Latin America: Human Rights report

In its annual report on human rights, the US state department has welcomed the election of Vicente Fox as president of Mexico.

The report said Mexico had made important efforts to improve the human rights situation, but problems remained in states such as Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

On Argentina, the state department said there had been incidents of police violence and torture, and called for improvements in the prisons.

As in previous years, the report was highly critical of Cuba, describing the human rights record there as still poor.

The report was also critical of Colombia, where it said government forces continued to commit serious abuses which went largely unpunished. It added that paramilitary groups and guerrillas were responsible for the vast majority of political and other killings in Colombia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service