TNAG-0559-FCO40-654-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-othe-1975 — Page 141

The Americas

The Americas include three distinct regions: Latin America, the United States of America and the English-speaking Caribbean. Diverse in their human elements, cultural heritages and legal systems, yet politically interrelated, all except Cuba are members of the Organization of American States (OAS). A major political issue in the hemisphere during the past year has been the move to restore to Cuba its membership of the OAS, from which it was excluded in 1961. This has not yet been achieved, but several countries have unilaterally re-established diplo- matic relations with Cuba.

Amnesty International has maintained its close and fruitful working relation- ship with the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in particular on the subject of disappearances and political assassinations in Guatemala.

Disappearances and other forms of extra-legal detentions, resulting in torture and often assassinations, are a dramatic feature of the human rights scene in Latin America, and they appear to be on the increase. One form they take is that of officially unacknowledged arrest and detention incommunicado in an unknown place for an initial period. It is during this time that torture is likely to occur (for example, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Nicaragua). In their most serious form, they entail the abduction of people by organized death squads which operate systematically and seemingly unchecked by the authorities. The apparent im- punity with which the death squads operate has given rise to serious allegations that representatives of police and other authorities condone, or even are un- officially involved in, the activities of such groups (Guatemala, Brazil and Argentina are examples).

It is ironic and deserves to be pointed out that this high incidence of un- official executions takes place in Spanish-speaking America, which has virtually abolished capital punishment in legislation. Anglo-America, on the other hand, has preserved, and even re-introduced, the judicial death penalty and also carried out several executions during the past year (the Bahamas, Trinidad, Jamaica).

With the exception of Paraguay-and to a certain extent Brazil, Chile and Haiti - the number of identifiable long-term prisoners of conscience does not appear to be very high in Latin America. Most prisoners of conscience (i.e. those representing peaceful political dissent) tend to suffer detentions of comparatively