Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I certainly can. I met with a journalistic group called Public Space, which was supportive of the view that freedom of expression is being curtailed. I met with a group called PROVEA, which looks at prison responses. I met with a human rights organization that is viewed as the most balanced in Venezuela.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The human development index, yes. One of the ways the United Nations measures social development and human rights, and I think it's generally considered the best index, is called the HDI, the human development index. It ranks countries every year based on a number of considerations: on access to health, access to education, access to food, division of wealth, or the Gini coefficient in the country--across the board, human rights.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. Well, when we look at the number recently, from say 2005, Venezuela ranked at number 75, and now has advanced to number 58.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The Organization of American States begins by thanking the Chavez government for full participation and help regarding their investigation of the corruption report. Hugo Chavez has acknowledged that corruption is a problem and is trying to clean it up. I think it's just a very realistic kind of policy that the government loses support if corruption exists.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Right. There have been statements of people being attacked by unknown assailants, not only in the justice system but of opponents more generally. I talked to a number of NGOs who are clear that their phones are being tapped. And there are other kinds of what I would call intimidation policies.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I know the case you're referring to, the jailing of a particular lawyer who let out a person who was put into prison before. The government views this as a breach of judiciary process. Others view it as intimidation.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the government is trying to intimidate its opponents, and I see that across the board in some very subtle ways. What I hear is that it's really the lower-profile cases that are even stronger, that the government knows that in dealing with a high-profile lawyer there may have to be some legalistic manner where they actually have some evidence, but with the maybe lower-level cases they can get away with it more.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you for those important questions. It is very much a conundrum with crime, because what one would expect with these kinds of social programs, with this kind of reduction in poverty, is exactly the opposite. We would expect less crime. What we're noticing is that crimes are concentrated in the poor barrios.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There is no evidence linking the use of drugs to the crime, although it's probably true that there's a growing drug problem in much of the world, as even there is in my small city of Kelowna. This may be related, but there is no evidence to support that. With regard to the Jewish community or anti-Semitism, there have been cases in the last couple of years where synagogues have been raided and so forth.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It has indeed.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I am from UBC.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Reid. I'm grateful and honoured to be here today. I'll speak for approximately 15 minutes, no more, giving a brief schematic on Venezuelan human rights, and perhaps we can talk about some of the points I make afterwards, in terms of discussion. Regarding my own background, I've researched in Latin America since 1983.