"The wounds we bear are the freedoms we lack"; human rights and the rights of peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean

The question of human rights arose at an early stage in contemporary Latin-American history, in the climate and movement of ideas which characterized the region during the closing years of colonial domination and were greatly influenced by the American and French Revolutions. Indeed, as early as 1794, Antonio Marinò, a criollo (native of European descent) from New Granada (present-day Colombia) and viceregal official, used his own printing press to publish the text of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, in total violation of royal decrees. He was imprisoned in Africa for his audacity. In 1797, the year of the abortive plot led by José Maria Espana and Manuel Guai, another edition of the basic text of the French Revolution appeared in Venezuela, prefaced by an anonymous «Introductory dissertation» later attributed to Juan Bautista Picornell [...]