What Leopoldo spoke about.

Madam President, Haiti is in a state of serious emergency. Insecurity is a scourge spread throughout the country, at all levels of society. No one is safe from violence, precariousness or political and institutional instability. This has led to the exodus of more than two million Haitians, that is, more than 15% of their population, who have had to leave their country to carve out a future in coun

Mr President, Commissioner, the Nicolás Maduro regime, not content with more than 300 political prisoners being unlawfully imprisoned and using enforced disappearance as a means of depriving them of their liberty, kidnapped the Spanish human rights defender Rocío San Miguel on 9 February. Let us also remember General Héctor Hernández Da Costa, who has been imprisoned since 2018 and has now been tr

Mr President, Commissioner, tomorrow we will vote on the agreement reached in the framework of the trilogue on the Directive defining criminal offences and penalties for infringements of EU restrictive measures. I begin by thanking the rapporteur, Mrs in't Veld, for the cooperation we have had in preparing this report and for ensuring that the interests of the EPP Group are represented. This propo

Madam President, in view of the passivity of the European External Action Service, we note that, despite the time that has elapsed since the entry into force of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, the situation in terms of democracy, freedoms and human rights in Cuba has worsened. Respect for human rights should be monitored under the agreement, but the Cuban regime has ignored this

Madam President, the violation of human rights in the world is alarming. The 2023 Democracy Index produced by highlights its decline since 2006. This report highlights that only 8% of the world's population lives in full democracies. Fifty-nine countries with nearly 40% of the world's population live under autocracies that curtail human rights and freedoms. The decline in respect for human rights

Mr President, Commissioner, the security crisis that has erupted in Ecuador has spread terror among the civilian population and threatened its democratic stability. Corruption in institutions is the main ally of organized crime, which needs impunity to consolidate itself, a methodology used by the members of the São Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group and implemented in that country by Rafael Correa.

Mr President, the Maduro regime has failed to honour the commitments made in Barbados. He betrayed what had been agreed and increased his repression. Inconceivably, we do not understand the intention of Spain's foreign minister to call for a lifting of European sanctions. The regime's new persecution calls for greater support for Venezuelan democracy. The presidential elections should be held next

Mr President, it is with great regret that we are debating the latest developments in Guatemala. I say with great regret, because I regret what is happening in this country, which has been a traditional partner of the European Union, one of the few democratic beacons in the region and with a freedom-loving people, for whom the violence of intemperance and authoritarianism has suffered years ago. F

Madam President, this report comes at a crucial moment. 80% of the world's population lives under authoritarian regimes that perpetuate themselves using electoral tools that mimic those employed by democracies to impose their authority. They tamed elections in such a way that their results flouted the authority of the people and endorsed their power illegitimately. The European Union has electoral

Madam President, Madam Commissioner, the EPP Group is deeply worried about the case of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu in Azerbaijan. He has dedicated his life on researching public financial management, good governance and budget transparency. But today, Dr Gubad is not free to continue his work. He sits unjustly behind bars, detained for discovering irregularities and corruption within Azerbaijan’s state ins

Madam President, I wish to begin my speech by expressing my sincere congratulations to the Guatemalan citizens for their massive participation and for having made their voices heard in the electoral process, which was carried out with great success. I highlight the pivotal role of the more than 120,000 volunteer citizens who joined the counting of votes at the time of the recount. My thanks also g

Mr. President, Mr. High Representative, CELAC is the regional forum that brings together thirty-three Latin American countries in order to try to represent the varied interests of that region. This is a quasi-impossible task, for this conglomerate is distinctly heterogeneous. There different forms of government meet, ranging from consolidated democracies to the cruelest autocracies. With the pain

Madam President, Commissioner, according to the Andrés Bello University in Caracas, 86% of the Venezuelan population wants a change of government. That people has been depraved of their dignity, of their well-being, and they are without a future because of the regime of the opprobrium Maduro. The legitimate opposition wants to solve this situation through democratic mechanisms: holding presidentia

Madam President, as shadow rapporteur for the EPP Group on the report on the proposal for a directive defining criminal offences and penalties for infringements of Union restrictive measures, I welcome this question on the extension of the mandate of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. EU restrictive measures imposed on human rights violators and those undermining democracy in their countries

Madam President, Mr High Representative, in Cuba, for seventy years, the norm has been the constant violation of human rights. Today there are more than a thousand political prisoners on that island, who are just for having manifested themselves with annoying ideals to the regime. It is surprising that the recent official visit of our High Representative to Cuba was justified with the aim of bring

Mr President, Mr High Representative, surprisingly, for the fourth time in this parliamentary term we are debating in the plenary session of the European Parliament the abominable situation of human rights violations in Nicaragua. The Ortega Murillo regime continues to exercise systematic and institutionalized repression for the sole purpose of staying in power. They have forced the forced banishm

Mr President, Mr High Representative, democracy is based on two fundamental pillars: respect for the law and the social contract of citizens, i.e. their Constitution. Without a well-respected constitution, there can be no democracy. In Peru, during this process to which we are referring today, respect for it has been permanent. On the contrary, former President Castillo maneuvered to try to violat

Madam President, I would clearly like to congratulate the High Representative on the renewed commitment with which the European Commission has returned the Latin American region to its priorities. We recognize this commitment from the beginning of his mandate to achieve this goal. As Mr Borrell said, Latin America is much more than an economic and trade partner. There is no region in the world wit

Mr President, it is worrying that, according to various measures of democracy, there has been a general decline in democracy in recent years. Less than half of the world's population lives in democracy. The region that has suffered the most from this setback has been Latin America. This is due to the rise of anti-liberal populism, which in many cases has reached power legitimately and subsequently

Madam President, tomorrow, 15 September, is a symbolic day for Nicaragua: celebrates its national day at a time when carrying its flag is a crime and those who raise it are persecuted. The Ortega y Murillo regime never tires of harassing, torturing, exiling and imprisoning the opposition, human rights defenders, journalists, students, businessmen ... Now it has become vicious against the Catholic

Madam President, the rule of law is fundamentally based on the separation of state powers, something absolutely denied in Nicaragua. Ortega has subverted the constitutional order to use his judiciary as a repressive weapon against those who express disagreement with his regime. Today there are hundreds of political prisoners in that country, many detained and sentenced to disproportionate sentence

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; This right includes the right not to be disturbed by their opinions, to investigate and receive information and opinions, and to disseminate them by any means of expression. It is evident that freedom of expression and freedom of in

Mr President, Mr High Representative, the report we are debating today makes it very clear that corruption is a threat to democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The European Union must set an example for the international community by combating this scourge at all levels. First, internally. It is therefore necessary to promote harmonisation of rules at European level and to stren

Madam President, Commissioner, from the PPE Group we will not tire of denouncing the gravity of the situation in which all Cubans find themselves, inside and outside the island. And we will say it as many times as necessary: one, two or hundreds of times, until repression, ill-treatment, torture, enforced disappearances, killings against members of civil society organisations, human rights defende

Mr President, Mr High Representative, I speak on behalf of almost the whole of this House when I say, loudly and firmly, that the European Parliament strongly condemns the installation of authoritarianism in Nicaragua at the hands of dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo. This institution will never be complicit in the pantomime with the appearance of an electoral process that took p