisoned and even killed, ... Read More

The Venezuelan government’s decision to denounce the American Convention on Human Rights and therefore pull out of the Inter-American Court constitutes an affront to the victims of human rights violations, Amnesty International said.

On Tuesday, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) José Miguel Insulza confirmed having received the Venezuelan government’s request to withdraw from the Convention and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights – which the OAS oversees – within a year.

The move means victims of human rights violations in Venezuela will be barred from bringing complaints before the regional court.

“This move is an affront to the victims of human rights violations and to future generations of Venezuelans who will no longer be able to access this regional body when their rights are not respected in their own country,” said Guadalupe Marengo, Deputy Americas Programme Director at Amnesty International.

“Having access to an international body like the Inter-American Court ... Read More

As Felipe Calderón’s term as Mexico’s president draws to a close, Mexicans continue to strongly back his policy of deploying the military to combat the country’s powerful drug cartels. Eight-in-ten say this is the right course, a level of support that has remained remarkably constant since the Pew Global Attitudes Project first asked the question in 2009.

Support for Calderón’s strategy continues despite limited confidence that the government is winning the drug war, and widespread concerns about its costs. Just 47% believe progress is being made against drug traffickers, virtually identical to the 45% who held this opinion in 2011. Three-in-ten today say the government is actually losing ground against the cartels, while 19% see no change in the stand-off between the authorities and crime syndicates.

At the same time, the public is uneasy about the moral cost of ... Read More

BY CARLOS LAURIA

Stressing concerns of human rights groups about the deterioration of press conditions under the administration of President Rafael Correa, 17 members of the United Nations submitted recommendations to Ecuador on freedom of expression issues before the U.N. Human Rights Council this week. While Ecuador tried to pass off the criticism as resulting from ignorance, the states’ observations made clear that the international community is fully aware of Correa’s repressive tactics against the local media.

Using a mechanism known as the Universal Periodic Review, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2006, U.N. member states assess the degree to which countries are fulfilling their international human rights obligations. Under this procedure, states have the right to raise questions and make recommendations to the government of the country under review; each state is reviewed every four years. The process provides the opportunity to redress human rights violations, and requires governments ... Read More

BY TOM RAMSTACK

Washington, D.C., United States – Representatives from the government of Honduras hope to meet with congressional leaders as soon at Thursday to discuss a letter 94 congressmen wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.

The letter suggests cutting off aid to the Honduran military and police.

The congressmen said the United States should not fund a government that tolerates, and perhaps encourages, the kinds of human rights violations that have occurred in Honduras recently.

They have included police killings of peasants and unpunished murders of journalists, according to critics of the Honduran government.

At least 19 journalists have been murdered in Honduras since President Porfirio Lobo took office in January 2010. In addition, 45 peasants and seven security guards were killed in property disputes in the Lower Aguan area of Honduras.

The letter from the congressmen was partly a response to the murder this week of radio host Fausto Valle in ... Read More

(Washington, DC) – An interview with Ecuador’s communications minister, Fernando Alvarado, in the March 4, 2012 edition of the official newspaper El Ciudadano flagrantly distorted what happened during a recent meeting he had in Washington, DC, with Human Rights Watch.

The interview suggests that Human Rights Watch condones certain government policies that undermine free speech. On the contrary, in the meeting, Human Rights Watch repeatedly said that Ecuador should decriminalize defamation laws and stop prosecuting people for expressing their opinions.

“Alvarado’s description of the meeting with Human Rights Watch is a blatant misrepresentation of our position,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, who participated in the meeting. “During the meeting Human Rights Watch clearly and repeatedly objected to the government’s policies and actions against its critics, which violate basic free speech standards.”

Alvarado stated, for example, that all the nongovernmental organizations with which he met “understood the president’s reasons to take the El ... Read More

MIAMI – A former Ecuadorean newspaper columnist who faces prison and millions of dollars in fines for his criticism of President Rafael Correa requested asylum Wednesday in the U.S., claiming he is the victim of persecution aimed at stifling free expression.

Emilio Palacio, 58, said in an asylum application that a criminal libel judgment against him in his homeland shows he “is being severely punished in Ecuador for expressing legitimate opinions and subjective interpretations of factual events.”

A four-hour, closed-door hearing was held Wednesday in Miami before U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services officials regarding his request but a decision isn’t likely for weeks or possibly months, said Palacio’s attorney Sandra Grossman. Palacio said he was optimistic about the outcome.

“I am convinced that the case has its foundation,” he said.

Palacio was formerly the chief opinion writer for Ecuador’s opposition newspaper El Universo. Palacio, the paper’s three owners and the newspaper itself were fined $42 million ... Read More

BY GONZALO SOLANO

QUITO, Ecuador — Amparo Martinez’s universe is two small, tidy rooms in a poor Quito neighborhood that she shares with her 83-year-old mother and a severely handicapped daughter.

Her predicament makes holding a job impossible, so the three depend on a $240-a-month government stipend introduced by President Rafael Correa under a program for the disabled.

Martinez adores Correa.

“I hope he’s re-elected many times,” she says.

Correa is regularly assailed by human rights, press freedom and business groups as intemperate, autocratic and intolerant of dissent. Yet he is popular among millions of Ecuadoreans for programs which, like the initiative for the disabled, have improved their lives.

An array of state-funded programs implemented or broadened since Correa’s 2006 election have brought stability to this traditionally unruly South American nation that previously churned through six presidents in 10 years.

A doubling in public spending under Correa adheres to a formula that has also aided the political ... Read More

BY JACK KIMBALL & NELSON ACOSTA

Cuban dissidents said on Saturday that about 200 people were temporarily detained by the Communist-run island’s security services in the days leading up to an international human rights celebration.

Government supporters danced salsa and chanted political slogans in a Havana square to mark the 63rd anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.

Oppositon members who had planned to celebrate Human Rights Day in the same place, and protest against abuses in Cuba, were blocked from going to the square, dissidents said.

“Some 200 detentions for political motives have taken plan in the last nine days in the lead up to the international Human Rights Day,” said Elizardo Sanchez of the independent Cuban Commission of Human Rights said.

“Authorities use a tactic of short-duration arrests, who are released a few hours or days later, to impede protests.”

International rights groups say Cuban laws ... Read More

BY NICHOLAS CASEY

Retired military general Otto Pérez Molina, vowing a crackdown on crime and drug-related violence, coasted to a wide victory in Guatemala’s presidential race, results showed on Monday.

Mr. Pérez’s message resonated in Guatemala which elected him with nearly 54% of the vote, handing him a strong mandate.

“The people of Guatemala clearly said: ‘We don’t want more of the same,’” he told supporters Monday after the results were announced.

But as drug-trafficking groups move south from Mexico across Central America, the 60-year-old ex-general may find that it is easier to declare war on organized crime than it is to actually win the battle.

Like Mexico, which is struggling with its own difficult drug war, the tiny Central American country is being overrun by cartels that are fighting for territory that allows them to traffic drugs and carry out kidnappings and extortions.

But compared to Mexico—a far richer country with oil that attracts billions ... Read More

BY MARY O’GRADY

Colombia’s taxpayers paid millions in compensation for a ‘massacre,’ most of whose victims are alive. The lawyers kept half the money for their organization.

As Occupy Wall Street droned on about the evils of corporate avarice last month, a multimillion-dollar international scandal broke in Bogotá, exposing greed and corruption in the “nongovernmental organization” (NGO) world of human rights.

The army kill of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander Alfonso Cano made big headlines over the weekend. But don’t expect the NGO story to get much ink. It doesn’t fit the pre-approved narrative in which these virtuous organizations supposedly have a higher calling than profit. Yet the record will show that Colombia has been ripped off by a bunch of left-wing lawyers masquerading as do-gooders for human rights. It raises serious questions about whether the same tactics might have been used in numerous other cases.

This particular heist took place in ... Read More