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U.S. House Foreign Affairs chair Gregory Meeks, a Democrat, expressed concern over “excessive use of force”, and warned that the so-called Leahy Law bars the U.S. from supporting security forces involved in severe human rights violations.
The U.N. Office for Human Rights said in a statement that it was “deeply alarmed” by police opening fire on demonstrators in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, on Monday night.
The Washington Office on Latin America, an NGO which studies human rights in the region, called on the U.S. to suspend sales of crowd control equipment to Colombia’s security forces.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, called today to the different political, judicial, business, and social movements of the country to a dialogue “without ideological differences” to solve national problems and the violence that in seven days has claimed the lives of at least 19 people in demonstrations.
“We will install a space to listen to the citizens and build solutions (…) in which ideological differences should not be the main act but our deepest patriotism”, said Duque in a statement at the Casa de Nariño, seat of the Executive.
Colombia’s Duque calls for dialogue without “ideological differences”. (Photo internet reproduction)
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - The UN Office for Human Rights denounced today, May 4, that Colombian security forces have exercised an excessive use of force during the wave of protests that the country is experiencing, with at least 19 dead and 800 wounded, and called for calm given the call for demonstrations on May 5.
Officials of the UN agency s mission in Cali, one of the cities where most violent incidents have occurred, have witnessed the excessive use of force by the police, said office spokesperson Marta Hurtado at a press conference.
The security forces used live ammunition, beat . . .
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IWPR has funded a journalist’s crisis cell in Moldova in response to concerns that the government was restricting access to information amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After the state of emergency began in Moldova on March 16, the government stopped holding open press conferences, only granting access to a select number of TV stations.
Civil society organisations petitioned the government to change this policy, and on April 10 the Independent Journalism Center of Moldova (IJC), founded the
The cell began its work by submitting a joint request with 25 other media organisations asking that the ministry of health, labour and social protection’s press conferences be held weekly. They also demanded that journalists be allowed to ask questions directly, rather than being handpicked by the government beforehand.
Colombian bishops irked by church desecration, problems that plague country Christmas is a time to make a determined choice to put an end to all forms of violence, corruption, dishonesty and criminality, said the Catholic prelates
Indigenous people, trade unionists and others take part in an ant-government demonstration in Medellin, Colombia, 21 October 2020. (Photo by EPA/Luis Eduardo Noriega A)
Catholic bishops in Colombia have condemned not only the desecration of a church but also criticized both the people and government for a host of problems environmental exploitation, violence, corruption, dishonesty and criminality plaguing the country.
A group of unidentified vandals entered the Church of Our Lady of Valvanera, in the city of Pitalito, in the southeastern part of Colombia, broke open the tabernacle December 12 night, and stole the ciborium, monstrance and several other religious objects. They also threw the consecrated hosts on the floor.