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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, January 18th 2025 - 06:59 UTC

Tag: human rights

  • Thursday, October 11th 2018 - 08:58 UTC

    Conditions in Venezuelan prisons are “beyond monstrous” claims UN human rights office

    “Overcrowding is rife” and the infrastructure is infested with rats and insects. Not all detainees have access to natural light, and food and drinking water is limited

    Conditions in Venezuela’s prisons are “beyond monstrous”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said, before calling for an independent and transparent investigation into the death of a leading political opponent of the Government. Issuing the alert in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that there were specific concerns for the well-being of 59 Colombian nationals, who’ve been held for more than two years without being charged.

  • Friday, September 28th 2018 - 08:34 UTC

    Controversial Almagro’s “complete support” for the Referral to ICC of Venezuela Investigation

    OAS Secretary General and elected Senator Luis Almagro next to his political mentor ex president Jose Mujica. (Photo Archive)

    The controversial Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, expressed his complete support for the decision of the presidents of Argentina, Mauricio Macri; of Chile, Sebastián Piñera; of Colombia, Iván Duque; of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez; of Peru, Martín Vizcarra; and of the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to refer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the investigation into the existence of crimes against humanity in Venezuela.

  • Tuesday, September 11th 2018 - 14:57 UTC

    Hunger increases and affects 39 million people in Latin America

    FAO reported that the growth of hunger in the Latin American region grew marked especially by the humanitarian crisis experienced in Venezuela, where undernourishment reached 3.7 million

    Hunger reached 821 million people in 2017 worldwide, of which about 39 million are Latin American, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The figure represents a deterioration of 6.1% in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to previous years and could be due to the economic slowdown in South America, especially marked by the case of Venezuela, the UN agency said on Tuesday.

  • Friday, September 7th 2018 - 09:22 UTC

    Latin American countries will receive Venezuelan migrants even with expired documents

    More than 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country's hyperinflation and severe shortages, but many do not have valid passports

    Eleven Latin American countries say that they have agreed to allow Venezuelans leaving their homeland to enter their countries even if their travel documents have expired. More than 2.3 million Venezuelans have fled the country's hyperinflation and severe shortages, but many do not have valid passports because renewing them can take years.

  • Friday, September 7th 2018 - 09:03 UTC

    Lula will tell his followers next week to vote for Fernando Haddad

    Lula will ask his followers to vote for Haddad, sources said. The PT has until the end of Tuesday to register Haddad as its presidential candidate

    Brazil’s jailed former president Lula da Silva is preparing to give up his bid to run in next month’s presidential election, party sources said, after he lost two appeals at the Supreme Court on Thursday. That will remove the most popular candidate from October’s race and pave the way for Lula’s hand-chosen successor, Fernando Haddad, to become the Workers Party (PT) candidate.

  • Tuesday, August 28th 2018 - 08:25 UTC

    Chilean Supreme Court seizes US$ 1.6m assets from Pinochet family

    The case involves embezzlement of public funds and the court said the money cannot remain with Pinochet's family because it comes from an illegal origin

    Chile's Supreme Court ordered the seizure of more than US$1.6 million from the assets of the late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The top court also sentenced three former military officers to four years in prison for embezzlement of public funds in a case involving Pinochet, but allowed them to remain free under conditional liberty.

  • Thursday, August 23rd 2018 - 09:12 UTC

    The democratic challenge to dictatorships and xenophobia in Latin America

    The panel discussed the democratic clauses of the different institutional bodies in the continent against the erosion of the rule of law

    During the conference entitled “The democratic challenge to the autocracies of the 21st century in Latin America,” organized by the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) on Tuesday at the Senate of Uruguay, the Government of Venezuela was described as a “dictatorship” and it was exhorted that the democratic governments of the region, especially the Uruguayan government, not be indifferent or “accomplices” against today’s Latin America’s autocratic governments.

  • Tuesday, August 21st 2018 - 08:40 UTC

    Macri to report Venezuelan government to the International Criminal Court

    “For me, there is no doubt: In Venezuela, human rights are systematically violated by steamrolling the opposition and everyone” said president Macri

    Argentine President Mauricio Macri plans to report Venezuela’s government to the International Criminal Court at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity, according to an interview broadcast on CNN’s Spanish service on Sunday night. Macri said he would seek to refer populist President Nicolas Maduro’s government “in the coming weeks”, and that he had the backing of the presidents of Colombia, Chile and Paraguay.

  • Tuesday, July 17th 2018 - 09:49 UTC

    Nicaragua: UN Secretary General deplores and condemns violence against civilians

    Anti-government demonstrators have been demanding that President Daniel Ortega step down. More than 320 civilians have been killed since protests started

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday deplored and condemned the ongoing violence against civilians, including against students, in Nicaragua.Speaking on behalf of Mr. Guterres at the UN Headquarters, Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that “the use of lethal force is not only unacceptable but is also in itself an obstacle to obtaining a political solution to the current crisis”.

  • Tuesday, June 26th 2018 - 17:39 UTC

    “Uniting the world against terrorism”: OP-ED on the United Nations conference on counter-terrorism

    With the military defeat of ISIL in Syria and Iraq, large numbers of these ideologically-driven mercenaries are relocating to other theatres of conflict or returning home, passing on their battlefield

    NEW YORK — Terrorism is a persistent and evolving global menace. No country is immune. Social media, encrypted communications and the dark web are being used to spread propaganda, radicalize new recruits and plan atrocities. The threat ranges from the crude tactics of lone actors to sophisticated coordinated attacks and the horrific prospect of terrorists using chemical, biological or radioactive weapons.