Peru and Burkina Faso led a general global deterioration in freedom last year, but a number of other nations showed improvements, giving hope in the fight against authoritarianism, according to the US research group Freedom House.
In its 50th annual report on global freedom, the US democracy research group downgraded both Peru and Burkina Faso, and also noted declines in Russia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Hungary.
Peru, where political chaos grew last year with the impeachment of President Pedro Castillo after he tried to dissolve congress and rule by decree, was moved from free to partly free, while Burkina Faso, which endured two military coups in 2022, was downgaded to not free.
Colombia and Lesotho were both upgraded to free from partly free.
Colombia saw the election of its first left-wing president, Gustavo Pedro, who has vowed to increase democratic inclusion, while Lesotho elected diamond tycoon Sam Matekane on a platform of transparency and economic reforms in the landlocked African nation.
Improvements
Despite the net decline in freedom around the world, Freedom House also saw improvements in nations including Slovenia, Kosovo, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines and Zambia.
The 2022 report "documents a continuation of troubling trends, but it also gives some reason to hope that the freedom recession of the past 17 years may be turning a corner," Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz said in a statement.
The 50th edition of #FreeedomInTheWorld is out: While global freedom declined, the struggle for democracy may be reaching a turning point. Fewer countries declined than any year in the past 17. The demand for freedom is picking up! @freedomhouse https://t.co/doeJwHGb7s
— Mike Abramowitz (@abramowitz) March 9, 2023
Latin America is a key frontline.
"For years, Latin America was a stable region, there were relatively high levels of freedom and Cuba as an outlier, until authoritarian consolidation took hold in Venezuela and then in Nicaragua," said Amy Slipowitz, a co-author of the report.
In Peru, she pointed to authoritarian steps taken by former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled from 1990 to 2000, as a harbinger of recent trends in the country, which has seen six presidents in five years.
"One of the trends we found in the broader global research was that both coups and attempted coups can lead to long-term deterioration down the line," she said, pointing to after-effects of the 2014 military takeover in Thailand and the 2016 attempt to oust Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
India, which boasts of being the world's largest democracy, was listed as partly free for the third straight year after being downgraded over curbs on civil liberties and freedom of expression under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
(with wires)
