By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CUCUTA, Colombia – Colombia reports that 550,000 Venezuelans have entered the country. Frustrated citizens in border towns protest and demand that the refugees be removed.

On Monday, January 22, a protest in Cucuta between Colombians turned into a shoving match. The group was protesting the approximately 615 Venezuelans living in their area. They referred to the refugee’s shelters as “Hotel Caracas” and demanded that they be removed.

The Mayor, Cesar Omar Rojas, tried to reason with the crowd and asked for two days to implement a “progressive dislocation” for Venezuelans without the proper paperwork. He stated, “Whoever is undocumented has to leave the country. Whoever is here legally, with a passport, we will all look for a way for them to be transferred to another part of the country.”

Migration officials report that most of the Venezuelans in the country are there illegally. The government is under extreme pressure to care for this large number of migrants, and the number is only growing. One million Venezuelans have registered for a migration card which allows them to cross the border to purchase food, shelter, and medical care that they cannot get at home. In 2017, an average of 30,000 people used the card each day to find scarce goods.

Still, Colombia has given 126,000 refugees legal permission to stay. This includes the group of 69,000 who took advantage of humanitarian visas in July. Local Colombians say they are not against all Venezuelans, just the ones that come to the country to do harm. The border between Colombia and Venezuela has had troubles with smuggling and tension due to the price differentials.

Colombia’s finance minister, Mauricio Cardenas, confirmed that he would make an “urgent call” for aid at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos. Also, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the UN will send more aid to Colombia to help with the increasing number of refugees. Migration flows out of Venezuela are reaching historic proportions as thousands of people cross the western border each day. Colombia has prepared for these waves with plans for refugee camps similar to those that house Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon.

Cardenas remarked, “Colombia has adopted a policy of open arms to these migration flows to show solidarity. We have offered urgent medical attention and school places to all Venezuelans. This all comes at a cost, and Colombia has assumed that cost.”

For more information, please see:

UNTV – Uproar over uptick of Venezuelans at Colombian border – 23 January 2018

Breitbart – Over half a million Venezuelans migrate to Colombia amid humanitarian crisis – 23 January 2018

BBC News – Colombia says 550,000 Venezuelans have fled to the country – 19 January 2018

Curacao Chronicle – Exact Numbers Venezuelan Refugees According to the UNHCR – 21 December 2017

By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – As the economic crisis in Venezuela deepens, the hunger crisis grows. Impoverished citizens begin riots and fight through mobs to feed their starving families.

To put the crisis in perspective, the opposition-controlled legislature reported that inflation rates topped 2,600 percent in 2017. Now, 81.8 percent of Venezuelan households are in poverty. Venezuelans suffer personal insecurity, food scarcity, medicine shortages, and money insufficiency which has driven 1.2 million people to leave the country. Pope Francis labelled this a humanitarian crisis.

Many struggling citizens have started to accept groceries in exchange for their services. To avoid spiraling prices, people are choosing to receive food for their work. One plumber explained, “I have to adjust to the situation. I ask my customers ‘What do you have in your pantry?’ when we are discussing my fees.

Additionally, looting has become a common practice throughout the country. The Venezuelan Conflict Observatory reported that 400 small protests and 100 instances of looting have taken place across 19 states. In a supermarket in Maracaibo, residents waited in line for hours to buy corn. When they were told that only members of pro-government community councils could make purchases, the line turned into a mob. Angry residents forced their way into the store to grab food before police arrived. Similar situations of mass looting occur all over the country. Trucks, food collection centers, and state-run supermarkets have all been victims.

The Bolivarian National Guard tries to keep order with gunshots and tear gas, but is having a difficult time. The situation is only getting worse as the minimum monthly salary is at US $5, barely enough for a kilogram of meat and a carton of 30 eggs. The government has subsidized a food program to send food to the poorest areas of the country and millions of families depend on them.

On January 11, hunger-driven Venezuelans turned their attention to farms. Groups of desperate citizens broke into a farm in Merida and dismembered about 40 cows for their meat. Videos on social media show men running around a pasture in pursuit of a cow and beating it to death. Ranchers have resorted to paying armed groups to secure their properties.

The coordinator of the Venezuelan Conflict Observatory states, “The desperation, impunity and serious humanitarian crisis that we are experiencing in Venezuela continues to deepen and is leading people to commit this type of crime.”

Correspondingly, poor Venezuelans have turned to the Guaire River in Caracas. Young men and boys search the polluted water for small pieces of metal which may earn them food for their families. The water acts as a sewer for the city’s waste and is known to be filthy. Desperate citizens are ignoring the health risks associated with the water. One native remarked, “As long as I can remember, the Guaire was this open sewage. It certainly seems to reflect the depth and extent of the desperation that this particular crisis has spawned.”

For more information, please see:

PanAm Post – Recent Wave of Looting Shows Extent of Hunger in Venezuela – 15 January 2018

Oil Price – Is Venezuela’s Oil Industry Bouncing Back? – 15 January 2018

Voice of America – Venezuelans Seek Treasure in Polluted River – 14 January 2018

Miami Herald – Hungry Venezuelans rely on work-for-food barter as economy spirals – 12 January 2018

Reuters – Food riots grip western Venezuela, mob reportedly slaughters cattle in field – 11 January 2018

By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LA PAZ, Bolivia — A nation-wide medical strike has come to an end in Bolivia after 47 days. The country’s doctors had ceased work in protest of the government’s new criminal code.

Bolivian doctors went on strike in protest of the government’s Presidential Decree 3385 which created the Supervision Authority for the National Health System, and Article 205 of the new penal code which would sanction professional negligence and medical malpractice. Protestors demanded that this new law be repealed because it would penalize medical professionals who cause health or bodily harm through negligence or malpractice.

Essentially, doctors who are found guilty of physically harming their patients will face heavier sanctions. Also, an entity would be created to control and monitor their work. The new punishments include five to nine years in prison, the suspension of a professional title, and the seizure of assets.

At the beginning, doctors, medical professionals, and medical students all refused to work and most local hospitals were shut down. Only emergency rooms remained functioning. Protestors took to the streets and clashed with police. In La Paz, the police resorted to firing tear gas into the crowd because rocks and small explosives were thrown at them. In a different form of protest, nine doctors at the Greater University of San Andres began a hunger strike. Protests and riots continued through Christmas.

On Tuesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales welcomed the end of the political strike by the doctors. The President remarked, “We salute the doctors and workers who never went on strike – they have the vocation of service – and those who allowed the political strike that caused so much harm to thousands of sick people to be lifted.” He emphasized the willingness of his government to work for “a sensible, solid, universal and free health care service.”

Bolivia’s physicians report that the strike ended after reaching an agreement with the government that it would prepare new legislation and shelve the bill that had already been drafted. However, others note that the end is a response to the President’s threat to take legal action. Just days earlier, Morales announced legal actions to restore health services and made claims of conspiracy.

The government denounces the strike and claims that it was staged by opposing political forces who favor private health care. The result was the postponement of more than 800,000 medical appointments and 10,000 surgeries.

The country will use a national health care conference in early March to move forward and develop a universal and free health care system for the entire population.

For more information, please see:

Telesur – Bolivia: Medical Strike Ends as Gov’t, Doctors Ratify Deal – 10 January 2018

Herald Tribune – Morales Welcomes End of Bolivian Doctor’s Strike – 10 January 2018

Euronews – Bolivian health professionals continue to protest against new criminal code – 23 December 2017

TVC News – Bolivian Health professionals protest against new criminal code – 22 December 2017

By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BOGOTA, Columbia – The United Nations reports that more than 100 human rights activists have been killed in Colombia in 2017, denouncing the government’s inactions.

The UN urges the Colombian government to be more accountable and provide better protections for its activists. The peace accord, which ended a 50-year civil war, was signed by the Colombian government and FARC rebels last year. Since it was signed, activists have been particularly at risk in regions that were vacated by rebel fighters. These zones are often rural and now have a power vacuum because of the withdrawal of rebels.

The UN report shows that more than half of the 105 human rights activists and community leaders murdered this year were killed by gunmen. At least eleven other cases are still under investigation. This count does not yet include the events that transpired in December, when a community leader in Puerto Colombia, Putumayo was murdered along with his eight-year-old daughter. The activist, Pablo Oviedo, was walking with his daughter when they were ambushed by multiple gunmen and shot several times. They were declared dead at a hospital in Puerto de Asis. Oviedo’s two brothers are both human rights activists and have been declared missing.

Even more tragically, these murders occurred hours after the Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas participated in a security council meeting to address the city’s increased violence. Social leaders that attended this meeting wore masks to avoid being victims of the violence.

The UN human rights office states, “We note with deep concern the persistence of cases of killings of human rights defenders in the country. Cases of killings of male and female leaders and [rights] defenders have occurred in areas from which the FARC has left, and which has created a vacuum of power by the state.”

To put this in perspective, UN reports show that 45 rights defenders were killed in 2014, 59 in 2015, and 127 in 2016. Local groups explain that leaders who speak out against rights abuses and activists campaigning for land rights are targeted because they threaten the economic interests of organized crime groups. Most victims belong to Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups.

In December, Defense Minister Villegas stated that authorities are working to bring those responsible for the murders to justice. The UN human rights office maintains that “the prevention of attacks and aggressions against human rights defenders involves investigation, prosecution and punishment of those responsible.”

Out of all recorded murders of human rights defenders last year, three out of four took place in the Americas.

For more information, please see:

The Guardian – More than 100 human rights activists killed in Colombia in 2017, UN says – 21 December 2017

Telesur – Murder of Colombian Social Leader Highlights UN Condemnation – 21 December 2017

Business Standard – More than 100 rights and labour activists killed in Colombia – 21 December 2017

Democracy Now – Colombia: 100 Human Rights Activists Killed in 2017, According to U.N. – 21 December 2017

Thomson Reuters – Colombia rights activists facing danger, U.N. says – 20 December 2017

By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

LIMA, Peru – Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru in the 1990s and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses and corruption. On Sunday, Peru’s current president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, granted him a medical pardon.

Fujimori expressed his gratitude to President Kuczynski in a video from his hospital bed. He explains that the pardon had a strong impact on him, creating “a mix of extreme happiness as well as sorrow.” He stated, “I’m aware that the results produced by my government were well received by some, but I recognize that I have let down others. Those I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart.”

Fujimori suspended civil liberties and oversaw a violent crackdown on the opposition during his presidency from 1990 to 2000. In 2007, he was extradited from Chile and sentenced to jail for six years on charges of bribery and abuse of power. Two years later, he was sentenced to another 25 years for human rights abuses from his rule. Fujimori was convicted of authorizing military death squads.

Critics denounce the pardon and claim it was motivated by a desire to reward Fujimori’s son, Kenji. The congressman helped the president survive a crucial impeachment vote last week when the conservative Popular Force party, who controls Congress, tried to impeach him over a corruption scandal. However, they failed because Kenji split the party’s vote, thus allowing the president to stay in power.

President Kuczynski’s office states that he granted a “humanitarian pardon” to Fujimori and seven other people in similar condition. Doctors have declared that he has a progressive, degenerative, and incurable illness.

However, protestors rallied as soon as the pardon came to light and claim that the pardon was carried out in an illegal manner. They say the president was trying to save his own skin and the pardon was treason. One protestor stated, “The reality is that this sadly was a political agreement between the Fujimorists and the current government.”

Activists and protestors gathered by the thousands in Lima, the capital, in late December. Human rights experts and political analysts join in the criticism. President Kuczynski pardoned one of the few Latin American strongmen who has been held accountable in judicial proceedings for abuses committed during his reign. The South American representative for the UN High Commission for Human Rights claims that “not putting victims at the center of this decision derails the progress the Peruvian state has made on truth, justice, memory, and reparations.”

The pardon has already cost the president the support of three allies in Congress. They resigned in protest and leave him with only 15 allies left in the lawmaking body.

For more information, please see:

BBC News – Peru’s Alberto Fujimori speaks after divisive pardon – 26 December 2017

NY Times – From a Hospital Bed, Alberto Fujimori Asks Peru to ‘Forgive Me’ – 26 December 2017

Latina – Thousands of Peruvians Protest the Pardon of Former President Fujimori – 26 December 2017

Bloomberg – Peru’s President Back Under Fire for Freeing Leader – 26 December 2017

CNN – Peru’s ex-leader Fujimori asks for forgiveness amid heated protests – 26 December 2017