Report Accuses Ch?vez of Undermining Democracy in Venezuela

Venezuela's president, Hugo Ch?vez, has flouted human rights, persecuted opponents and undermined democracy during his decade in power, according to a damning new report.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, today accused the socialist revolutionary of betraying a promise to shore up the rule of law and turn Venezuela into a progressive beacon.

The report claimed Ch?vez's government had taken over the courts and cowed the media, trade unions and civil society, leaving the South American oil giant dominated by an overmighty executive. "Discrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature of the Ch?vez presidency.. (as) has been an open disregard for the principle of separation of powers."

The 230-page report, titled A Decade Under Ch?vez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, is likely to fuel Caracas's suspicion that the United States is waging a campaign against it.

Government officials were not immediately available to rebut the allegations but the Washington-based Venezuela Information Office, which promotes the government's view, said Human Rights Watch was biased.

"Their reports on Venezuela have typically been politicised. They don't highlight real advances," said Olivia Goumbri, a spokeswoman. Lavish spending of oil revenues on social programmes, for instance, had boosted human rights by reducing poverty and illiteracy.

Human Rights Watch said Venezuela's worst setback in the past decade was a 2002 coup that briefly replaced Ch?vez, an anti-democratic putsch backed by the Bush administration. "Fortunately it lasted only two days. Unfortunately the Ch?vez government has exploited it ever since to justify policies that have degraded the country's democracy," said Jos? Miguel Vivanco, the advocacy group's Americas director.

The report accused the government of sacrificing basic guarantees enshrined in a 1999 constitution - which Ch?vez had championed - to further its political agenda. It allegedly "neutralised the judiciary" by packing the supreme court with allies and undermined freedom of expression by toughening penalties for criminal defamation and bullying private media into softening criticism.

The report also accused the government of blacklisting opponents from state agencies and the national oil company, notably through a database of those who signed a petition against the president. It alleged that trade unions had been emasculated and that human rights activists had been harassed.

"Ch?vez has actively sought to project himself as a champion of democracy (but) Venezuela will not achieve real and sustained progress toward strengthening its democracy?so long as its government continues to flout the human rights principles enshrined in its own constitution."

The watchdog has issued more scathing reports about human rights abuses in Venezuela's neighbour, Colombia, which is waging a US-backed crackdown on leftist guerrillas and drug traffickers. Steve Ellner, a professor at Venezuela's University of the East, said Human Rights Watch overlooked the opposition's role in polarising Venezuela, not least by refusing to accept the president's legitimacy and electoral mandates.

"I would say the report is exaggerated. It fails to place events in their context," said the author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: class conflict and the Ch?vez phenomenon. "Put yourself in the shoes of Ch?vistas. They are convinced the opposition will stop short of nothing to get rid of Ch?vez."