The US State Department\u2019s annual human rights report called out Brazil and South Africa while scaling back criticism of Israel and El Salvador, shifting its account of other nations\u2019 abuses to align with President Donald Trump\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report, which is meant to serve as a record of other nations\u2019 rights abuses, criticized South Africa for what it said was a \u201csignificantly worsened\u201d situation in 2024 and cited steps toward \u201cland expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also said the human rights situation in Brazil \u201cdeclined during the year.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazil \u201cundermined democratic debate\u201d by limiting access to on-line content that it deemed to \u201c\u2018undermine democracy,\u2019 disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those changes highlighted how Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s department is shifting the emphasis of the report in keeping with Trump\u2019s shifting disputes and alliances with other nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump and Rubio have alleged that South Africa\u2019s land laws are unjust toward White farmers, a claim spurred by Trump\u2019s billionaire ex-adviser Elon Musk. He has spread the conspiracy of a \u201cgenocide\u201d against Afrikaners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump recently hit Brazil with a 50% tariff and placed sanctions on a Supreme Court justice who is overseeing legal cases against Bolsonaro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has called the trial of his ally for an alleged 2023 coup attempt a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, the State Department softened prior criticism of Trump allies. For El Salvador, the report found \u201cno credible reports of significant human rights abuses,\u201d while at the same time stating that \u201cthe government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The previous report for El Salvador highlighted concern about conditions in the nation\u2019s prisons after President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency to crack down on crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amnesty International in 2022 said Salvadoran authorities \u201ccommitted massive human rights violations, including thousands of arbitrary detentions and violations of due process, as well as torture and ill-treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bukele emerged as a key Trump ally this year, opening his jails to hold alleged members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua deported from the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bukele also offered to house American criminals, an offer that Rubio called \u201cextraordinary,\u201d and was hosted by Trump at the White House for the first visit by a Western Hemisphere leader, in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year\u2019s report gave more detail on the number of Palestinians killed and wounded in Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The new report also removed references to the corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US State Department\u2019s annual human rights report called out Brazil and South Africa while scaling back criticism of Israel and El Salvador, shifting its account of other nations\u2019 abuses to align with President Donald Trump\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":825142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853,20932,20069],"class_list":["post-834805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa","tag-trump","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834806,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834805\/revisions\/834806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}