Thank you.
It is our experience that the country is definitely very polarized. The example I gave you on the latest clamping down in the last six or seven months on dissent is actually worrying. I would say there is definitely still space to criticize, but the fact that the authorities in the past few months have begun to detain--and we have the four examples that Amnesty International has received in the past four months--sends the message that they are beginning to tolerate less and less criticism. So the rest of the population is beginning to worry as to how far they can criticize, how far they can voice their concerns or their opposition to the government. If people like the prefect that I mentioned are detained for a few months, if the judge who, on a ruling, was detained following President Chavez mentioning that he was corrupt, and a few hours later he was being detained, arrested and charged, those signals are beginning, I suggest.... The country is beginning to feel it is getting more and more difficult to express dissent.
Now, members of the Inter-American Commission have been pushing the authorities to ensure this doesn't happen, but I think more pressure needs to be put on the government at the moment for that, because up to around eight months ago a television station's licence hadn't been renewed. They have revoked the licences of television stations, but people really haven't been detained.