Bachelet expressed the UN’s concern for human rights in Formosa but Felipe Solá said it was “a compliment”

Argentina’s government added yet another international setback in the past few hours when the country was included in the report that addresses human rights abuses and violations around the world, due to the actions of Gildo Insfran in Formosa province to deal with COVID-19. This is another negative episode that affects the country, after criticism over the abstention from the condemnation against the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua at the OAS.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, former President of Chile Michelle bachelet, devoted a paragraph to Argentina for “Serious human rights concerns in the province of Formosa”, during the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus. It was during the reading of his report to the 47th session of the Council which was held in Geneva on Monday.

“In Argentina, the UN team in the country quickly mobilized to respond to the serious human rights issues in the northeastern province of Formosa when the pandemic took hold of her. The United Nations Resident Coordinator led a virtual assessment mission with the participation of UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO / PAHO and OHCHR. He then began consultations with the authorities on a possible joint United Nations strategic program to respond to the health emergency in the province in accordance with international human rights standards, which includes addressing a range of structural issues, with particular attention to indigenous peoples and vulnerable populations, ”Bachelet said in an official document, as part of the organization’s Human Rights Council.

The former president of Chile, whom the ruling party regards as “a friend”, included this paragraph in the report which warned of “the biggest and most serious setbacks” in human rights “That we have never seen”, amid the COVID -19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of millions of people around the world. What happened in Formosa, Argentina, was mentioned as well as episodes of serious human rights violations recorded in Cambodia, Serbia, Guinea, Ukraine, Madagascar, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Belarus, in China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, Mozambique, Russia and Sri Lanka. Lanka.

However, Foreign Minister Felipe Solá took a different reading of what happened: “Today in Geneva, Bachelet underlined the positive response from Argentina to the action of his team in Formosa. We are satisfied with your report despite the misleading use that the opposition wants to make of it, which hides praise for the joint work with the UN”.

Thus, Minister Solá went to the crossroads of the opposition, which was awarded as a political victory the mention of Argentina in the Bachelet report, because he presented a complaint with details of the government’s complaints. for human rights abuses and violations of Insfrán, where they spoke of arbitrary detentions, assaults, kidnappings, police violence, among others.

“Today Bachelet explained what has been done by the UN to respond to serious complaints about human rights violations in Formosa. With Luis Naidenoff I denounced the problem internationally because the national government covered up Insfrán. This is the first response, “posted Mario negri On Twitter. “In February, we requested the intervention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, in Formosa. Today he reported on the serious violations of freedoms committed by the Insfrán government. Argentina has come under world control, ”added the leader of the interblock Juntos por el Cambio in the Chamber of Deputies.

Negri and UCR president Alfredo Cornejo and other opposition leaders referred to the 25-page report submitted to Bachelet’s office. This file has reached the United Nations, but Bachelet did not take this into account during his formal presentation. According to the explanation that emerged from the official sphere, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights relied on her own information and on this she ensured that three countries – Cambodia, Serbia and Argentina – included the institutional situation and undertook to improve the situation in their territories.

Bachelet’s position and the subsequent reaction of the Casa Rosada, contrast with the position of the nation’s human rights secretary, Horacio Pietragalla, that before the presentation to the UN, he had visited Formosa and, despite multiple complaints, assured that there was no abuse of fundamental guarantees in Formosa.

“(The centers) are air-conditioned places, no one has complained about the food, no one has complained about the treatment of the people who are in charge of the place … There have been complaints about certain problems specific, where they have not been explained further details on the swab and vaccination processes. We pass this on and the idea is that there is more dialogue ”, said Pietragalla, ignoring the accusations of the opposition provincial referents and the previous investigations carried out by the UN.

Thus, the government of Alberto Fernández was again plagued by controversies over its position regarding respect for human rights, a value that since the restoration of democracy in 1983, the country has maintained as an internationally recognized prestige. . In recent weeks, the decision to refrain from condemning Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship in Nicaragua, which detained political opponents and is accused of serious crimes against humanity, has been seriously questioned.

In fact, because of the strong questions about the ambiguous position in the face of the arbitrariness of the Sandinista regime, Argentina and Mexico called their ambassadors for consultation, as a sign of withdrawing the diplomatic support they had given before the conviction of 26 countries. from America among them the United States, Canada, Brazil and Chile, among others.

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