Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me.
I'll try to be as brief as possible. I've got ten minutes, I've been told, to present to you the concerns of Amnesty International, in particular on the case of Venezuela.
I work in the Americas program here at the secretariat and I'm one of the program directors. If I can be brief on what Amnesty's concerns are with Venezuela, one of the main concerns we have is the issue of impunity. This has been a problem we've had in Venezuela for the past decades, including with this administration.
Human rights violations that are committed by the security forces are not thoroughly investigated and usually no one is brought to justice. This was the case 20 years ago and it's the case now. The office of the attorney general in 2008 admitted--transparently said--that they had received 6,000 complaints of alleged police killings between 2000 and 2007 alone. They stated that they would create a special team to investigate these alleged police killings, but so far we are two years down the line and we still don't know what has happened with those investigations.
Meanwhile, we continue to receive cases of people whose rights have been violated by the police. For example, in March in one of the states--the state of Anzoategui--three men were abducted by the police, we don't know exactly under what circumstances. Their families have put a complaint before the attorney general. No impartial investigation has happened. The men have still not been found and nobody has been brought to justice for this violation.
In another state, in the state of Aragua, we've got a campaign against a family that has been going on for about six years. In November 2003 they denounced the killing of one of their members by the police. Since then another three people in the family have been killed. The family has been continuously harassed. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has requested protection for the family. The protection has been sporadic. It has been, as you can see, ineffective, since three other members of the family have been killed since. Again, there has not been an impartial investigation and nobody has been brought to justice, and the family lives in fear with threats.
That's on the issue of impunity, which is a concern to us. Another concern we have is the concern about clamping down on critics of the government. As you know, President Hugo Chavez's government brought in legislation in 2001, legislation to change economic and social policies. That started to create a strong polarization in the country. It resulted in a coup in 2002 in which the president was ousted for 48 hours. Since that 2002 coup the country has become increasingly polarized. The polarization has also meant that for the past years the government and the authorities have become less and less tolerant of any criticism.
The first clear sign of this intolerance was in 2007, when the decision was taken not to renew the licence of one of the television stations, Radio Caracas Televisión. That television station had a clear anti-government line, and its licence was not renewed. That was one of the first signs of the increased intolerance.
Last year 34 radio stations also had their licences revoked or withdrawn, in this case due to administrative reasons, the authorities said. But what is interesting is that all of these 34 stations had an anti-government editorial line.
The special rapporteur on freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has stated that it appears the real reason for these licences being withdrawn is because these 34 radio stations in the country have got an anti-government line in their editorial. During the past eight months or so, the clamping down on critics is getting more worrying. It isn't only about not renewing TV licences or withdrawing radio station licences. An increase in how the authorities are beginning to clamp down on critics is worrying.
Last August, for example, one of the prefects of Caracas, a person from the opposition, Richard Blanco, was detained. He was in detention from last August until this April, allegedly because he had assaulted a police officer and incited violence. There is no evidence. We haven't yet seen evidence of him assaulting a police officer and inciting violence. His arrest appears to be politically motivated. He has now been released but he still faces prosecution.
Also in the last few months, a judge, Maria Lourdes Afiuni, was detained in December 2009 and remains in prison. The United Nations working group on arbitrary detention, the special rapporteurs on the independence of judiciary and human rights defenders, have asked for her immediate release. In this case, the judge was detained immediately after President Hugo Chavez announced in his weekly television and radio program that she was corrupt for having ruled that a banker should be released on bail. This banker later fled the country. But it clearly appears she was detained only because the president said she was corrupt for having ruled on that matter. As I said, UN working groups and special rapporteurs have asked for her immediate and unconditional release. She is still in prison as we speak.
Also in the past few months, March appears to have been a difficult month because of clamping down on dissidents, of people against the authorities or who criticized them. The head of the Globovisión, another television channel known for its anti-government line, was arrested for a few days and still faces prosecution because of having talked to the Inter-American Press Association, criticizing Chavez at that time. He was detained for a few days but still faces prosecution.
Another person also arrested in March was the former governor of the state of Zulia, Oswaldo Alvarez. He was detained until recently. He was detained for about two months or so, again because he said in an interview that Venezuela was a haven for drug trafficking. It appears that's the sole reason for his having been detained. He has now been released but again still faces prosecution for that.
So the use of the criminal justice system to punish people who have an anti-government line appears to be used more and more. The Inter-American Commission has stated very recently that this shows the lack of independence of the judiciary in the country.
We're also worried and concerned about the issue of human rights defenders. Human rights defenders appear to be intimidated, harassed, and attacked as well. Only recently, in November last year, a human rights defender in the state of Lara was shot dead by unknown men. He was working for the Committee of Victims Against Impunity, and they were making a film to show documented cases of people who had allegedly suffered human rights violations in the hands of the police in that state.
Mijail Martínez was shot dead. No thorough and impartial investigation has been carried out. Nobody has been brought to justice for this crime.
Only recently, a few weeks ago, at the beginning of May, a human rights defender in Caracas, Rocío San Miguel, was uncovering stories of what she alleged were members of the military breaching the constitution by siding with the ruling party. She received death threats.
Now, the worrying thing about these threats and attacks is that on the one hand there are no investigations and nobody is brought to justice, but on the other hand, there doesn't seem to be the political will to condemn these violations by the authorities.
I just want to spend the last few minutes talking about advances, because there have been advances in the last few years in Venezuela on human rights. For example, on violence against women, President Hugo Chavez promulgated in 2007 a very progressive law on the right of women to a life free from violence. A year later, Amnesty launched a campaign to push for the implementation of this very thorough law to fight violence against women in the country.
Special police stations have been created and special offices within the attorney general's office have been created, but this hasn't been enough. The office of the attorney general has already been transparent and has said that between January and August of last year alone they received 12,000 complaints of cases of violence against women, and they haven't been able to deal with but half of those cases due to lack of resources.
So it's a positive note, but still more resources need to be put in place to combat violence against women after a very good law was promulgated in 2007.
Also, it is important to note that there have been advances on social and economic rights. If one looks at the UN Development Programme report of 2009, access to primary health care has increased since this government came to office in 1999, and it is nearly 100%. Illiteracy has been nearly eradicated. Infant mortality has decreased by more than half. That same report, the latest one, which is from 2009, also puts Venezuela in the second tier of high human development countries. There are 45 countries in the world in that tier. The first tier is the first 38, and Canada and other western and European countries belong there, but there have been advances on those economic, social, and cultural rights.
As for what the problem is, I'm just going to finish with this, and then I'll take questions, because I'm sure you'll have a few. Only recently, in February, the Inter-American Commission published a report on the human rights situation in the country. If you'll allow me, I'll just read two paragraphs from that report, and then I'll finish. It states:
...the observance of other fundamental rights cannot be sacrificed for the sake of realizing economic, social, and cultural rights. Human rights constitute an indissoluble whole, and, as the American Convention sets forth in its preamble, “the ideal of free men enjoying freedom from fear and want can be achieved only if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his [or her] economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as his [or her] civil and political rights.
The Inter-American Commission concludes that “political intolerance”, “the lack of independence” of the judiciary, the “constraints on freedom of expression”, “the existence of a climate hostile to the free exercise of dissenting political participation”, “citizen insecurity”, and, in particular, “the prevailing impunity” that goes with that, are all factors that contribute to the weakening of the rule of law in Venezuela. Therefore, in Venezuela today people do not enjoy all the human rights guaranteed by the American Convention on Human Rights.
I will stop here, because I am conscious of time, and I'll take any questions or any comments you have.
Thank you.
