The Human Rights Watch organization pointed to the governments of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba for committing "aberrant abuses" in its most recent annual report, in which it urged Latin American leaders to exert pressure to achieve a democratic transition in those countries.
In its World Report, released Thursday, HRW expressed concern about the upsurge in violence, poverty and deteriorating human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean and said these problems have driven millions of people from their homes, deepening the migration crisis in the region.
In assessing the situation in Cuba, the organization stated that the government continued during the past year to "repress and punish any form of dissent" and that Cubans continued to suffer from a severe economic crisis that impacted their basic rights.
He also questioned the trials that took place last year of hundreds of protesters in which "basic guarantees of due process" were "violated" and "disproportionate prison sentences" were handed down.
The same situation was raised as in the case of Nicaragua. The government of Daniel Ortega was accused of deepening "systematic repression against critics, journalists and human rights defenders" and of intensifying "violence against members of the Catholic Church".
HRW called attention to the risks faced in Venezuela by journalists, human rights defenders and civil society organizations that are persecuted and criminally prosecuted.
"Judicial authorities have been participants or accomplices in abuses, serving as a mechanism of repression," said the report, which pointed out that Venezuelan police forces have engaged in "brutality".
The organization expressed concern about the "complex humanitarian emergency" facing Venezuela, which keeps millions of people without access to health or adequate nutrition and has led more than seven million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2014.
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