(Washington, D.C.) - ’s President Rafael Correa should end the use of criminal defamation laws to target his critics, Human Rights Watch said today. The prosecution and convictions of the opposition legislator José Cléver Jiménez Cabrera and two union members for slandering the president violates their right to freedom of expression under international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said. “President Correa has long made it clear that he’s willing...

The imminent liberation of Alberto Patishtán through a presidential pardon is nothing more than the reflection of the severe crisis of the justice system in Mexico, incapable of recognizing its failures, agreed activists and Héctor Patishtán, son of the bilingual teacher. Lawyers, activists and Héctor Patishtán, son of the professor from Chiapas, displayed at a press conference feelings brought about by the presidential decision that, they pointed out,...

Reporters Without Borders condemns the violence and other forms of intimidation and censorship being used against a campaign of peaceful demonstrations, called a Minga, that indigenous groups are currently waging in many parts of Colombia to defend their rights. In one of the latest instances, the home of Daniel Maestre Villazón, a community journalist and Minga coordinator in the northern department of César, was burgled on 21 October and his laptops and computer hard disks...

TIJUANA, Mexico - Harsh conditions and persecution confront migrants in Mexico, many of whom have been deported from the U.S., according to a Salesian priest who serves the population in the border town of Tijuana. “This results in them being people with so many dreams that end up becoming nightmares,” Father Ernesto Hernández Ruiz, a member of the order founded by St. John Bosco to assist the young poor, told CNA in early June. Father Ruiz operates the “Padre...

Two people on opposite sides of the immigration debate find each other lost in the desert and discover their humanity and the true plight of migrants crossing the Arizona desert. Tickets for our World Premiere at LALIFF on October 11 at 5 PM at the Chinese Grauman Theater can be purchased at: THE MOVIE Detained in the Desert parallels two completely different people: Sandi, a second-generation dark skinned Latina and Lou Becker, an inflammatory talk show radio host, whose lives converge...

Mr. Andrew Standley, Head of the European Union Delegation to Mexico, attended to the first edition of the awarding of the "Gilberto Bosques" Human Rights Price, granted by the Embassies of France and Germany accredited in Mexico, which was carried out at the premises of the Commission of Human Rights in Mexico City. The Price, which seeks to acknowledge individuals or groups of Human Rights defenders, was granted to Mr. Tomás González Castillo, director of the...

Once again, the Barrios family, 10 members of which have been killed by alleged Aragua state police officers, have been victims of new threats and harassment. On September 13, agents of the Scientific, Criminal and Forensic Investigation Police Agency (Cicpc) broke into the residence of Lilia Ysabel Solórzano Barrios without a warrant, and threatened to kill Víctor Daniel Cabrera Barrios. Víctor Daniel Cabrera Barrios is the son of Eloisa Barrios, who has been denouncing...

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch requested the founding members of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) to persuade Venezuela to revert its decision to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The petition was made by José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, in four separate letters issued to the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Vivanco stated that withdrawal is "particularly problematic...

Independent journalists Alejandro Amado Fraustro and Estela Morales were released on bail yesterday, along with other people who had been arrested arbitrarily during street demonstrations in Mexico City on 1 September. But the two other journalists who were arrested on 1 September, Gustavo Ruíz Lizárraga and Pável Alejandro Primo Noriega, have been transferred to a Mexico City detention centre until a judge sets bail for them. The trial for all four journalists is still...

At least seven corpses have been recovered so far from the grave in Tlalmanalco, Rodolfo Rios, the Mexico City prosecutor, told Radio Formato 21, and he said officials would run DNA tests to determine their identities. “We have to wait for the autopsies to know how long they have been dead,” he said. Authorities say they found the bodies in an area near Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park in the state of Mexico. “The prosecutor called me and said that nothing is confirmed...