Secretary Condoleezza Rice with Assistant Secretary Barry Lowenkron on Human Rights Day. (Kenneth White/State Dept.)

Bush Renews U.S. Commitment to Latin America On-The-Record Briefing on the Release of the Annual Report, "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record - 2006" Western Hemisphere Preface to State’s 2007 Supporting Human Rights and Democracy Report U.S. Supporting Human Rights and Democracy Strategy The Americas - US Department of State

05 April 2007

(New State Department report says most nations in region respect human rights)

Washington -- The United States is working to prevent a “backsliding” of democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

The U.S. State Department says in a new report on human rights and democracy covering the year 2006 that the region faces a number of challenges that threaten to erode citizens’ confidence in the benefits of democracy.  These challenges include the expanding gap between rich and poor, corruption and inefficiency in government, high rates of crime and the inability to provide adequate security to citizens.

State Department official Barry Lowenkron said in releasing the report April 5 that the principal challenge for the Western Hemisphere is “democratic development.”

Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, told reporters this challenge was highlighted by President Bush during his March 8-14 trip to Latin America.  Lowenkron added that the United States helps democracies in the region “improve their capacity to deliver on the demands of their citizens for a better life.”  (See related article.)

The report said U.S. support for the Americas includes helping nations conduct democratic elections.  The United States helped with voter registration and education programs, technical assistance to electoral commissions and support for electoral monitoring missions.

The report hailed the “vibrant political competition” and strong voter turnout for the elections held in the Americas in 2006.  It said that in Mexico, a challenge by the losing candidate was resolved peacefully by the country’s Federal Electoral Tribunal.

The report said that in Ecuador, a closely contested presidential race was settled through a free and fair runoff election, while in Haiti presidential, parliamentary and local elections successfully were concluded for the first time in a decade.  That election, the report said, restored elected governance throughout Haiti and helped consolidate stable and permanent democratic institutions.

With a few notable exceptions, governments in the Western Hemisphere generally respected human rights in 2006, said the report.

The exceptions included Venezuela and Cuba, which the report said remain “isolated” from the region’s “democratic norm.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez accelerated his drive to “consolidate control in the executive branch” and took “aggressive actions” to restrict freedom of expression, said the report.  It added that Chávez also introduced legislation to restrict the activities of nongovernmental organizations.

U.S. programs in Venezuela continued to focus on strengthening civil society’s effort to promote democratic reform in the country.

Lowenkron lamented a crackdown on the media in Venezuela, and the “terrible crackdown” on nongovernment groups in the country.

This “type of behavior” by the Venezuelan government, he said, “runs against the grain” of the move to democracy in the region.

In Cuba, the report said, the transfer of authority from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl Castro did not represent a lessening of totalitarian rule, “but did underscore that a change is under way” in the country.

The United States is taking a “proactive approach” to ensuring a genuine democratic transition in Cuba, said the report.  This approach includes support to independent civil society leaders and democracy advocates, “so that Cubans can, in the future, determine their government through free and fair elections.”

The report had good news about Colombia.  The Colombian government succeeded in demobilizing almost all members of right-wing paramilitary groups. The report said this represented an “unprecedented opportunity for progress in bringing peace and security” to the country.

The United States has approved $48 million from funds for fiscal years 2005-2007 to help Colombian demobilization and reintegration programs.

In Central America, the report said, the United States supported projects to strengthen civil society, including programs to advance press freedom and to encourage greater civic participation in governance.  The United States also committed $21.1 million in 2006 to help signatories of a U.S. free-trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic carry out the trade pact’s labor rights provisions.

A transcript of remarks made at the release of the report is available on the State Department’s Web site, as is the full text full text of the section addressing the Western Hemisphere.

More details also are available in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s preface to the report and the report’s introduction, including the guiding principles.

For more information, see The Americas.