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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

States’ failure to uphold human rights increased the space for non-state actors to commit 

crimes under international law and other abuses. These included organized criminal entities, 

which in some cases controlled entire territories, often with the complicity or acquiescence of 

security forces. National and transnational corporations sought to take control of the land and 

territory of groups including Indigenous Peoples and – in countries like Peru and Nicaragua – 

peasant farmers.

Failures to uphold economic, social and cultural rights caused widespread suffering. A 

reversal of political rhetoric by the USA under President Trump reduced the chances of the US 

Congress passing legislation to lift the economic embargo on Cuba – and so perpetuated the 

embargo’s adverse impacts on Cubans. Paraguay’s authorities failed to ensure the right to 

adequate housing following forced evictions. There were thousands of new cases of cholera in 

Haiti.

Tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes and struggled with badly 

damaged infrastructure in countries in the Caribbean, including in the Dominican Republic 

and Puerto Rico, following two major hurricanes, among other natural disasters. In Mexico, two 

devastating earthquakes that cost hundreds of lives compromised people’s rights to adequate 

housing and education.

At the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly, held in Cancún, Mexico, in 

June, there was a clear lack of political leadership to address some of the region’s most 

pressing human rights issues. A group of countries tried to condemn the crisis in Venezuela, 

without acknowledging their own failures to respect and protect human rights. After the 

previous year’s financial crisis, the OAS took a step forward by doubling the budget allocation 

for the Inter-American human rights system – although the funding was to be allocated under 

certain conditions, which could limit the ability of the Inter-American Commission on Human 

Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to hold states accountable for human 

rights violations.

In the USA, President Trump wasted little time in putting his anti-rights rhetoric of 

discrimination and xenophobia into action, threatening a major rollback on justice and 

freedoms – including by signing a series of repressive executive orders that threatened the 

human rights of millions, at home and abroad.

This included abusive USA-Mexico border enforcement practices such as the increased 

detention of asylum-seekers and their families; extreme restrictions on women’s and girls’ 

access to sexual and reproductive health services in the USA and elsewhere; repeal of 

protections for LGBTI workers and transgender students; and permission for the Dakota 

Access Pipeline to be completed – threatening the water source of the Standing Rock Sioux 

Tribe and other Indigenous Peoples, as well as violating their right to free, prior and informed 

consent.

Yet growing disenfranchisement did not equate to disengagement. Emerging social 

discontent inspired people to take to the streets, stand up for their rights and demand an end 

to repression, marginalization and injustice. Examples included the massive demonstrations in 

support of activist Santiago Maldonado, who was found dead after going missing in the context 

of a demonstration marred by police violence in a Mapuche community in Argentina, and the 

massive social movement of “Ni Una Menos” (“not one less woman”) – denouncing femicide 

and violence against women and girls – in various countries in the region.

Massive grassroots and political opposition in the USA resisted some of the policies and 

decisions by the Trump administration that undermined human rights, including attempts to 

ban people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the USA and to reduce the 

number of refugees eligible for admission; threats to increase the number of detainees at the 

US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay; and an attempt to take away health care coverage 

from millions in the USA.

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PUBLIC SECURITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

VENEZUELA CRISIS

Venezuela faced one of the worst human rights crises in its recent history, fuelled by an 

escalation of government-sponsored violence. There were growing protests due to rising 

inflation and a humanitarian crisis caused by shortages of food and medical supplies. Rather 

than address the food and health crisis, the authorities instituted a premeditated policy of 

violent repression of any form of dissent. The security forces used abusive and excessive force 

against protesters, including by throwing tear gas and firing rubber bullets, leading to more 

than 120 deaths. Thousands of people were arbitrarily detained and there were many reports 

of torture and other ill-treatment. The judicial system was used to silence dissent, including 

through the use of military courts to prosecute civilians, and to target and harass human rights 

defenders.

VIOLENCE AND IMPUNITY IN MEXICO

Mexico’s human rights crisis continued, exacerbated by increases in violence and homicides, 

including a record number of killings of journalists. Arbitrary arrests and detentions remained 

widespread – often leading to further human rights violations, most of which were not properly 

investigated. More than 34,000 people remained subject to enforced disappearance, and 

extrajudicial executions were rife. Torture and other ill-treatment continued to be widespread 

and were committed with impunity by the security forces, with people routinely forced to sign 

false “confessions”. However, the Senate’s approval of a new law on enforced disappearances 

– following a national public outcry over the case of 43 forcibly disappeared students whose 

fate and whereabouts remained undisclosed – was a potential step forward, although its 

eventual implementation will require serious political commitment to ensure justice, truth and 

reparations. Congress also finally passed a new general law on torture. More concerning was 

the enactment of a law on interior security that would enable the prolonged presence of the 

armed forces in regular policing functions, a strategy that has been linked to an increase in 

human rights violations.

UNLAWFUL KILLINGS

Authorities in Brazil ignored a deepening human rights crisis of their own making. In the city of 

Rio de Janeiro, a spike in violence saw a surge in unlawful killings by the police, with soaring 

rates of killings and other human rights violations elsewhere in the country. Little was done to 

reduce the number of homicides, to control the use of force by the police or to guarantee 

Indigenous Peoples’ rights. The chaotic, overcrowded and dangerous state of Brazil’s prisons 

resulted in more than 120 deaths of inmates during riots reported in January.

Despite the homicide rate falling in Honduras, there were serious concerns about high levels 

of violence and insecurity; prevalent impunity undermined public trust in the authorities and 

the justice system. Massive protests took place throughout the country – denouncing the lack 

of transparency around the presidential election held in November – and were violently 

repressed by security forces, leading to at least 31 people being killed, dozens arbitrarily 

detained and others injured.

Dozens of unlawful killings by the security forces were reported in the Dominican Republic, 

which endured a persistently high homicide rate. Jamaica’s police continued to commit 

unlawful killings – some potentially amounting to extrajudicial executions – with impunity.

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