Dark times for freedom in Latin America

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In the past week, Human Rights Watch, an international organization dedicated to defending the rights of people around the world, warned that “Latin America is facing some of the most serious human rights challenges in decades.”

During the presentation of his World Report 2022, Tamara Taraciuk Broner, the director of this organization for Latin America said something that should alert us and lead us to action: “The alarming setback of fundamental freedoms in Latin America forces us today to defend democratic spaces that we used to take for granted.”

Why one of the main organizations of human rights in the world speaks in such terms haunting about what is happening in our region?

The report denounces the common Suspects, the countries of the region that have spent years and even decades without allowing basic political freedoms to its citizens: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. But he warns that things are getting worse there: in Cuba because the government harshly repressed the peaceful demonstrations that took place in July of last year, arbitrarily detaining and mistreating critics and artists.

In Nicaragua, In addition to the repression of those who demonstrate against the regime since 2018, last year the government of Daniel Ortega gave one of the most regrettable electoral shows in memory, imprisoning seven candidates for the presidency and more than 100 political opponents.

and in Venezuela things are so bad that in November of last year the International Criminal Court began an investigation into possible crimes against humanity committed during the administration of Nicolás Maduro.

Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico They don’t come off well either. In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who is a defender of the military dictatorship that occurred in that country between 1964 and 1985, tried to intimidate the Supreme Court through insults and threats and made unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.

In Chile and Colombia the security forces seriously abused of the protesters.

In Chile, the protests that began over the cost of public transportation a couple of years ago were brutally repressed by the government of Sebastián Piñeira, which led to that country starting a process to create a new Constitution and now it will have a government of a political current diametrically opposite, headed by Gabriel Boric.

In colombia, The protests against the tax reform promoted by the government of Iván Duque also had a disproportionate response from the security forces, which carried out serious human rights violations, which made the demonstrations even more intense.

and in Mexico We don’t sing the rancheras badly either: this administration, self called the 4T, has followed attacking journalists and to human rights defenders. In addition, it continues to attack the autonomous bodies responsible for guaranteeing human rights.

This tendency to restrict our freedoms that runs throughout the continent, and which was also aggravated by the health and economic crises derived from the pandemic caused by COVID-19, should sound all the alarms of our democracy defense systems.

And it is that living in a system of government that promotes and respects the freedoms of individuals not only necessary so that people can exercise their political rights such as demonstrating or voting freely, those that are being violated in many countries of our region.

Living in freedom is also vital for people to can develop in all aspects of his personality, which generates better social relations At the end, more prosperous societies and with better quality of life and dignity.

That is why this week in Cuestione we will once again insist on the central importance of defend freedoms so that those of us who live in Mexico can contribute to Solve the problems through which our country passes creatively and without the government telling us what to think or restricting our rights.

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