Aletho News

Ecuador Slams Human Rights Abuse Claims

Opposition protesters took sticks and other objects to attack policemen (Photo: ANDES).

teleSUR | October 22, 2014

The Ecuadorian government hit back on Tuesday against a report claiming it repressed protestors during a recent demonstrations.

The Ecuadorian government is challenging a lawyer cited in the report to prove his allegations.

It was responding to accusations made by U.S. based organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Interior Minister Jose Serrano announced during a televised interview that the government will sue the lawyer who told HRW that students and protesters detained on September 17 and 18 were tortured by the police.

“This lawyer had the audacity and cynicism to say that the police had tortured them … this individual will have to prove what he said … is effectively true,” Serrano said.

The Interior Minister also clarified that those apprehended were caught on video attacking policemen. All of them confessed to the charges against them.

President Rafael Correa had warned ahead of the September 17 protest that the opposition would try to use similar tactics to those used by the Venezuelan opposition, seeking to generate violent incidents which would then generate controversy and international reactions.

On September 17, opposition activists and government sympathizers both organized mobilizations which were located very close to one another. To avoid a small violent group from reaching the government sympathizers, a group of policemen blocked streets which connected both sites.

Opposition activists attacked the police to try to break into the pro-government rally, with arrests following.

“We had announced ahead (of the protests) that there were groups amongst the protesters which would use vandalism and violent strategies,” Serrano reminded.

According to the official, the International Red Cross was called days before the protests to guarantee that, if any detention was made, the organisation was present in the detention center.

“Mr. Vivanco (Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW chief for Latin America) will have to show the whole world who is financing him, where are they getting their resources from, and why does he have this particular aversion against Latin America’s progressive governments,” Serrano said.

HRW is increasingly being held account by intellectuals and experts in the United States and the world due to its close relationship with the U.S. State Department.

Journalist Keane Bhatt has previously documented several cases in which HRW members have become senior U.S. State Department officials, in what Bhatt calls a “revolving door policy”.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire together with former U.N. Assistant Secretary General Hans von Sponeck and over 100 scholars wrote a letter in May requesting Human Rights Watch to change its policy so as to avoid links with the U.S. State Department.

October 22, 2014 - Posted by aletho | Deception | Ecuador, HRW, Human Rights Watch, Latin America