Rights group: Venezuela is basically democratic

[Joanne98]

VENEZUELA
Rights group: Venezuela is basically democratic
Human Rights Watch said Venezuela was actually more democratic than many nations, contrary to some popular U.S. perceptions.
Posted on Fri, Feb. 01, 2008Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY PABLO BACHELET
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON -- Human Rights Watch on Thursday said Venezuela does not belong to a group of nations like Pakistan and Russia that use the veneer of democracy to mask autocratic rule -- directly contradicting U.S. government assertions.

The New York-based group's position also runs contrary to allegations by many opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez that he is undermining democracy at home and around Latin America.

Chávez and his government have long argued that Venezuela is fully democratic, with regular elections, a free news media and an organized opposition. The president accepted his defeat in a close vote on constitutional revisions last year.

''We did not include Venezuela in the list of closed countries because it is not,'' Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said, unveiling the organization's 2008 World Report, which highlighted leaders who claim to be democratic but take autocratic measures.

Roth acknowledged that ''the trends were negative in Venezuela,'' saying Chávez stacked the Supreme Court and denied an opposition station a broadcast license, among other excesses.

''There are serious problems in Venezuela, but we shouldn't pretend that Venezuela is a closed society,'' he said. ``There still is significant political competition, and indeed the best evidence of that was the fact that Chávez just lost his referendum.''

Roth also said Cuba's announcement in December that it will ratify two U.N. treaties that protect civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of citizens was ``good news.''

The report also criticizes Cuba as ``one country in Latin America that represses nearly all forms of political dissent.''

The report identified Kenya, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand as nations where rulers claim democracy but violate basic rights.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/401909.html