Human Rights Watch on Monday reported 64 cases of torture and human rights violations by Brazilian police over the past four years. The report was sent by HRW to the office of President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's Congress and the media. According to the communique, the cases occurred in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espiritu Santo, Parana and Bahia since the year 2010, and in 40 cases the use of physical torture has been verified, while in the other 24 a reference is made to...

An average of 72 people were , often times in incidents unrelated to the country’s drug war, according to a Mexican nongovernmental organization. The numbers reported by the Council for Law and Human Rights differ sharply from official figures, creating confusion over the degree to which the crime -- which often goes unreported -- has expanded in recent years. Fernando Ruiz, the director of the Mexican NGO that works with victims of kidnappings, told Spanish news wire EFE the figures...

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says it has opened an investigation into the death of an 8-year-old girl who authorities say committed suicide at a shelter in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. The commission says the girl was traveling with a migrant smuggler who planned to take her to her parents in the United States when federal authorities arrested the smuggler. Federal officials turned the girl over to Chihuahua state authorities who placed her at a private shelter instead of...

Venezuelan President referred to the Venezuelan Navy's new developments on Thursday, as Russia and China are to invest and send new equipment to this military force. "The Navy has progressively recovered, with the incorporation of new transport equipment. Recently approved plans and investments will allow us to hold the most sophisticated equipment to protect the oceans and rivers of the motherland," Maduro stated during the homage paid to commemorate Simón Bolivar, the...

Hundreds of people gathered at the headquarters of opposition Acción Democrática (Democratic Action) party in Río Caribe, eastern Venezuela, to pay tribute to Mayor Franceschi Enrique Franceschi, killed on Sunday morning at his place. Officers from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin), the Venezuelan Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Agency (Cicpc), and the National Guard have conducted raids in the area. A special security plan has been in...

Brazil should speak out in support of human rights in Russia and Russia’s independent activists at the BRICS summit, Human Rights Watch said today. Brazil should also firmly reject any attempt by Russia to persuade Brazil to support weakening the human rights mandate of the UN and other intergovernmental organizations. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) are meeting in Fortaleza, Ceará, for the sixth annual BRICS summit on July 14, 15, and 16, 2014. BRICS is...

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - They are coming to America because a good job here means sewing underwear in a sweatshop for $47 a week. They are leaving neighborhoods where you can walk down block after block of abandoned houses spray-painted with gang graffiti, with collapsed roofs and jungle plants sprouting in the living rooms. They are traveling 1,400 miles with hardly any luggage from a bus station controlled by an extortion ring and used for trafficking women and contraband cigarettes; last...

The National Assembly should modify provisions in its constitutional reform proposal to ensure that it respects Ecuador’s international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. On June 26, 2014, the president of the National Assembly, a member of the government official party, submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Court that would revise 17 articles of the Ecuadorian Constitution. Among other concerns, the changes could limit citizens’ ability to challenge...

(São Paulo) - São Paulo authorities should conduct a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into allegations that police planted evidence of criminal activity on two protesters who were arrested on June 23, 2014, Human Rights Watch said today. “Protesters who engage in vandalism and violence should be held accountable,” said , Brazil director at Human Rights Watch. “But so too should any police who plant evidence and deliberately accuse protesters of...

Christophe Deloire Reporters Without Borders secretary-general 47 rue Vivienne 75002 Paris Paris, 9 July 2014 Interior Minister Arturo Corrales Secretaría de Estado en el Despacho de Seguridad Aldea el Ocotal, Antiguo local de la Academía Nacional de Policía Tegucigalpa, Honduras Dear Minister, I would like to draw your attention to the repeated acts of intimidation to which our Honduras correspondent, , has been subjected. Reporters Without Borders is an...