Salvador, Venezuela, Paraguay: Amnesty denounces the management of quarantine centers

Salvadorans repatriated from Honduras upon their arrival at a center where they will be quarantined to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in San Salvador, May 1, 2020. Yuri CORTEZ / AFP

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Since March, authorities in El Salvador, Venezuela and Paraguay have detained tens of thousands of people in state-run quarantine centers.

Sites where, according to Amnesty International, people have sometimes been locked up in a completely arbitrary manner.

For the organization, these three countries have imposed freedom-killing measures under the guise of public health measures.

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Amnesty International says it has reviewed and verified dozens of videos, conducted several telephone interviews and reviewed health laws and protocols in El Salvador, Venezuela and Paraguay.

In all three countries, people spent much more time in quarantine than the fourteen days recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Forced isolation in inadequate centers, generally without sufficient access to food, water and health care, and under police or military supervision.

It is above all

who have been subjected to it, in particular

returning to their country due to the health crisis.

In all, until the end of August, 90,000 people were parked in unsanitary centers in Venezuela, according to figures from the NGO.

In Paraguay, the vast majority of the 8,000 people present until the end of June in these centers had returned from Brazil, once again having lost their jobs.

When in El Salvador, more than 16,000 people have since March been locked up on their return from abroad or after being accused of not having respected the lockdown.

Amnesty International denounces what it considers to be ill-treatment and demands from these three governments immediate access by humanitarian organizations to these quarantine centers.

► To read also: Latin America facing the coronavirus

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• Salvador

• Paraguay

• Venezuela

• NGO

• Human rights

• Coronavirus

• Confinement

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