This report examines a range of human rights violations faced by human rights defenders in Latin America from 1996 to 1999. It analyses a number of ways in which governments and state agents attempt to silence human rights defenders in order to conceal the truth about human rights violations and protect state agents responsible for such abuses. The report concludes with Amnesty Inetrnational's recommendations to the OAU and all Latin American governments to safeguard the freedom of human rights defenders to carry out their work.