19 September 2008

IAPA protests expulsion of Human Rights Watch from Venezuela

Aa
Miami (September 19, 2008)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today voiced outrage at a decision by the Venezuelan government to expel the director for the Americas of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), José Miguel Vivanco, and the organization’s investigator, Daniel Wilkinson, after they had produced a report yesterday critical of the state of human rights in the South American country.
$.-

Miami (September 19, 2008)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today voiced outrage at a decision by the Venezuelan government to expel the director for the Americas of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), José Miguel Vivanco, and the organization’s investigator, Daniel Wilkinson, after they had produced a report yesterday critical of the state of human rights in the South American country. 

The Venezuelan foreign minister issued a statement justifying the expulsion by claiming that the HRW “attacked the institutions of the Venezuelan democracy,” adding that “it is the policy of the Venezuelan government to see that the national sovereignty is respected and to guarantee to the institutions and the people its defense against international attacks that are motivated by interests linked to and financed by the government of the United States of America.” 

IAPA President Earl Maucker declared, “This is yet one more attack on freedom of expression, which ends up being a confession that the government has been riding roughshod over rights and guarantees which form part of the international treaties and constitutional rights that it fails to respect.” 

Maucker, editor and senior vice president of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, newspaper Sun-Sentinel, recalled that “in fact, we as the IAPA came for our General Assembly in Caracas in March this year with our presence having been declared as unwelcome, on the suspicion that our ‘members and those from privately-owned radio and television news media have acted and continue to act as political factors to discredit the Bolivarian revolution, offend the Venezuelan people and seek to undermine the prestige and credibility of the President of the Republic.’” 

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, offered the organization’s “solidarity with Vivanco and Wilkinson and the HRW, whose reports have served to denounce outrages, guiding governments to take corrective steps to guarantee the right of every citizen to enjoy life in full.” 

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, added, “This move by the Venezuelan government demonstrates that when freedom of expression and of the press are violated other human rights, such as access to justice, life, freedom of assembly and freedom of movement, can be trampled on with impunity.” 

Venezuela has been acting, Marroquín said, in a similar way to the right-wing dictatorships that once devastated Latin America and whose policy was to deny having violated any human right and to throughout of their country those that drew attention to abuses. 

The HRW report was titled “A Decade of Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for the Advancement of Human Rights in Venezuela.” It referred to the violation of fundamental rights and declared that “in its attempts to contain the political opposition and consolidate power the government of President Hugo Chávez has weakened the democratic institutions and human rights guarantees in Venezuela.” 

Vivanco and Wilkinson were escorted last night to the international airport, where they put aboard the first flight out of the country. 

Regarding freedom of expression the 267-page report details numerous violations that the IAPA has been denouncing since Chávez took office in 1999. It highlights the amplification of the offense of contempt, calls for the decriminalization of libel and defamation, and repudiates the stiffening of penalties for television and radio stations and restrictions on access to public records. It welcomes as a positive move the government backing for creation of community radio and television stations.

Share

0