When the Guatemalan authorities decided to carry out their first execution by lethal injection, they did not do things by half measures, writes Paul Cullen.
The execution of Manuel Martinez Coronado, an impoverished Indian farmer, was broadcast live. Radio and television audiences could hear his wife and three children sobbing in the observation room of the lethal injection chamber. The authorities had claimed the execution would be "over in 30 seconds", but it took 18 minutes for Martinez Coronado to die.
In all, 2,375 prisoners were executed last year, two-thirds of them in China. The US accounted for 74 executions, half of which were in Texas. The trend has continued this year. In April, the authorities in Virginia executed a Paraguayan man, ignoring his right under international treaties to consular assistance.
Mass killings continued in Rwanda and Burundi, while the new government in Congo obstructed a UN investigation into massacres. But even in Europe, cases of torture and ill-treatment by security forces or police were reported in 28 countries. In at least five European states, people were tortured to death - Armenia, Macedonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Turkey and Bulgaria.
The growing threat to human rights "defenders" is highlighted by the murder of two of Colombia's most prominent human rights lawyers in February and April, and the killing of a Guatemalan bishop who had identified the army in that country as responsible for 90 per cent of human rights abuses.
There was some good news. Georgia and Poland outlawed the death penalty, and the UN took new moves to encourage other states to follow suit. In Africa, Mali and Malawi commuted their death sentences and in South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided a new model for resolving post-conflict situations.