Francisco Javier Vera Hott

Estamos muy contentos de anunciar que ya está en línea RedLatAm, un mapeo de información relevante sobre regulación, políticas públicas y organizaciones latinoamericanas que trabajan en temas relativos a los derechos digitales en la región.

On September 12th, the infamous cybercrime law project known as “Ley Beingolea” appeared at the top of the National Congress of Peru’s list of projects to debate, despite many criticisms and requests from civil society for open dialogue. What followed next was even more incredible: after some debate on the floor, at 11 a.m. all Congress members went into recess. Five hours later, a completely new text entered into discussion and was passed by the Congress, without any public review.

After almost four years of discussion, Ecuador’s National Assembly passed a new Communications Law, providing a legal framework for the fundamental right to communications considered in the Constitution of 2008. While this new legislation represents a great advance for internet access, along with a more equitable distribution of public spectrum, it also contains some provisions that represent a threat to freedom of expression.

Last month, a Chilean criminal court dismissed all charges against Rodrigo Ferrari, who was charged in February with the criminal offense of “identity usurpation,” for allegedly authoring the twitter accounts @losluksic, @luksicandronico, and @andronicoluksic, Twitter accounts that parodied the activities of the Luksic family, among the wealthiest families in Chile.

From 2004, the United States has signed onto free trade agreements with nearly half of the countries in Latin America. As a product of these agreements, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Panama and other Central American countries agreed to enact new and more restrictive copyright laws, which can place important threats on the fundamental rights of internet users across the region.