In the report’s preface, the State Department acknowledges that the human rights situation in the United States still has much to improve.
“We also recognize that our nation does not always succeed in protecting the dignity and rights of all Americans, despite the proclamations of liberty, fairness, and justice in our founding documents,” the document states.
The only two Latin American nations cited in the document’s introduction were Cuba and Nicaragua, along with countries such as Russia, China, North Korea and Syria.
Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela: repression as a rule of government
In the section dedicated to Cuba, the report recalled that on July 11, “the largest protests in decades” took place to “demand the end of the repression.”
He claimed that many protesters were arrested and jailed in “cruel” conditions, while others had to go into exile.
“The government carried out summary trials for some protesters; requested long prison sentences, some of up to 30 years, in hundreds of cases; and held other protesters in prolonged preventive detention. Some activists chose to go into exile and the government forced others to do so,” the State Department said.
The US authority indicates that members of the Cuban security forces committed numerous abuses. Furthermore, it notes that there are credible reports of a drastic increase in the number of political prisoners, many of them held in degrading conditions.