Human Rights Watch asks US to sanction black listed Martinelli

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked the US Government to impose financial sanctions and visa bans on 15 individuals considered to be “violators of human rights and responsible for foreign corrupt practices,” including former Panama President Ricardo Martinelli.

In a statement issued in Washington,  on Wednesday, September 13,  the human rights organization said that it has sent a letter supported by another twenty groups to  US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Treasury  Secretary, Steven Mnuchin. In the letter, HRW urges President Donald Trump’s Executive to implement the so-called “Magnitsky Global Human Rights Accountability Act”, approved in 2016.

That law gives the president of the USA. power to issue visa bans or blocking assets against any individual who violates basic human rights or attempts against persons who expose practices of corruption.

That legislation “is a powerful tool that allows the US to have human rights abusers accountable when their governments fail to do so,” said HRW Washington director Andrea Prasow.

“Possible human rights violators and kleptocrats around the world should now think twice before committing serious abuses and corruption,” Prasow added.

HRW recalls that on October  8, Trump formally delegated authority to the Secretaries of State and Treasury to impose sanctions under the law, which is named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died after being arrested in 2009 after attempying to investigate a supposed fiscal fraud of the Russian Government.

Martinelli, is currently detained in the United States. and required in Panama  for the alleged offenses of embezzlement and illegal eavesdropping.

HRW accuses Martinelli of allegedly embezzling, during his years in power (2009-2014), along with close collaborators, “up to $100 million dollars of social projects of the Government intended  to help the citizens of Panama”.

The organization says that there are currently “more than 200 investigations into alleged corrupt agreements” that took place while running Panama.

Also on the HRW list is Felipe Flores Velázquez, former Secretary of Public Security of Iguala, in the state of Guerrero (Mexico).

According to the organization, Flores Velázquez “was one of the senior commanders in charge of police officers who tortured and executed six people, and forced to disappear another 43 students” in September 2014.

“The students were killed in apparent reprisal for protesting against corruption by local and state officials,” HRW adds.

According to the organization, the possible complicity of Flores Velázquez with the disappearance of the 46 students is “an open question for researchers.”

Other individuals from countries such as Azerbaijan, Baréin, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Russia and Ukraine are also on the list.