South America Newsletter August 2026

This month we bring you news from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela

Highlights are:

• In Argentina, President Javier Milei has signed an emergency decree allowing authorities to bar, deport and revoke visas of people accused of inciting hatred against Argentina or its people
• For Venezuela, Amnesty continues with its Urgent Action calling for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained in Venezuela
• Protests have intensified in Bolivia over government plans to open protected areas and Indigenous territories to mining and agribusiness, with communities warning of deforestation and land dispossession
• The area of Brazil’s rainforest burnt in 2025 was smaller than previous years, although critics still note the government’s decision to approve oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon river.
• More than 50 years after the kidnapping, torture and murder of Chilean folk singer and human rights activist Víctor Jara, retired army colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei has been jailed for 25 years.
• Human Rights Watch has called US-Ecuador Security Cooperation “a dangerous partnership”, noting that co-operation was “deepening at a moment when both governments have engaged in serious human rights violations fuelled by their insistence on framing their confrontations with organised crime groups as a kind of war”
• Amnesty has issued a media release in support of the demand from the Guerreras por la Amazonía (Women Warriors for the Amazon) that the Ecuadorian Government fully implement the landmark court ruling of 5 years ago requiring Ecuador to eliminate oil industry gas flares located near populated areas and provide reparations to affected communities. Amnesty has also called for an investigation into the role of the United States in an attack on an Ecuadorian vessel.
• Amnesty has denounced the Peruvian Government’s enactment of a Law which allows alleged crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces and the Police to be investigated and tried by military and police courts
• Amnesty continues with its Urgent Action calling for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained in Venezuela

ARGENTINA

President Javier Milei has signed an emergency decree allowing authorities to bar, deport and revoke visas of people accused of inciting hatred against Argentina or its people. This follows controversy during the World Cup over the behaviour of players and fans. Milei claimed there was an international “anti-Argentina” campaign, with many labelling the country as racist. Amnesty Argentina has acknowledged racism in the country but criticised those “reducing the country to a stereotype”.  There are concerns that the broad wording of the decree could be used to restrict freedom of expression.

BOLIVIA

Protests have intensified in Bolivia over government plans to open protected areas and Indigenous territories to mining and agribusiness, with communities warning of deforestation and land dispossession.  Protesters cite oil exploration by the Brazilian oil company Petrobras in the Tariquía National Reserve as an example of these concerns.  Petrobras is reported to have pursued legal action against activists opposing its operations in late 2025, while the company maintains that the project has environmental approval and meets legal requirements.

BRAZIL

The area burned in Brazil’s Amazon in 2025 was far smaller in size than the previous year, according to the deforestation monitoring group MapBiomas. Their recent report states that 3.1 million hectares of Brazil’s Amazon were burned last year, compared with a record-breaking 15.8 million hectares in 2024. The amount of land burned in the world’s largest rainforest last year covered the smallest area since MapBiomas records began in 1985. Protecting the Amazon was one of the pledges President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made when he was running for office four years ago. While his pledges were welcomed by environmentalists, there has also been widespread criticism of Lula’s decision to approve oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River, which activists say flies in the face of his promise to protect the Amazon region. Read more here.

 CHILE

More than 50 years after the kidnapping, torture and murder of Chilean folk singer and human rights activist Víctor Jara, retired army colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei has been jailed for 25 years. Six former military officers have previously been convicted. Jara remains one of the most recognisable victims of Chile’s military dictatorship, which killed or disappeared more than 3,000 people and detained and tortured tens of thousands during 17 years of repressive rule. Victor Jara was murdered on September 16 1973,  five days after the coup that overthrew former President Salvador Allende.

In June, the Santiago Court of Appeals declared admissible the petitions filed by Gustavo Gatica, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the National Human Rights Institute and the State Defence Council against the January acquittal of former Carabineros Colonel Claudio Crespo; the appeals court will now hear oral arguments. Amnesty has campaigned for justice for Gustavo since 2020. The court had found that Crespo had fired the shot that blinded Gustavo, but acted in self-defence, with the application of the “Nain Retamal Law”.

UN experts expressed serious concern over criminal proceedings brought against Judge Álvaro Mesa Latorre, for his judicial decisions in cases involving gross human rights violations, warning that such actions could undermine judicial independence and the rule of law.  “The use of criminal law to challenge a judge’s interpretation of the law and assessment of evidence constitutes an undue interference with judicial independence and will inevitably lead to a chilling effect on judges handling human rights cases.”

COLOMBIA

On 21 June, Colombia elected as president, by the narrowest margin in its history – less than 1% – the far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, who pledged to exploit fossil fuels to the fullest extent possible during his term. The change of government marks a sharp break after four years under the leftist administration of Gustavo Petro, who staked his presidency on the energy transition. Just how far the new government is prepared to go remains to be seen. Within Colombia’s environmental movement, campaigners see the incoming government as a setback to their progress. On 7 August, De la Espriella will be sworn in; as he pledges to exploit oil reserves, environmentalists prepare to defend their natural resources and their rights. Read more here.

Human Rights Watch has called US-Ecuador Security Cooperation “a dangerous partnership”, noting that co-operation was “deepening at a moment when both governments have engaged in serious human rights violations fuelled by their insistence on framing their confrontations with organised crime groups as a kind of war”.  In the picture above, a farmer walks amidst rubble after a bomb was dropped by the Ecuadorian army in the Lago Agrio region in March.  President Noboa presented the operation to the press as the first airstrike in the “joint operations” with Washington against drug trafficking, announcing the destruction of an alleged training camp belonging to an armed group.

ECUADOR

Amnesty has issued a media release in support of the demand from the Guerreras por la Amazonía (Women Warriors for the Amazon) that the Ecuadorian Government fully implement the landmark court ruling of 5 years ago requiring Ecuador to eliminate oil industry gas flares located near populated areas and provide reparations to affected communities.   As the Ecuadorian Embassy has declined our requests for a further meeting to discuss this, it would be really helpful if you could write to the Ecuadorian Ambassador asking him to relay your concerns to the Ecuadorian Government about their failure to comply with the court ruling of five years ago.   The Ambassador is His Excellency Mr Luis Ignacio Vayas Valdivieso and the email addresses are eecugbr@cancilleria.gob.ec and embajadaecuadoruk@gmail.com.

Amnesty has also called for an investigation into the role of the United States in an attack on an Ecuadorian vessel, Fiorella, and the disappearance of eight of its ten crew members.  It has called on the United States to cease its policy of carrying out air strikes against boats at sea under the pretext that they are transporting drugs to the United States, which amounts to a practice of extrajudicial executions and other violations of human rights.

PERU

Amnesty has denounced the Peruvian Government’s enactment of a Law which allows alleged crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces and the Police to be investigated and tried by military and police courts, rather than by the ordinary justice system, even when the victims are civilians, describing it as another step towards entrenching impunity.

VENEZUELA

Amnesty continues with its Urgent Action calling for the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained in Venezuela and to ensure that those detained see their life protected, fate and whereabouts known, and be granted adequate medical care and family visits. It highlights the continued disappearance of Jorgen Guanares, whose fate and whereabouts have been unknown since August 2024, and the treatment of Emirlendris Benítez and Juan Carlos Marrufo, who are currently being denied adequate medical care despite suffering an urgent need for it. Relatives of individuals held in the “Rodeo I” prison have alleged that prison officers shot pellets and used tear gas against detainees in the aftermath of the recent earthquakes.