Venezuela rejects U.S. criticism of human-rights record

Miami Herald ^ | April 2, 2003 | AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuela's foreign minister Tuesday rejected a U.S. State Department report that denounced human-rights violations by President Hugo Chávez's government.

''In this country, human rights are not violated,'' Roy Chaderton told reporters. The foreign minister criticized the United States for ``erecting itself as the judge of other country's conduct.''

In its annual human-rights report released Monday, the U.S. State Department said Venezuela's ''human-rights record remained poor'' and ''government intimidation was a serious problem'' in 2002.

''The president, officials in his administration, and members of his political party frequently spoke out against the media, the political opposition, labor unions, the courts, the Church, and human-rights groups,'' the report said. ``Many persons interpreted these remarks as tacit approval of violence, and they threatened, intimidated, or even physically harmed several individuals from groups opposed to Chávez during the year.''

Venezuela has been mired in more than a year of upheaval, including a military coup that ousted Chávez for two days in April and an unsuccessful two-month strike to remove the president. The strike ended in February.

Chávez opponents accuse the former army paratrooper of wrecking the economy with leftist policies and using neighborhood political groups to intimidate dissenters. Chávez, whose six-year term ends in 2007, denies the allegations and counters foes are intent on ousting a democratically elected president because they feel threatened by his efforts to end social inequality in Venezuela.

The report noted that ``individuals and the media freely and publicly criticized the government.''

But it added that Chávez's verbal attacks against individual media owners and editors ``resulted in a precarious situation for journalists, who were frequently attacked and harassed.''

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Daily Journal Editor found dead in Caracas (Hugo Chavez stamping out free speech)Janet Kelly, 56, from Philadelphia, editor in chief of The Daily Journal newspaper and a political analyst was found (at botton of cliff) in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, March 24, 2003. The cause of death was under investigation.***

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

[Beck_isright]

Of course, how foolish of us; Marxist never beat, torture or execute their political oppositioni.</sarcasm off

V

[hchutch]

Gee, is Hugo crying out for attentiuon because we're not spending enough time with him?

"Yeah, yeah. These monkeys are following me because I took this car. Obviously it's not my car, it's not my style. It belongs to a man named Hugo. Hugo Chavez. You remember him. He's the guy who said that the United States had no right to talk about right and wrong.

"He also gave al-Qaeda a million bucks after 9/11. Think, Hugo... Do you really want to piss us off?

"Hugo, you're a bad man. You know what we do to bad men? We punish them. Hugo, you're about to enter... The Xander Zone."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bumps!!

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list