Weiss Fagen's Repression And State Security

During the authoritarian rule in Latin America, more specifically the Southern cone, there was an abundance of gross human rights abuses that were systematically enforced throughout the countries. Despite having different dictators in each country they endured many of the same abuses. In the article Repression and State Security by Patricia Weiss Fagen, she essentially categorizes them as civil or political human rights abuses and social or cultural abuses. The governments by means of disregarding civil or political rights they would instill climates of fear, in which the citizens were afraid not only to express their own ideas but to participate in everyday activities as well. They were prisoners of conscience as there was a war on ideas essentially,
The social and cultural human rights that arose during that time included; restrictions on social gatherings, elections as well as censorship of the press. They also tended to remove institutions that were in place to mediate between citizens and the state. Lastly, one of the most obvious aspects was the isolation and privatization of social life, for example they implemented this in Argentina, with los deseparacidos, in which they would kidnap people (often publically) and then proceed by making sure there was no public acknowledgement of their whereabouts let alone their
In terms of civil or political rights, including the lack of the right to a fair trial as well as indefinite holding. For example, Maru Mora-Villalpando had to beg for habeus corpus after being detained (Gene Johnson). Since immigration is a civil matter, not criminal those who are detained have no 6th amendment right to attorney (Bouloubasis). Also, people are detained based on political views, which was once again shown in the case of Maru Mora-Villalpando, who was also known to be anti-ICE and very involved in Latino advocacy programs. "Law enforcement should not be allowed to target anyone in our country for their political activism," (Gene Johnson). Lastly they create climates of fear with different types of psychological manipulation, and example of which was in the Pedro Salmeron case where he was taken in van in the middle of the night, without explanation, just to be returned (Bouloubasis). Socially and culturally they created human rights concerns by separating families and many people who are undocumented are afraid to participate in social activities due to fear of being deported. Socioeconomically the immigrants are effected, because once they are no longer protected by TPS, they can’t send money to their families which accounts for 30% of El Salvadorian