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A young girl holds a sign reading in Spanish, ‘You’ll forget it, me, I will remember it for the rest of my life,’ at a demonstration in front of the attorney general’s office in Paraguay on Monday. About 200 people protested the high numbers of sexual abuse cases that have come to light in recent weeks as the country debates what should be done about a pregnant 10-year-old girl who was raped. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

A 10 year old girl is supposed to be enjoying her childhood and youth. Unfortunately, that is not the case of a 10 year-old pregnant girl from Paraguay. The story captured the hearts and the souls of millions around the world when the story first broke. It all started when the girl was complaining of pain in her stomach. He mother took her to the doctor just to find out that her daughter is 21 week pregnant by her step-father. What is appalling about this story is that the Paraguayan government denies abortion for this girl. Her story is one of thousands stories that happen daily in Paraguay. The story of the 10-year old raises attention towards human rights violations women in Paraguay face as their reproductive rights are denied.

Women’s reproductive rights in Latin America have always been a challenge. The fact that most Latin American countries are Catholic, they use religion as a base in the determination of women’s health issues. For instance, abortion is banned in most countries with an exception of few such as, Mexico and Cuba. These limitations on Women’s reproductive rights have turned into human rights violations. In particular, they lead to women seeking illegal abortion that cause either their death or complications that require hospitalization and medical attention. Latin America is the leading country in illegal abortions in the world. (Human Rights Watch, 1).

One of the most controversial countries in this aspect is Paraguay. Just a few months ago, a 10- year old Paraguayan was impregnated by her step-father. The Paraguayan authorities refused to allow the girl to have an abortion because the Paraguayan law prohibits abortion, except if the pregnancy represents a life-threatening risk to the woman. This case was the final straw in regards to human rights violations specifically women’s reproductive rights in Latin America.

Even though there was a huge deal of International Organizations and Paraguayan Non-Governmental Organizations interfering through pressuring the Paraguayan government to allow the 10-year old to have an abortion, the abortion still has not been allowed. Indeed, the request was faced by a flat out refusal. The Paraguayan government insisted that the girl’s health is in a good condition and she has been treated in the Red Cross Hospital in the Capitol Asuncion. Now the 10-year old is in her last few weeks to giving birth via cesarean.

Provisional government figures indicated that last year 684 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 gave birth. Paraguayan girl under age holding her baby. BBC Latin America

Mexico can be perceived as a model for Paraguay in legalizing abortion. Even though Mexico is a Latin Catholic country, it succeeded in preserving women’s reproductive rights through legalizing abortion and offering free services for women in most cities. The law was passed in 2007, and women’s organizations are still working on making the services available to all the cities, especially the ones located in far areas with a limited income. (Booth, 2015). Mexico can be a great model for Latin American countries to follow to legalize abortion, especially the Paraguay.

 For full dossier click Hanane Omari Human Rights Dossier 2015

Hanane Omari

Dossier

There are few nations that treat a sport with as much reverence as Brazil treats soccer, or as it is known globally, football. To many, it is simply the greatest rallying point in society. And so, in 2014, the eyes of the world turned to Brazil to watch the twentieth iteration of the FIFA World Cup. While the event was watched the world over, there existed a story behind the crowds, the story of the natives of Brazil that the culture seems to have forgotten. With recent attention being placed on Qatar and the rights of workers being violated, it is worth noting, that the infringement of the rights of people is not unprecedented in a host nation.

In 2007, Brazil succeeded in its attempt to be named the host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and began setting in motion, its development plans for the event. Their bid to host to FIFA declared that seven new facilities would be created and five existing stadiums would be renovated to meet the new standards for the competition (FIFA). One such renovated stadium was the Maracanã, the crown jewel of Brazil’s football history. It was created in preparation for the 1950 World Cup, where it hosted the Opening game and the Final, in which Brazil lost to Uruguay 2-1 (FIFA). In 2009, Rio De Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Summer Olympics making the need for quality facilities near the city even higher (FIFA).

Since it’s debut in the cup, Maracanã had been used as a multipurpose facility, but the area around the stadium had fallen into disrepair. Before some of the urban decay had settled in, some of the unused buildings in the district around the stadium were claimed as community resources. One building in particular became the official museum for the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, the first of its kind in a major city (Daibert). But by 1977, the building was abandoned and the museum was no longer operational. However, this did not stop the native peoples of Brazil from using the space. Members of over 17 indigenous tribes began to reside in the area around the stadium and in the no-longer running museum. The surrounding areas became known as the “Marcana Village” and eventually became home to over 70 natives (Daibert). It served as an informal community shelter for displaced indigenous tribes-peoples until government targeted the areas surrounding the Maracanã stadium for necessary renovation to meet FIFA demands.

In March of 2013, police forces surrounded the “Maracanã Village” and negotiators were sent in to evict the tribes-peoples from the buildings. For many, the village had been the only place they had ever called home and were unwilling to move. The negotiators told the natives that they would be relocated to a new government built facility, however, at the time, the facility was not yet built. In fact, construction on the relocation site had halted due to a lack of funds from the government (Froio). Unwilling to wait any longer, armed police stormed the compound with riot gear and tear gas. The violence was not only directed at the indigenous people in the camps, but rather anyone that was there to support the natives in their protest against removal. Eventually, all of the squatters were removed from the building and with the area cleared, it was immediately burned down. The space eventually went on to become a parking lot and a new stadium dedicated to the history of football in Brazil.

The displaced natives were forced from their homes and given nowhere to go. FUNAI or Fundação Nacional do Índio, Brazil’s protection agency for the natives and their culture began working with the government to secure places for the displaced to turn to with little effect (Froio). And, the damage was already done. The Maracanã Village was destroyed, and in its place was the new expansion of the stadium.

-Cameron Sutherland

As residents of the United Sates, we often take certain services for granted. This includes access to basic shelter, food, and healthcare. In addition, we are believed to be protected under our constitution. This is not always the case in other American countries. In recent years Venezuela has been subjected to increased violence, food shortages, lack of healthcare, etc. under their government. Although under the late President Hugo Chavez, their was some discontent, Chavez was largely loved and respected by his community. Following his death in 2013, Nicolas Maduro took chair as President. Under this new government, Venezuelan’s have experienced living conditions that some have called human right violations. On February 12, 2014, following an attempted rape of a college student, many students took to the streets to demand justice. This would continue for months as it seems Venezuelans are no longer willing to endure the current living standard given by the government.

“Venezuelan students clash with riot police during protest.”

The above image, shows an altercation between students and police that has often resulted in  numerous deaths. According to detainees, once in custody, many are denied a fair trail, are tortured, among other things. These protests have largely been a result of continued economic deficits. It is important to be conscious of that fact that Venezuela is home to one of the world’s largest oil reserves, yet its citizens fail to see the economic benefit. In fact, by December 2014, inflation rose over 64 percent. As a result of devalued currency, many have not been able to obtain access to basic food supply. Grocery stores are being left emptied, and many line up in the hopes to buy something before everything runs out. Additionally, Venezuela is seeing a severe decline in healthcare access. A once prideful healthcare system, now no longer has access to even basic medical supplies such as gaze, needles, and antibiotics. Without government help, doctors no longer have the means to help and treat patients. Patients are forced to go and find adequate supplies on their own. As a result, many are left untreated, causing death among some. While hospitals and doctors point fingers towards the government for not providing necessary materials, the government is pointing the blame on pharmaceutical companies, stating that they are not involved.

Venezuelan’s lining up at a pharmacy in hopes to buy medical supplies.

Due to the living conditions, Maduro and his administration has received extreme backlash in regards to social, economic, and cultural human rights violations. On June 29 and 30, 2015, Venezuela was part of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] Many Non-governmental organizations such as “Programa Venezolano de Educacion-Acción en Derechos Humanos and United Nations Watch were in attendance with reports that gave evidence of the human rights violations in Venezuela. One report stated that the government had denied a judge by the name of Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a proper trial. In addition, she had been tortured and raped while in custody. Countless have stated that this is not an isolated event, but one that occurs often since the protests first began. [1] Hugo Perez Hernaiz and David Smilde. “UN Human Rights Committee Examines Venezuela on Political and Civil Rights” Venezuela Blog on Tumblr. 09 July 2015. Venezuelan officials have largely denied accusations with regards to human rights violations. They have stated that other officials such as those who attended the Human Rights Committee are out to make Venezuela “Look like the devil.” In addition, they have publicly announced that there are no human right violations in Venezuela. In addition, the United States has taken an aggressive stance against Venezuela. In March 2015, President Barack Obama announced a sanction on seven Venezuelan officials and gave a statement saying ““Venezuela is a threat to foreign policy and no Venezuelan officials who violate human rights will be welcomed to the country.”[2] Venezuelan officials responded saying that the “United States is a threat to themselves and the world.” Maduro and his supporters have urged Obama to lift the sanctions.

President Nicolas Madruo (on the right) and his supporter asking President Obama to repeal the executive order, which sanctioned seven Venezuelan officials from entering the United Sates.

[2] Betsy, Klein. “White House sanctions Venezuela or rights abuses, corruption” CNN POLITICS. 09 March 2015 In June 2015 “The Summit of the Americas” was held in Panama. The United Sates hoped that here other American countries would support them, however, many Latin American countries are reluctant to speak out against their neighbors, as many have business deals with Venezuela. Venezuela is not new to such violence. But as the months pass by, conditions seem to worsen, leaving many to wonder when the violence will end and if Venezuelan executives will be held accountable. For now it appears that the population will continue resisting government oppression. Below is a video that depicts the current situation in

For complete report/Dossier click here: Venezuela; Resistencia Contra el Gobierno

Venezuela. 

While it might be true that citizens of El Salvador no longer face the brutal atrocities of state-sanctioned violence in the form of death squads, the government is still waging a war against El Salvador’s lower class women and girls through systematic violence and negligence. The injustice that has lead to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, is Article 169 of the Penal Code which bans abortions in any and all cases of pregnancy.

In 1973, Article 169 of the Penal Code permitted abortion in situations that required the procedure to save the mother’s life, such as malformed fetuses, and in cases of rape-related pregnancies. However, in 1992 legislators began drafting a new Penal Code after the Peace Accords following the Civil War were signed. Although the initial draft of Article 169 permitted therapeutic abortions within limits, the Catholic Church saw an opportunity to step in and criminalize abortion with the help of church-funded lobbyists, and conservative groups like The Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA).  The final draft of the ban on abortion was passed in 1997 and is still in effect today, criminalizing any woman who receives, seeks, or aids an abortion, regardless of rape, incest, malformed fetus, or any other endangerment to the woman’s life.

Salvadoran women march to free “Las 17,”

A woman found guilty of having a clandestine abortion can be sentenced anywhere from 2-8 years, while anyone who is caught assisting the termination of a woman’s pregnancy can be sentenced anywhere between 6-12 years via Article 135 of the Penal Code. Due to these sentences, women refuse to seek post-abortion medical attention which frequently puts the woman or girl’s life at risk; even if they were to seek professional medical help, doctors and nurses are legally bound to refuse them service at risk of their own imprisonment. The highest prison sentence is reserved for women who birth a stillborn child, or have a miscarriage which can result in a woman’s imprisonment for 30-50 years on the grounds of aggravated homicide.

Although the lack of women’s reproductive rights in El Salvador has been a persistent problem in the last forty years, it took the internationally recognized case of Beatriz in 2013 to make the rest of the world to recognize this as an atrocious, intersectional human rights issue. Beatriz (pseudonym), a 22-year old peasant woman whose pregnancy in combination with her medical history of lupus and kidney disease threatened her life. Four months into her pregnancy, doctors discovered that because of Beatriz’s poor health, her fetus was anencephalic, meaning that a significant part of the fetus’s brain and skull were missing; it would be impossible for the fetus to survive more than five minutes after birth. Although the medical professionals treating her at San Salvador’s National Specialized Maternity Hospital agreed that she needed a therapeutic abortion to save her life, they were forced to appeal to the Supreme Court in order to ensure the safety of Beatriz as well as the doctors and nurses working on her case. The Court received the case as a medical emergency that should be reviewed as soon as possible, but took six days just to agree to hear the case. Frustrated by the Court’s indecision and stalling, Beatriz and her supporters sought the aid of regional human rights groups such as Morena Herrera’s La Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto Terapéutico, Ético y Eugenésico (ACDATEE) which lead to a human rights campaign on her behalf, in addition to the Feminist Collective and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) who then transferred the case of the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights (IACHR). These groups pressured the Salvadorian government to provide Beatriz with the necessary medical procedures, which attracted the attention and support of UN experts. The case of Beatriz became worldwide, resulting in hundreds of thousands of letters received by the Salvadoran government, as well as activists petitioning outside of the Salvadoran embassies in Latin America and Europe.

In addition to Beatriz, the rest of the world was shown seventeen new faces that represent women’s rights abuses in El Salvador in the case of “Las 17,” which brought attention to another critical aspect of the ban on abortion: female incarceration, especially in regards to the government’s refusals to grant low-income women the right to a fair trial and thorough investigation. “Las 17” are a group of seventeen rural women incarcerated (many of whom were charged for abortion services and miscarriages). Herrera’s lawyers at the ACDATEE have stepped in to defend these women, and issued a pardon for them in April 2014. Amnesty International suggests that the social and cultural attitudes surrounding rural women and girls in El Salvador significantly impacts the way the Criminal Justice System handles the cases of these women.

International Ad run to bring Beatriz’s case to light.

Women and girls are not only socially exiled if they suffer a miscarriage, stillbirth, or have an abortion, but young girls are especially stigmatized from seeking any kind of preventative protection like condoms. Their access to contraception is limited to the discretion of their parents who must either be present at the time of their visit to the health clinic, or they must have written consent. In regards to adolescent pregnancy, girls face intense shaming which often leads them to drop out of school and withdraw socially. Girls are consistently told that it is their fault for getting pregnant, and it is their fault if their fetus does not survive. This attitude blames women and girls for simply existing in a society is dominated by cultural norms of female submission and exploitation. Sadly, this has led to an extremely high rate of adolescent suicides, comprising “57% of the death of pregnant females aged 10-19” (Amnesty International).

To continue reading the full dossier, click here: A Mother’s Right to Life An Analysis of El Salvador’s Strict Abortion Ban Dossier

Buen vivir is an ideology that finds it origins with the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Andes. There are other areas in South America that share similar ideologies that are placed under the umbrella of Buen Vivir. In 2008, this ideology was introduced to Ecuador’s constitution and this marked the first time that nature has been given rights in a constitution. Eduardo Gudynas, a senior researcher at the Latin American Center of Social Ecology (CLAES), believes this political process began “first with a reaction to the neo-liberal market reforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s(which included a strong critique of classical development strategies), and second, with the election of governments of the Latin American new left or progressism, that allowed the expression of indigenous knowledge and traditions that were oppressed, minimized or subordinated over centuries.”(Gudynas, 2011).

Artist rendering of Buen Vivir, courtesy Google.

‘Sumak Kawsay’ of the Kichka is a set of rights that has similar ideals to the West, but it is examined through a different lens that incorporates nature and harmony. New ways of development are being formed in economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental areas to align with Sumak Kawsay. Buen vivir does not lean towards a direction, but it is to move away completely from European schools of thought and creating a format suitable and sustainable for the people of Ecuador. Intrinsic value is placed on the environment which aligns with indigenous nations interpretation of Buen Vivir. “Buen Vivir should be conceived as a position limited to non-Western knowledge, but as useful concept that can support and enhance critical traditions looking for alternatives to development.”(Gudynas, 2011) Buen vivir is an ideal and is not a hard lined way of thinking that limits where it can draw influence. Buen Vivir is a balancing act, as most things in nature are and is adaptive to the issues at hand. A key concept of Buen Vivir is unity and allowing a multitude of views to be shared in order to move away from the concept of development. There is a stigma around development, caused by tremendous amounts of trial and error, and there is  
a need to escape it. Moving away from development towards alternatives has allowed different perspectives to be heard not only locally, but is opening Ecuador the World. (Gudynas, 2011).

Representatives from the community of Sarayaku denounced the illegal entrance of Ecuadorian government representatives from the hydrocarbon ministry who were seeking to conduct an environmental impact study.

According to a 2001 census of Ecuador, indigenous people represented approximately 6.8 percent of the population. Confederation of the Indigenous Nations of Ecuador (CONAIE) believes that this number is not accurate and that the real population of indigenous people is somewhere between twenty-five and thirty percent. In 1967 the first American oil company came to Ecuador and by the mid-1970s the oil boom jump started Ecuador’s economy from a poor agriculturally dependent economy to a hot spot for foreign investment. According to Minority Rights Group International, “The Agrarian Reform Law of 1964 and subsequent reform treated indigenous people as poor peasants emphasizing individual land titles and diminishing their demand for collective rights.” The infiltration of oil companies into Ecuadorian amazon dramatically affected the indigenous people, causing the Tetete people to go extinct and sever contamination of the river systems. Due to unsafe oil extraction processes approximately 30,000 people developed cancer and/or skin diseases. (MRGI, 2014)

In 2014, Ecuador began entertaining bids on rights to land and the minerals that they contain in areas where indigenous people have been isolated voluntarily and are dramatically against the oil industry. According to Kevin Koening of Amazon Watch, “the Correa administration seems intent on trying to drill its way to prosperity, which has turned what was once pristine rainforest into a natural sacrifice zone crisscrossed by oil wells, roads and palm plantations.” It seems like any easy decision not to drill and preserve the Amazon rainforest, but there is a lot for popular President Correa to consider. (Mirroff, 2015).

This picture resonates with our dossier topic because America’s rhetoric legitimizes human rights abuses and political persecutions in Cuba. America’s actions so far reveal that its quest for democracy and freedom is a farce. Human rights abuses are second rate to America’s economic goals in Cuba.

Megan Gularte, Jack Mizes, Sara Meza

Cuban leader Fidel Castro established the first communist dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere after leading a coup to overthrow Fulgencio Batista in 1959, after which the Cuban people eagerly looked towards their dreams of a future in which civil liberties and free elections were restored. While successful in reducing illiteracy and providing public health care, the Castro regime is widely criticized throughout the world for its numerous human rights violations and arbitrary arrests of political prisoners. For instance, Fidel Castro implemented a system of repressive state machinery in which the government conducted the summary trials and executions of thousands, suppressed political dissidents, closed independent media outlets, and ended independent economic activity. The Cuban government commonly punishes political dissent with arbitrary and preemptive detention of its citizens. Cuba restricts freedom of movement, assembly, press, speech, and access to information. While not illegal acts in Cuba, these are rights inherent to all people. Fidel Castro handed over the leadership of the state to his brother Raúl in 2008; Raúl Castro has continued to uphold the repressive state machinery implemented by his brother despite international pressure, criticism and calls for justice.

Cuba’s human rights abuses are more prevalent than ever. Within the last fifteen years, the amount of attention the Cuban government has received from international organizations, such as the United Nations, Human Rights Council, and Amnesty International has increased dramatically. This is in part due to the introduction of the digital age and the warming of relations with the rest of the world. Previously, the government had consolidated its power to a point that independent journalists and librarians were subjected to arbitrary and periodic detentions, harassment, and seizure of equipment and books, as these were seen as necessary actions for the survival of the regime. Cuban citizens had no access to foreign magazines or newspapers, since many mainstream publications are outlawed as enemy propaganda–including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now that digital information is more readily available to international groups and other states, the Castro regime’s political abuses are being dragged into the spotlight. For example, a number of cases receive international recognition–the Damas de Blanco, El Grupo de los 75, and the fifty-three prisoners released in the negotiations with U.S. President Barack Obama. To provide a brief overview, the Damas de Blanco is an opposition movement made up of wives and female relatives of political dissidents. El Grupo de los 75 were arrested on charges of conspiring with the United States and working to attack the independence of Cuba. The fifty-three prisoners that were recently released are also a subject of contention. Journalists from the New York Times and the Miami Herald have reported that the nature of the release is not only dubious, but that a number of released men and women have already been re-arrested.

A contextual analysis of the history between the West and Cuba will provide insight into the shifting relationship with the Western hemisphere–more specifically the United States. Reports from the Human Rights Watch, academic journals, and government agencies will allow us to understand the tumultuous nature of past relations, and how it will affect the world’s assertions that justice will henceforth be served for victims of the Castro regime. American rhetoric claims to be promoting the support for human rights, democratic governance, greater economic prosperity and transparency in Cuba. The Cuban people, claims the United States,  must be able to move forward independently of their government in order to create a functioning and prosperous civil society.

This dossier’s objective is to reveal and analyze the most prevalent of Cuba’s human rights violations–an unprecedented number of arbitrary political detentions. Additionally, a contextual and overarching history of the West’s relationship with Cuba will provide a basis for understanding how the Obama administration and the rest of the world are working to normalize relations with the communist state. This dossier is also unique in its current prevalence to international relations and human rights–we will provide an overview into the most austere cases of human rights abuses of the last fifteen years. Additionally, it will examine how the easing of tensions with the United States will affect the perpetuation of human rights abuses. “The voices of freedom cannot be drowned out by the threats of a frightened regime. The machinery of repression has tried to quiet those voices, but in vain. Years of deception cannot hide the truth, either from the people or the international community.” It is important to note that relations with Cuba are changing as this report is being written, but nevertheless, we will make sure that the report is up to date and factual in its analysis.

Click here to see the full text

Estevez’s article focuses on the displacement of human rights in Mexico with the ongoing war on drugs declared by former president Felipe Calderon. Thousands and thousands of Mexicans have been caught in the crossfire and forced to live under gruesome circumstances, displaced from their homes, and forced to seek political asylum. This article mentions how the governmentalization of the Mexican state and the Mexican necropolitics dislocate those suffering from serious human rights violations. She develops three theses described throughout the article as to why the protective capacity of human rights discourse in the midst of extreme violence is hybrid.

Necropolitics is the use of political and social power to dictate the way that people must live and die. The thousands of killings, disappearances, and displacements may be the consequence of these necropolitics following the war on drugs. There is also the discussion of the Endriago system and how it is used as a conceptualization of why men use violence as a means of survival.  The first thesis of the article focuses on the idea that necropolitics is the third world counterpart of countries like the United States. The second two follow the discussion of biopolotics and the dislocation of the pillars of the politics of truth.

The author uses many sources to create a credible article that analyzes the necropolitics and governmentalization of the Mexican state’s war on drugs and their justification for violent crimes and the displacement of thousands seeking asylum. This takes a toll on the line between business and crime and the appearance of neopolitical hybrid entities. There are also other arguments about the biopolitics of human rights and their validity within the terms of asylum law.

Carlsen’s article focuses on the execution of the war on drugs by the Mexican Government and the use of the army to fight it. There have been thousands of people that have died because of the war on drugs and the actions that the government has been taking has not shown any progress in over a decade. Carlsen argues that there have been very few court cases and even less convictions of army personnel in the deaths of Mexican citizens regardless if they are members of a cartel or innocent bystanders. The article suggests that the government is to blame and needs to change its course of action to stop the unnecessary deaths of thousands of people.

            The article gives a different point of view to the war on drugs in Mexico than many Americans may have. We view drugs as bad, so the strict approach seems reasonable, however there are factors that Americans do not consider when thinking about a full out war on drugs. Due process is a human right that everyone deserves and should get in a court of law. The army goes into the communities, with many innocent civilians and uses excessive force and violence. Some may take the law into their own hands and some innocent people get falsely accused. The Article may remind Americans of the war on drugs at home that has incarcerated so many people, but then it reminds you that the Mexicans involved are not being incarcerated but killed. Being in a Human Rights journal, the article is meant to raise awareness among other Human Rights activists.

            With an interest in Human Rights violations in Mexico, Carlsen’s article gives some insight into the corruption and violations that the Government and Army commit. It will help give information of the war on drugs and allow me to expand on more Human Rights violations that may stem from the war on drugs. It will help me understand the governments role and some of the actions and inactions they have taken to create the current situation.

The image shows how the Mexican Government is shooting itself in the foot as the only blood spilled from the war on drugs is that of the 45,000 civilians who have died because of it.

Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/517773288382321638/

Image Caption: Alcides Padilla, from Honduras, wakes up at the Jesus Martinez stadium in Mexico City, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. (Abd, Rodrigo / Associated Press Photo)

I chose the featured image because it personifies the current conditions of Central American migrants in Mexico. They do not have a place to stay and they are forced to wait on the ground. This image is only one example of the hardships endured by those waiting to cross the US-Mexico border.

Human Rights and Central American Migrants in Mexico: A Judicial Perspective emphasizes that there is a lack of trust placed upon Mexican authorities by Central American migrants rooted in the fear of being deported. Individuals migrating from Central America through Mexico find themselves in a foreign place in which they are alienated and marginalized; consequently, Central American migrants become vulnerable and more susceptible to the violation of their rights. The article further states that Mexican authorities have disregarded a substantial amount of complaints made by the National Commission of Human Rights (Barbosa and Aguirre 263). The disregard placed on such complaints demonstrates the lack of value placed on the rights of Central American immigrants.

Barbosa and Aguirre’s article was published by the Canadian Center of Science and Education and has since then been peer reviewed. One of the strengths of this article is that it is accessible to many as it avoids technical jargon and is easy to read. It is important to make articles such as this one accessible in order to raise awareness about human rights violations. Moreover, Barbosa and Aguirre go a step further and provide recommendations that can lead to a solution rather than solely stating that there is a problem.

This article will enhance and facilitate the research process for the final human rights dossier about immigrant rights in Mexico. The author clearly illustrates the plight of Central Americans in Mexico and the human rights violations they are subjected to with the absence of intervention and defense from Mexican authorities. The information in this article complemented the learning done in class by providing concrete examples of contemporary human rights violations.

In “The Myths of Violence: Gender, Conflict, and Community in El Salvador”, Hume explores the establishment, normalization, and perpetuation of gender violence within families in El Salvador. Hume’s paper is structured in the following way. First, she establishes how the family acts as a source for gendered violence. Second, she argues how this violence centers on upholding the masculine identity. Finally, she argues that past and present historical violence from the state normalizes this sense of violence.

Using oral accounts from individuals residing in El Boulevar and La Vía, Hume identifies and defines violence from a non-monolithic standpoint. This is a particular strength in her scholarship. She refuses to define gender violence within one specific context. Instead, she insists that violence is hierarchical and dependent on local and regional factors within El Salvador. With this said, a primary weakness in Hume’s scholarship is that it provides a limited historical context as to how gendered violence has changed through El Salvador’s political years. Much of her evidence instead focuses on recent accounts from individuals regarding familial violence. While certain state initiatives and organizations are mentioned, it is mentioned only briefly or passingly.

What is significant about Hume’s argument, is that it emphasizes how very public acts of violence, especially in the past, continue to have an overwhelming effect on seemingly private relations. Hume’s specifically traces how “fear” and “paranoia” led many Salvadorians to maintain a sense of silence towards many forms of violence, even to violence unrelated to the State. Hume argument shows that the violence which occurred in the public sphere (i.e. state politics) continues to shape and influence the relationships within the personal sphere (i.e. family).

The is a photo of General José Alberto Medrano who helped form the paramilitary group ORDEN. ORDEN is one of the organizations which Hume cites as being particularly destructive to the community of El Boulevar. El Boulevar is one of the regions she collected primary accounts from in the paper. A link to the picture can be found on the website for El Salvador Times: http://www.elsalvadortimes.com/articulo/politicos/secuestro-pleito-generales/20170111191813014778.html

The article focuses on how the migration outbreak derives from transnational state policies and practices which pose negative effects on the lives of migrant children. The research highlights the historical component of the problem: structural violence and normalized violence. Structural violence is a product of U.S. economic and political intervention in Latin America. On the other hand, normalized violence refers to violence that has become a social and political norm in the perspective of the involved communities and institutions. The authors summarize the importance of understanding how implemented socioeconomic inequalities, border enforcement, children detention, and mass deportations all deteriorate the lives of migrant children. Specifically, the authors argue that the journey, the border, detention, deportation, and repatriation pose inevitable physical and mental trauma. Thus, the article uses a strong historical background to expose the violation of human rights by analyzing the experiences of migrant children. 

In the article, Kate Swanson and Rebecca Maria Torres examine the sociopolitical elements which have led to the violence and migration epidemic. The methodology of the research involved a participatory workshop of migrant children who shared their perception of migration and the dangers of the journey. Through the workshops, the authors received narratives and drawings that illustrate positive and negative ideas of the “American dream.” Children were very detailed with the causes of their migration; all with a connection to poverty, violence, and political chaos. The drawings and narratives developed credibility to the source because they give a profound insight of the violence migrant children confront. The authors were able to grasp onto evidence of structural and normalized violence and demonstrate how transnational policies fuel migration violence. Notably, the article also provides a sense of hope to the transnational problem because it humanizes the journey of each child.

Overall, the article is essential in my own research because it highlights the convergence between historical elements and the ongoing effects of children migration. The abruption of violence and the continuous political instability in Latin American governments has led people of all age groups to enter a state of despair for a better life. Thus, we must understand the historical ties because it allows us to analyze the problem from a critical lens and avoid a “normalized” stance. I will focus my research on the transnational policies which have led to Venezuelan migration. I will use a similar approach in order to obtain a deeper understanding of Venezuelan instability and how it contributes to the violation of human rights. 

article: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/639098/pdf

In this journal entry, Carlos Rodríguez Díaz explores one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit Puerto Rican soil was Hurricane Maria. A category 4 hurricane, Huracán María struck the archipelago island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Rodríguez Díaz expands that while completely wiping the island to almost nothing, this hurricane helped shed light on the violations that the United States enacts on Puerto Rican human rights. Throughout his work, Rodríguez Díaz demonstrates that much of the human rights issues in Puerto Rico are interrelated. Rodríguez Díaz clarifies that although Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since the Spanish-American War in 1898, Puerto Ricans on the islands lack complete representation in Congress. No voice in Congress means that the US does what it wants with Puerto Rico.

Rodríguez Díaz demonstrates how this US control over the island leads to things like the Economic Stability Act or PROMESA, an act that in times of natural disaster, like that of Hurricane Maria, limits the island’s ability to catalyze the movement of necessities like food, water and medication. Not only does Rodríguez Díaz establish the lack of response on behalf of the US government, but he goes more in depth to trace the reasons why Puerto Rico must depend so much on the United States and to figure out the ways in which the US is inhibiting the island’s ability to prosper and prepare more efficiently for natural disasters like that of Hurricane Maria.

Since I had always wanted to learn more about Puerto Rico, I figured that doing some research on Huracán María would lead to a variety of teachings. Examining this natural disaster and its effects on the island has allowed me to learn about the unity of Puerto Ricans in and out of the island, since Rodríguez Díaz explains the critical role of Puerto Rican diaspora. Furthermore, this source also provides a concrete view of the ways that the United States violates the rights owed to Puerto Rico as a territory and to Puerto Ricans as humans. Rodríguez Díaz’s work does a great job correlating the distinct ways that Puerto Ricans are being stripped of their human rights–whether that be through the lack of representation in a government that they constitute, through their inability to declare bankruptcy despite being $100 billion dollars in debt because of policies that the United States implements, or through the thousands of deaths the island faces because the federal government refuses to increase resources or provide immediate aide to combat the health inequities that Hurricane Maria exponentiated. An investigation of this event demonstrates a direct violation of human rights—the United States inability to provide the people of Puerto Rico housing, health care services, food, sanitation, clean water, and a list of other basic needs.

Marta Alanis, President of Catholics for Choice wrote a thought-provoking article on women’s rights in Argentina. “Fighting for women’s lives in Argentina”, published in 2011 this article encapsulates in detail the reign of Catholic influences within the state government of Argentina. This article shares hard statistics on the number of illegal abortions that take place in Argentina despite the illegality of the practice. 30% of maternal deaths can be directly traced to unsafe abortion practices in Argentina. The author urges that despite Argentina being one of the wealthiest Latin American nations, without access to safe abortions women are dying. Abortions are only “legal” if, the mother’s life is in jeopardy or if the pregnancy was a result of rape. Despite there being exceptions for legal abortions, in many cases when petitions are made to obtain legal abortions the government denies them.

 The Author does a great job in organizing her arguments within this article. She begins by boldly stating the wild abortions statistics of the region of Latin America and then zones into discussing Argentina. The Marta Alanis explains throughout the article that without changing the cultural stigma surrounding women’s rights in Argentina policies won’t change. Moreover, without separation between the Catholic church and the state government; there will be no change. The author tends to constantly aim towards focusing on how unsafe at home abortions are and the maternal death rate in the region due to strict abortion laws. Towards the end of the article, the author lists hefty statistics that cannot be ignored on abortion rights and casualties in Argentina. Understanding that this was written by a Catholic woman creates a conversation to be had whether or not all Catholics stand so aggressively against abortions.

This source is useful because it shares a first hand, a Catholic point of view on human reproductive rights in a Latin American state such as Argentina. This article allows us to address that women’s rights are human rights that shan’t be ignored. This article helps to unravel the complexity in separating church and state. There are culture and respect for the Catholic church within Latin American countries. This respect for the Catholic church makes it abundantly difficult to separate church and state.

Image:  https://goo.gl/images/1K47zp

This image was found on Google and the title translates to, “My Body. My Decision”. I selected this image because it shows the rallied support women of all walks of life have for one another in their quest to obtain safe abortion practices in Argentina. The link from this image takes me to a site that shares the legal framework being worked on for women to obtain abortions safely within Argentina.

Throughout history asylum seekers, especially those from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, have struggled with gaining citizenship or aid from the United States. In this article, “Falling Outside: Excavating the History of Central American Asylum Seeker: The 1980s: Asylum Denied”  Susan Bibler Coutin writes about how interpreting the laws of what exactly human rights are has an affect on how we see asylum seekers. In the 1980’s one of the huge problems that asylum seekers faced was how to prove that there reason for fleeing their home countries was an exceptional case according to US asylum law. This struggle has not ended even in present times as definitions and meanings are constantly changing and political pressure is ever looming on lawmakers. The article shows through cases, such as the Ramirez boys in 2006, that the law was not impartial to anyone even children who were brought across the border. The key point of the article was to show that the interpretation of the law of asylum seekers in an important aspect of allowing from immigration into the country and aid for those in need of help.  This article goes through the many cases of study that provide examples of asylum seekers and their families. It shows the struggles that they went through and in some cases how even after their struggles, some of the families were still deported; which is a key issue in the United States asylum law.

Susan Bibler Coutin is a professor at UCI, with a Ph.D. from Stanford in sociocultural anthropology. She specializes in topics of law, immigration, human rights, citizenship and other areas. Coutin shows the importance of being able to not only understand law, but also that understanding political motivation is a key component in knowing why gaining asylum is not an easy task. Although this article addresses on Central America as a whole, it focuses on El Salvador the most. El Salvador is a key country in this piece because it is where Coutin has focused a lot of her research in. Her research includes an  examination of the social, political, and legal activism surrounding immigration issues, particularly immigration from El Salvador to the United States.

“Falling Outside: Excavating the History of Central American Asylum Seeker: The 1980s: Asylum Denied” is an important article not only to this class, but also in understanding the struggles that asylum seekers face. It is also important in my own personal research for the class, which focuses on why people migrate, specifically from El Salvador, to the United States and the issues that they face when seeking help. It gives an insight on the laws in which there are when concerning asylum seekers, which is important when understanding the risks that asylum seekers take when leaving countries that they feel are violating there human rights.

The article evaluates the conduct of officials and the corruption involved violation human rights. The article uses many statistics in comparing the prison rates from ten years ago. The article is broken up into four clear sections and then subcategorized with a clean presentation. They also addresses possible solutions. The research that has been done was through and with reference to many countries and they expanded on the area with a slight focus on Mexico and Chile rather than with Hathazy’s focus on Argentina. The intended audience could be academics further looking into this issue or people finding support for a possible policy paper. The background of Paul Hathazy is working in Argentina’s working at the Center for the Study of Culture and Society, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba. He specializes in the social determinants and effects of legitimate violence through comparative and historical methods, with a PhD. from UC Berkeley. Markus-Michael Müller is a political science professor with a focus on Latin America in Berlin with a PhD. In Political Science from Free University of Berlin.

The authors focus on overpopulation in the prison system in Latin American countries arguing that the governments are violating human rights. Three main issues that they state are overpopulation, informality in governance, and political denial of the issue. The informalities have led to the prisons being controlled by the inmates. Politicians deflect their responsibilities onto the prisoners and the prison system itself, denying the issue for their gain and benefit.  There has been an ironic correlation that as democratization grew in Latin American countries, the population of the inmates grew as well. Through the work of human rights activists and cooperative governments, policy changes were made and can continue to grow. Countries that are focused on and mentioned are Brazil, Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, Belize, Cuba, Panama, Peru, and Argentina.

The source has potential importance for other research I will do working on governments of Latin America and reflecting how the “democratic governments” are taking care of their prisoners. It is interesting to see the connections between democratization and a rise in prison population. The article is interesting to read about what happens to people thrown into the prison system and how they are being helped.

I chose this image because it was apart of the international attempt to bring awareness to the issue in Latin America. This photo is taken from an El Salvador Prison by Meridith Kohut.

The Author, Cynthia Bejarano, recalls on the tragedy that was the Campo Algodonero case of 2001 where the bodies of eight girls were found and how this case played an important role in the justice for femicides and the feminicidal violence in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Bejarano mentions how in 2002 an organization, Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez, which she was a part of helped the victims search for answers that they felt the Mexican government wasn’t giving them. Bejarano gives us a brief breakdown of the feminicidal violence happening in Juárez and neighboring cities along the border and tell us about the rising numbers of missing and/or killed women. In the case of Campo Algodonero, it was work of activist organizations and the families of the victims who sought answers from the government. The court case of González et al. (“Campo Algodonero”) v. Méxicobrought some reparations for the victims’ families via the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and an important precedent regarding femicides. 

I believe that this article by Cynthia Bejarano is a helpful read for anyone would like to know more about the issue of femicide and more specifically the effect it has on Ciudad Juárez. It is a great secondary source regarding the tragedy at Campo Algodonero, from meeting the families of victims and helping them to later find purposely forgotten evidence where the girls’ dead bodies were found. Not only that but the importance of citing the court battle victory over the Mexican government and the importance it plays in future cases. 

This source is important to the larger theme of our course which is human right violations in Latin America. The battle for government trust in inhuman cases has become an issue for Latin American States and in this particular case with the city of Juárez and the missing women. This case is only a portion of violations that Latin American women deal with.     

Image Context: Ruben Espinosa had sought refuge in the capital after receiving numerous threats when his photographs were used in various articles that criticized the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte de Ochoa, in 2015. The author Jos Midas Bartman uses the murder of Ruben in his article to highlight the point that critical journalists are subjected to extreme political violence.

In his article, “Murder in Mexico”, Jos Midas Bartman examines whether journalists are victims of general or targeted violence. Bartman draws on quantitative data to support his argument that journalists do face higher levels of violence and murder when compared to the rest of the Mexican population. He analyzes the various reasons why this subgroup is more susceptible to political violence, and makes a clear correlation between the targeting of journalists at the hands of local governments. Bartman makes the case that while the federal government is centralized and democratized, it is at the state level that government takes on a more authoritarian approach to silence those who are critical of local administrations and policies. 

Bartman attempts to be impartial by comparing both the official narrative that journalists are just victims of general violence, versus the unofficial narrative that journalists are a targeted group and are targeted so, not by criminal violence, but by state actors. By designating each narrative as a testable proposition, he labels the first narrative as P1 and the second as P2a and P2b (to account for the role of national and state politics). Testing the data by comparing the homicide rates of journalists and the general population at the state and national level, Bartman finds that journalists have a higher statistical chance of being targeted and killed when contrasted to the rates of general violence that the general Mexican population faces. He also finds that the levels of violence and murder vary, depending on state. 

To analyze these findings, the author uses testimony from NGOs and journalists, as well as, official government reports. Bartman addresses the biases inherent in the reliability of government records and narratives, including the problem of a disproportionate amount of unresolved cases (and hard evidence) in the deaths of these journalists. While this poses a problem with the second proposition in that there is no direct evidence that links state governments to the deaths of journalists, Bartman couples the findings of the quantitative data with the testimony of NGOs and journalists to lend to his argument that critical journalists are victims of state violence. 

Although Bartman’s findings do not delve deep into how and why state politics are involved in the murder of journalists, it is important to note that with his findings, useful and testable data points to the fact that journalists are a specifically targeted group. This is a reality that the federal government cannot afford to keep ignoring. Bartman argues that besides the violation of human rights, the killing of journalists also poses a problem with the idea of democracy. With violence continually directed towards critical journalists, government officials and leaders cannot be held accountable, thus moving Mexico further away from the bulwarks of truth and justice. 

I

The book is divided into three sections, part I is about “Extralegal violence and its justifications,” Part II talks about “Constructing crime,” and lastly part III discusses “The politics of making violence visible.” Although the book is divided into sections the central idea of the book is to examine the complexity of the concepts and context of crime and violence depending on the particular community. Moreover, the central argument is to recognize that crime and violence are socially constructed concepts whose definitions are constantly changing since derived from the power structure hierarchies. In other words, crime and violence definition change based on the context, such as region, particular societies, gender, class, race, ethnicity, and time.

The authors used historical, political, and social analysis to argue that citizens’ distrust to the state’s ability to protect them has let community groups defend themselves from delinquency. The authors argued that Mexico is a clear example because, in at least nine states, vigilante groups have emerged in order to defend their communities against drug-trafficking organizations. The problem with this initiative is that in 2014 President Enrique Peña Nieto legitimized some of the vigilante groups. These vigilante groups are armed community groups that often use their power to intimidate or to subordinate the community.

The issues of crime and violence legitimacy and legitimate armed community groups are useful and important because contribute to the emergence of human rights violation. In this case, justified by violence and crime by the state are examples of power dynamics and that shape the notion of criminality, deviance, and danger in Latin America. As argued violence in Latin America is produce and reproduce meaning that the state’s acts of violence influence the community to take action by reproducing violence and crimes.

The #NiUnasMenos (Not One Less) movement emerged in Argentina in 2015 in response to recent and numerous acts of murder and violence against young women in Argentina. In this article, the author connects societal polarization, human rights discourse, femicide, and civic society theory, to weave together an account of how the media was able to utilize the movement and the tradition of civil codes to momentarily suspend the polarization within Argentinian society and generate action. The author analyzed news articles, interviews and media coverage to understand and pinpoint the rhetoric employed by the media to overcome this polarization and to motivate social action by all Argentinian peoples. The backdrop of this article is theory on how a civil society operates and the general tradition of human rights in Argentina.

The author begins her article with the discussion of civil society theory and how societies operate in alignment with civil and anti-civil codes in order to promote democracy. This theory is used to explain how the framing of the #NiUnasMenos movement by the media as an issue of civil codes was able to unite Argentinians on this issue, despite the deep ideological rifts between them. This example is predicated on the idea that civil codes appeal to all members of society, despite their social, cultural, or political designations, and that particular framing of the issue is the mechanism behind the solidarity and action that the movement generated. Thus, human rights is not the central point of this work, the central point is making a case for how journalism, through its utilization of civil society theory, can affect political culture and polarization and generate action on human rights issue.  

The author did a thorough and convincing job in articulating the media’s role in the success of the #NiUnasMenos movement and how the underpinning of the success was the unification of society through civil codes. The examples of reframing the issue from an “individual” problem to a “collective” one, and the examples that showed how activists, journalist, and politicians were all appealing to universal rights and bringing together people from all political spectrums really blended the theory and the argument well. I appreciated how the author incorporated previous discourse of human rights in Argentina and how important the military repression of left-wing movements was integral in sparking that discourse in Argentina. It illustrated the resounding impact of that past social trauma in modern times and how previous violations inform the discussion on current violations as the author highlighted the Mothers of Plazo de Mayo as leaders of the human rights movement in Argentina.  

According to the authors, with the help of geologist and Columbia University New York Graduate School of Architecture, (Planning and Preservation- in their urban planning and design group) describe a case study involving infrastructure in Caracas, Venezuela. Caracas, built on the junction of the South American and Caribbean Plates is under enormous threat to “seismological hazards” like the 1967 magnitude 6.5 earthquake that killed roughly 300 people and destroyed 4 modern structures that were “built for earthquake resistance”. Along with earthquakes, which have been aggressively attacking the country for the past 400 years, the latitude of Caracas places it in a place where there is constant rain fall and without proper measures, this leads to “triggered landslides, mud-flows, and debris flows” which in one instance in 1999 killed an estimated 25,000-250,000 people in only a 72-hour period. This is significant to know because the current infrastructure is not built to hold a population of this size (5 million) with only less than a day worth of water being stored in the city, and only 3 fragile pipes running along the fault lines to bring in outside supply; however, neither the Caracas nor the Venezuelan government has any urban planning projects in the works, or even any studies that take into account natural hazards.

This becomes important to the subject of human rights because, as such an urbanized country, the Venezuelan government has not taken any initiative in making sure its people is safe. Caracas is only a case study but this affects more than just one city. The authors of the article make sure to highlight this abandonment like situation in which the people are at risk and the state turns their head, as well as the severity of the situation with references to the country’s history and scientific evidence. Both authors, who are PhD scientists at Columbia University, also note that in previous years scientists, among other professions, and communities have come together to form public works groups to try and see what can be done. Recommendations to improve infrastructure have been shared and scientists are working hard to monitor and figure out just how dangerous future disasters could be.

One could extract a lot of information regarding Venezuelan infrastructure from this article. Within that one can see that the basic human right to life is in danger and something as simple as drinking water could be an earthquake away from being taken away from millions of people.