Human rights organizations are denouncing the situation of sexual violence suffered by women in the settlements for displaced people, and meanwhile, countries like Uruguay, are investigating denunciations made against officers from that country accused of violently attacking the local people.

This week, the Spanish website Más Voces reported that a million people still live in the improvised settlements, 20 months after the natural disaster.

According to Más Voces, the fragility of these structures and the generalized chaos have turned these places in a “trap” for the women and girls living there, who are exposed to sexual and gender violence. “During the first 150 days after the earthquake, over 250 cases of rape were reported in several settlements and it is thought that this is just a small sample of the reality”, reads the article, that quotes specific denunciations made by Amnesty International.

The testimonies of women gathered by this organization in the settlements are dramatic. They tell how armed men and groups of men arrive to their homes to abuse them, and how it is even more dangerous during the night.

But these aren’t the only aberrant images that come from Haiti. Yesterday, the Defense Ministry of Uruguay issued a press release that confirms the existence of a short video that shows how Uruguayan military officers are abusing a Haitian citizen.

The video got to the hands of the Uruguayan government on August 29th, after a communication by the Uruguayan Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN).

The results of the investigation will be made public in the next hours, but the Defense Ministry of Uruguay admits in their statement that “National military officers deployed in Haiti, who are presumably committing aberrant acts against a citizen of that country” appear in the video.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47449887@N04/