[Marxism] HRW, Venezuela and Haiti

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

October 10th, 2008
Unanswered Phone Calls in Venezuela: Human Rights Watch Exposes Hugo 
Chavez Yet Again.

by Joe Emersberger

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently published a 230 page report on 
Venezuela entitled ""A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and 
Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela,"

In a press release about the report, HRW's Americas director, Jose 
Miguel Vivanco stated that "rather than advancing rights protections" 
the Chavez government has "moved in the opposite direction, 
sacrificing basic guarantees in pursuit of its own political agenda. "

One of the report's findings is so explosive that it deserves to be 
quoted at length:

"Government officials routinely deny or fail to respond to requests 
for information by journalists. According to an investigation by 
Últimas Noticias, a generally progovernment newspaper, journalists 
have encountered obstacles in obtaining information from the police 
on crime statistics, judges and court officials, hospitals, state 
enterprises such as PDVSA, the comptroller general's office, and 
various ministries?

According to a log publicized by the newspaper El Mundo, only 37.5 
percent of the officials responded to requests for official 
information made by its investigative reporters in 2007. The average 
wait for a reply was 38 days, almost twice the legal maximum. For 
example, a reporter approached the Ministry of Planning and 
Development to get information about the salaries of public 
employees. It took seven months, three letters, and a change of 
vice-minister before a reply was received. " [1]

My heart goes out to those journalists who have not received replies 
? or have had to endure waits of up to seven months before receiving 
one. Apologists for Chavez may point out that HRW was not talking 
about inquiries into horrific atrocities like the ones carried out by 
the US backed government in Colombia, and that nothing like that is 
mentioned in the report, but such people don't understand the agony 
of being ignored. I know because I have been writing and telephoning 
HRW for years and have never received a reply. I have a zero percent 
success rate ? much worse than El Mundo's ? so I can feel their pain. [2]

HRW also found that "Venezuela still enjoys a vibrant public debate 
in which anti-government and pro-government media are equally vocal 
in their criticism and defense of Chávez". It said that the Chavez 
government has greatly expanded funding for community broadcasters 
and that a "...large majority of community radio stations are 
supportive of the Chávez government. However, they are not 
politically homogeneous, and by no means uncritical". None of that, 
of course, should distract us from the suffering of those journalists 
waiting for replies about government salaries.

full: 
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/10/10/unanswered-phone-calls-in-venezuela-human-rights-watch-exposes-hugo-chavez-yet-again


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