Latin America

Credit: Alexander Canas Arango / ESMAD riot police during the Demonstration of the National Strike in Colombia.

Our Members in Latin America

Mass protests in Colombia against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque have been met by a brutal response from police. Has that use of force amounted to torture and other ill treatment?

After reviewing photographic evidence of violence against protesters, IRCT’s Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG) issued an expert opinion that concluded live ammunition was being used on and had caused the deaths of individuals, and that police weapons such as teargas and kinetic impact projectiles were being misused, causing death and severe injury. The opinion supported a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that confirmed 34 deaths had occurred during the crackdown. IRCT also supplied HRW and other civil society actors with a standardised reporting form to assist in gathering evidence of torture, as well as a guide on documenting torture committed during protests and detention. The forensic analysis underscored that the pattern of violence could amount to torture or other forms of ill‑treatment under international law.

Most recently in 2025 Colombia made a major advance in November 2025 by ratifying OPCAT, allowing independent SPT visits to detention sites, which is an achievement built on years of advocacy by Centre for Psychosocial Assistance (CAPS) and IRCT to strengthen policing reforms, accountability, and torture‑prevention mechanisms. Earlier that year, the Government also issued Resolution 01840, setting binding rules for police use of less‑lethal weapons, a civil‑society‑driven step toward better protecting civilians during security‑force operations, especially in protests.

Read more about CAPS’ work on the Colombia Country Page.

Credit: IRCT / Laura Guerrero stands in front of a mural to her son Nicolás Guerrero, a graffiti artist known as Flex, who was shot and killed during a police crackdown on social protests in Cali, Colombia in 2021.

Andrés David Lago was a 26-year-old street artist when the Mobile Anti-Riot Squad (ESMAD) shot him leaving him with permanent eye injuries.

Laura Guerrero’s son, graffiti artist Nicolás, was shot in the head and died during a peaceful protest in in 2021.

Andrés Juan Guerrero was shot by police five years ago during a protest blinding him on one eye. He is still seeking justice today.

Juan Pablo Fonseca, who was shot by police during protests and blinded on one eye says, “I think popular movements are one of the greatest tools we have to fight back.”

Hearings for Healing

In November 2023, for the first time ever, torture survivors from 13 countries in Latin America met face-to-face with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), Dr Alice Edwards, to share their experiences of torture and views on improving access to justice and reparation.

Organised between the IRCT, our member Centro de Atencion Psicosocial (CAPS) Colombia, and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) the three-day hearing in Bogota, Colombia focused on helping survivors heal, on informing the work of Dr Alice Edwards, the UN SRT, and on promoting stronger engagement with torture survivors from UN human rights mechanisms.

“It is a great achievement to stand in front of the Rapporteur and be able to present your case,” said Osvaldo Rodriguez, one of 15 torture survivors from across Latin America who met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, in Bogota, Colombia in November, the first of IRCT’s ground-breaking ‘Hearings for Healing’ aimed at ensuring survivors voices are central to the work of UN human rights mechanisms.

Torture survivors from 13 countries in Latin America met face-to-face with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in Bogota, Colombia, in the first of IRCT’s ground-breaking ‘Hearings for Healing’.

The Bogota Declaration

In 2023 family members, survivors and victims of torture and other cruel treatment from 13 Latin American countries met in Bogota.

Organised between IRCT and OMCT, the participants shared their experiences with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Edwards, and international and regional human rights organisations. It was the first time the group had met in person together, and the first time any Special Rapporteur on Torture had engaged with survivors from across an entire region.

Following the meetings, the group issued what they called the Bogota Declaration.

”We are tired of having our lives and the lives of our families and communities destroyed by torture.”

“We will no longer be silenced, ignored or excluded from the spaces where decisions are made.”

“We demand that Latin American States, regional human rights mechanisms, and civil society organisations working in our region, enable a space for torture survivors, our voices and experiences in all decisions that affect our lives and our enjoyment of human rights.”

Read the Bogota Declaration here

Manuel Rojas Boyan, was one of Dr Genefke’s first survivors when she co-founded IRCT half a century ago. Then a young man in his 20s, he had fled the military dictatorship of Bolivia in the 1970s; Manuel had refused to give up the names of his friends, and very nearly paid with his life. Five decades on from his brutal experience, Manuel told his story in Bolivia for the first time to a packed film festival audience in Sucre, including fellow torture survivors from the former dictatorship, and the president of Bolivia’s Supreme Court of Justice, Marco Ernesto Jaimes Molina.

‘Brilla el Sol: La Historia de Manuel’ is a 52-minute documentary produced in English and Spanish by the IRCT that tells Manuel’s story and the history of the United States’ programme to systematise torture among its allies in the region at the time.

The IRCT also helped Manuel publish his book, a promise he made to Dr Genefke’s husband, Dr Bent Sørensen, who saw in Manuel’s healing journey an inspirational story that rehabilitation can work, and is worth investing in.

A part of the 52-minute documentary ‘Brilla el Sol: La Historia de Manuel’ was used in a campaign to give voice to torture survivors for the United Against Torture Consortium (UATC).

Manuel Rojas Boyan was interviewed on Radio Global in Sucre, Bolivia where his film, ‘The Sun Shines’, was premiered at a human rights film festival.

“On that day in the city of Sucre, the commitment also emerged: Together we can. If there are people who managed to overcome the effects of torture, together we can all achieve it … We can show that the harmful effects of torture can be defeated, with professional medical help, but also with the testimony of what we have experienced that helps to show that it is possible.”

— MANUEL ROJAS BOYAN Torture Survivor

An Image of Chilean actress María Paz Grandjean who was injured by police by a tear gas canister in 2019.

Video evidence was presented at the Human Rights Council in an advocacy mission to Geneva with IRCT member Cintras ahead of Chile’s UPR review in 2024.

In a first of its kind: IRCT and member centre Cintras produced a video with Chilean actress María Paz Grandjean who was shot in the face by police during their crackdown on protests in 2019.

watch the video which was played in the Human Rights Council.

Mexico’s ongoing 15-year ‘War on Drugs’ has unleashed terrifying police violence. Tens of thousands of Mexican citizens have been tortured with impunity. As well as providing rehabilitation to survivors, IRCT member the Collective Against Torture and Impunity (CCTI) trains independent experts to document torture using the internationally agreed Istanbul Protocol.

Read more about IRCT members work on the Mexico Country Page.

watch the video which was played in the Human Rights Council.

2024 was a breakthrough year for better laws and improved policy on torture in Honduras.

It was a breakthrough year for better laws and improved policy on torture in Honduras, where 2024 saw protests both against and in support of the government.

IRCT worked with our partners in OMCT, throughout the first half of 2024 with our joint member Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Survivors of Torture and Relatives (CPTRT).

Following recommendations made by UNCAT to Honduras in May 2024 were strongly promoted by CPTRT.

Read the Recommendations by UNCAT to Honduras that closely followeD the priorities of IRCT’s member CPTRT.

In 2024 a political crisis in Peru triggered unprecedented nationwide protests, and a brutal crackdown by police.

The protests were led by mainly rural poor, indigenous Quechua-speakers, demanding their human rights be fulfilled by a State which has for decades discriminated against them. The violence was a stark reminder of the legacy of Peru’s 20-year civil war, in which Quechua-speakers were the huge majority of those killed, disappeared and tortured.

Read more on the Peru Country Page.

In 2023, for the first time in many years, regional meetings were held gathering together IRCT members from Latin America for three days of face-to-face discussions in Bogota on best practices and challenges in their centres and how to strengthen implementation of the Global Standards on Rehabilitation (GSR).

It was agreed with members beforehand to focus on those of the 17 GSR found to be most significant and challenging. Some members presented their own experience with the standard, prompting a wider discussion among peers.

Read more about GSR here.